Favorite Guided Meditations?

[Ascension20122]

Hello Friends?

What are your favorite guided meditations? Some of mine are:

Intentional Resting

Ronna Herman's Infinity Breathing

Les Fehmi's Open Focus

Full Spectrum Clearing Ascension Meditation by I AM University (Joshua David Stone)

Chunyi Lin's Spring Forest Qigong Small Universe meditation

Master Choa kuk Soi's Twin Heart Meditation

Drunvalo's Living in the Heart meditation

Any favorites or recommendations here?

[SoulSail]

Hey Ascension

Interesting list. I'll have to check some of them out. Ordinarily I don't use guided meditations since hearing a voice sort of wipes my ability to turn off thinking in favor of pure awareness. And if I'm thinking about what the speaker is saying, I'm not really letting my mind unravel much.

However, I do have one guided that I use because its essential purpose is to help the listener understand the core concepts of Vipassana (mindfulness) practice. It's called Mindfulness Meditations for Tranquility and Insight. It has more a Buddhist leaning, which I enjoy.

Do you meditate often? If so, what forms do you practice most?

[Ascension20122]

Hi SoulSail,

I generally do Zazen/Shikantaza - which is Samatha-Vipassana combined together most of the time. Every now and then however, I like to try meditations of different kind.

[SoulSail]

Zazen is tough. And I admire anyone that can hold fast to it for long. At least, I don't think I'll ever have the mind for it in this life. I'd be interested to hear your take on it though, and about your experiences with the practice. I'm not even good at the posture now that I come to think of it.

I can still remember reading Beginner's Mind. I felt like I was back in my college philosophy classes (which I thought would be a breeze), going over something akin to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, but without any rails to grab onto along the way.

What turned you on to that form in particular?

[Ascension20122]

I like the approach of Satori/Sudden enlightenment of Zazen/Shikantaza or even Dzogchen/Mahamudra compared to the gradual path of Theravada/Mahayana based schools. I gel better with them I guess? I did however practice Goenka and Mahasi style Vipassana for several years and did several retreats. They certainly were helpful, but found them somewhat lacking at many levels.