There are too many meditation techniques to mention from relaxation, mindful, energy raising/chakra working, pathworking to chi kung or other martial art types of meditations. For me, I primarily use mantra japa (repetition of mantras) and void meditation with the primary purpose of controlling the patterns of my mind by overriding it with a mantra of my choice.

My full meditation routines is well over an hour which usually starts with bardon's pore breathing meditation to ground myself for up to 5 minutes, a void meditation for around another 5 minutes to further focus the mind, then I'll grab my rudraksha mala (prayer beads) and mentally chant the mantra "nama shiva ya" for one mala (108x), sometimes for 3 rounds. Then I'll do the mantra japa of a specific (and longer) mantra for 3 malas/3x108 (which takes about an hour to complete) and finally close again "nama shiva ya" mantra. Normally, these routines took me one and a half hour up to two hours which I do a few times a week. Half an hour the shortest when I'm not in the mood (IMG:style_emoticons/default/13.gif)

At first, it is a challenge to just sit there with my asana since the pain and that barrages of irritating nudges of discomforts from my guts urging me to quit and go back to my comfort zone is overwhelming. With time and persistence, I managed to be able to make a little boxes/room/partitions in my mind where I can literally seal and contain these illusions of pains and discomfort there. It does seperates itself from me. There seemed to be two of me. The whining one and the wise ass chanting away single mindedly:D Does the pain really gone? Not quite and it will come back full force with only a slight thought of it, and all I did is to suppress it is with overriding/barraging it back with a single dominant - a more powerful and disciplined thought. That's the way you do it! I said to myself and I can imagine if I ever be in a torture camp, I already know and practice the pain management techniques (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

On mantra japa, in my experience - surface thoughts will naturally starts and persistently try to sidetrack me from "inflaming" myself with the mantra, but this will become less with persistent practices. By inflaming myself with the mantra I mean that I think nothing but the sound of the mantra. I hear it vibrating and expanding in my astral ears. I single-mindedly think nothing else but the sound of the mantra and the mala to keep track of the rounds. Keeping the tounge s t i l l from even moving a a bit to recite it and solely hear and feel the thoughtforms of my mind work to weave the mantra thus building up in power.

Once I did attempt to complete a 9pm-5am nonstop meditation but 3 hours which is the longest meditation I can withstand (the pains of the asana) before I have to stand up and relax the muscles and let the blood flows before continuing with it. I was 30 minutes short and finished at 4.30am with lots of muscle cramps and strains, mind farts (ie. oooh... what was the mantra? which part of the mantra was that again? how many beads did I missed while my mind wanders off?) and a variety of different asanas change to help ease the pain. In the end, it was truly like trying lifting a weight - literally a mind weight, I can no longer lift. My mind was really tired and exhausted for lack of meditation practice back then. A failure, but, for a full week afterward I did get the benefit of awakening a LOT more fresher, focused and awake! after for only 5 hours of healthy sleep, before my body and mind gradually reverting back to my lazy 7-8 hours of regular night sleep.
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How about sharing your own routines and your experiences?

I do alot of guided imagery meditation, probably an hour every day. Right now I'm going back through Power Animal Meditations and that's pretty good. Then I do about an hour of contemplative meditations a la bardon, thinking about one idea, thinking about no ideas, watching my train of thought. So optimally I would say I like to meditate about two hours every day.

Balance a room or a portion of a room for your temple . I balance mine hermetically with :
*tall potted tree at South for Earth
*Fireplace for Fire or Large Floor Candlestand in Summer
*Incense , window , windchimes at North for Air
* Fountain for Water with fogger

Sit hours after the evening meal , not too full but not hungry either
Dress for the occasion in loose unrestrictive clothing
Place a rug beneath your bare feet if necessary to warm them .
Adjust the temperature so that it is not too hot or too cold but just right
Close the doors and prevent distractions by cutting off the phones
Use music only if it helps you .
Dim the lights : Light affects clairvoyant sight .Some like Marion Chitty and Dr. Stone say the pineal gland is adversely affected by bright light .A candle may flicker too much and distract you . Learn what works best for YOU .It is suggested to limit the sensations when beginning and to vary them when you are experienced thru adding crystals , mirrors , incense , lights , fountains etc.When beginning sit in the same armchair in the same room at the same time daily until you get streaming visions whenever you begin to meditate .

