YogiSource.com my account | view cart | customer service
 Search:    
Welcome to the new Yoga.com Forums home!
For future visits, link to "http://www.YogiSource.com/forums".
Make a new bookmark.
Tell your friends so they can find us and you!

Coming soon ... exciting new changes for our website, now at YogiSource.com.

Search | Statistics | User Listing View All Forums
You are logged in as a guest. ( logon | register )



How the hell do you watch thoughts without getting involved? : )
Moderators: Moderators

Jump to page : 1
Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page]
View previous thread :: View next thread
   Meditation -> General MeditationMessage format
 
vickyticky
Posted 2012-01-12 12:46 PM (#209807)
Subject: How the hell do you watch thoughts without getting involved? : )


New User

Posts: 2


My whole life i've identified with my thoughts.. good thoughts make me happy, bad thoughts made me sad. I've been trying to get into the whole meditation and peace thing but I'm struggling with this concept. Any tips or advice on how to watch your thoughts without getting emotionally invested and involved in them? It seems like a great thing to master if I can get this concept down.

Any help's appreciated! Thanks!!!
Top of the page Bottom of the page
jpg
Posted 2012-01-12 5:16 PM (#209810 - in reply to #209807)
Subject: RE: How the hell do you watch thoughts without getting involved? : )


1002525
Instead of watching your thoughts, watch your physical sensations. Sit and focus on exactly what is going on in different parts of your body. What are you hearing? What are you smelling? etc. Stay with the sensation and don't let your mind start a whole story about that smell. Just smell it.

Once you get comfortable concentrating on sensations, you can try thoughts. It is really pretty much the same.

You can do the same with sounds, including music. Put some music without words on and just listen to the sound. Don't think about it, just listen to it.

Here is an excerpt from "Yoga: The Art of Balance" that may help:

Meditation

We experience our perceptions, not what actually is. All our perceptions are subjective and we can perceive almost anything that we believe by filtering out everything that does not fit our beliefs. The exterior world projects itself on our minds and our minds project their content on the exterior world. It is vital to perceive our world as objectively as possible and not color our perceptions with our prejudices, both personal and cultural. Only then can we act and react in our own best interest and in the best interest of others and our environment. Direct perception (seeing without editorial comment, judgment, condemnation, identification, memory or desire) is as close to reality as we can get. Once our minds start interpreting, we get further and further from reality.

The observer and the observed are the same. They are both your mind. Even though what you observe may have an independent existence, what you are observing is in your mind, created by your mind. Your thoughts are your mind. The “you” that observes those thoughts is also your mind.

Your eyes see a flower. They don’t actually see the flower, but they do see light that is reflected off the flower. Some of that light forms an image which travels through the optic nerve to the brain and is recreated by your mind in your mind. Your mind creates an experience and interprets it, calls it a flower, defines it as a rose, judges its qualities, remembers happy or unhappy memories related to roses, and your body reacts to those memories by tensing or relaxing, secreting various hormones and you experience various emotions. This entire movie that you just created is now stored in your mind and body. It has very little to do with the reality, the flower.

What happens if you see a flower and don’t name it, don’t use words in your head about it, don’t involve memory or desire, just see it? Find out for yourself! This is meditation.

Sitting meditation- Just sit with your eyes closed and see what happens. Do not make anything happen. Do not stop anything from happening. Just watch without comment.

Breath meditation – Sit quietly with your eyes closed and breathe calmly through your nose. Watch and experience the air entering your nostrils, filling your lungs, and exiting. Repeat as long as you want. Just observe.

Listening meditation – Sit quietly, close your eyes, and just listen, really listen to a piece of music or to nature. (Classical music, whether Eastern or Western, usually works best because of its more developed form). Focus on what you are hearing in the present moment.

Science meditation-Sit quietly with your eyes closed and contemplate the vastness of space and the universe, or the worlds within worlds down to atoms and beyond.

Nature meditation-Find a quiet spot in nature. With your eyes open, using the flower technique above, just observe.
Physical meditation-Totally immerse yourself in a creative physical activity with a minimum of mental chatter and maximum openness to discovery. Examples:
Singing or playing a musical instrument
Art
Dance
Intimate activity with a trusted partner

Yoga poses linked into a flow can become meditation in motion.

Your entire life can become a meditation.

I am not giving more specific instructions for meditation as it is important for each individual to find their own. You must experiment to discover. To simply follow another leads to mindless repetition not self-discovery.


Top of the page Bottom of the page
vickyticky
Posted 2012-01-16 4:49 PM (#209837 - in reply to #209807)
Subject: Re: How the hell do you watch thoughts without getting involved? : )


New User

Posts: 2

That helps a ton thanks!!!
Top of the page Bottom of the page
kedar
Posted 2012-01-17 6:27 AM (#209838 - in reply to #209807)
Subject: Re: How the hell do you watch thoughts without getting involved? : )


Member

Posts: 46
25
I totally agree and liked what you said about the mind and our perception Jim. Conceptually your mind is correct, but have you experienced it? However, I don't agree with your meditation techniques. They won't work.

Have you perceived beyond your mind or thoughtlessness?

Top of the page Bottom of the page
Jump to page : 1
Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page]
Jump to forum :
Search this forum
Printer friendly version
E-mail a link to this thread


(Delete all cookies set by this site)