Open in protection
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Begin by sitting in a comfortable arm chair
Place your arms loosely supported on the arms of the chair and turn your palms up to catch the energy .Your limbs should be uncrossed and bare your feet ,if you can, before you close your eyes to begin .Energy will come in thru crown ,palms ,soles and heart most easily .So spread your knees slightly and uncross all limbs feet are bare if you can do it and flat on the floor .
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Develop deep cleansing breath techniques
Take these deep breaths in slowly and deliberately thru your nostrils and audibly exhale the breath through your mouth .As each deep cleansing breath enters your body have it come in as white cleansing light .You might visualise a candle of light in front of your third eye if it helps .
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1. Swirl energy down from the crown to head , clearing away the cobwebs of the mind.
2.Bring the swirling energy down into the hearts and lungs, breathing away all anxieties and worries.
3.Draw the energy into the arms from the heart , pool it out into each fingertip .
4.Swirl the energy into the guts where we can manifest disease from negativity , clean it all out and away .
5.Draw the energy in again in this last deep cleansing breath pull it all the way down into the legs .
Pool it into the feet and out through each toe.
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Power Up
You may choose" top down" from the universe to the crown or from "earth up" thru the soles of the feet .
ie :Bring light up with each breath ,visualising the feet drawing up light from Mother Earth through the legs which are like channels .
1.Pull it up from the right and left leg at the same time . Exhale half your breath only .
2. As you inhale draw up energy to the groin , exhale only half your breath .
3.Inhale and draw the energy up through your heart , exhaling half your breath only .
4.Inhale and push the energy down through your arms , seeing it flow from each fingertip. Exhale half your breath.
5.Inhale and bring it up to the shoulders . Visualise the dragon head erupting now from your shoulders. Release it and exhale half your breath .
6. Pull the energy finally up to your crown and fully release your breath .

Now you may become aware of feeling lighter happier healthier . You may feel tingling buzzing or warmth running up thru your limbs .

Or you might feel energy inside the limbs and in the palms of your hand .There is one main core channel of rainbow light that runs through the body surrounded by four bundled circuits which continue to colour up as we develop . The bundle of the sun colours lies on the top it includes male electric energy as creme , fire , gold , topaz , pear and pale yellow . The bundle of the moon colours lies below and includes lavender , indigo , akasha , violet , plum and platinum blue .The bundle of earth colours lies on the right side of the body and includes brown , salmon red , rose , pomegranite , ruby and pink . The bundle of air colours lies on the left side of the body and includes olive , chartreuse , aqua , fig, emerald and pale green . As these circuits develop they lie in a singular line above , below and either side then become paired and tripled and quadrupled . They can be seen as tiny dragons coursing through the limbs .
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Robert Bruce has developed NEW energy methods that are excellent and free on his site here is the link ,
http://astraldynamics.com/tutorials/?BoardID=18
as you develop you will become aware of your energy body more and as you develop your energy body .You will be able to project easier and higher and with greater accuracy and recall .So develop in balance in all things the body mind soul and spirit
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Dwell in the power of the now in the chamber of the soul's eye
Close your eyes and take your consciousness to your third eye. Go to your forehead and sit in this chamber in the power of the now and if a thought about the physical life or the day drifts in ,observe it briefly and let it go .Sit in the power of the now .Nothing else matters .
Sit routinely
Try to sit at the same time in the same chair daily.Sit for 15 minutes and build up from there .
Close giving thanks to the spirit guides and angels who came to help you
Record your meditation in a journal immediately
Colours develop over time like dream qualities so a newbie may open to a vision like black and white tv.So at first it may seem a gray oval stretching horizontally with black and white shapes .This will often become an indigo oval with sapphire shapes .Then it will commonly become purple and then you will see in fullscreen streaming colours.Some begin seeing in colours right away . It is like dreaming , we all do it but some never recall one whilst others have lucid dreams in full colour and 3D streaming develops over time too . So at first you may get one message like " i saw a flower" then streams like " i saw an old man holding a red rose ".Then you learn to interpret meditation visions much as we do dream imageray and you might say "i feel this is your grandfather ".Eventually you will get multiple streams ,when this occurs it is time to look to the spirit teachers that will arrive for lessons ."Knock and the door will be open to you ""When the student is ready the teacher arrives "

It also helps to sit in a development circle once as a newbie aim for an open circle but as a adept go for a closed circle of peers . Find these in yoga centres and spiritual churches or posted in new age shops or in new age periodicals or open your own . Fees for such meditations sessions are free or nominal ie 2 or 5 $ a night . These often meet at 7:30 pm.

This post has been edited by Aunt Clair: Aug 27 2006, 10:37 PM

Bb3, can you please elaborate more on Power Animal Meditation?

Well my favorite method for meditation; draw a hot bath, turn on the bath room fan and play my favorite music. Then submerge myself in the bath tub. The sounds from the fan and the music drown outside noices and add to a relaxed atmosphere. The hot water is very relaxing. As I lay down I allow my body to float. What I do is I breathe. As I inhale my head raises with my chest and casues the bath water to move away from my belly. Then as I exhale my head sinks with my chest and the bath water rushes to fill the gap. This breathing generates waves and these waves act as a check point for me in my progress. Each cycle (water ebbing away from my center, inhaling air, then flowing inward with each exhale) represents energy flow and the water in motion generates energy. But the main factor is my breathing. I inhale for about 10 senconds then exhale for about 10 seconds (or until either I feel like I need air or water gets to my nose). As I exhale I sink and the longer I sink the more water starts to cover my face and the more relaxed I become. Then I inhale for a period of time and the sensation of floating upwards contributes to my perception of entering an altered state of mind. Exhale once again and the sensation of sinking does the affect. Do this basically untill its automatic and I'm practically asleep. But there comes a point where my eyes drift towards the bottoms of my lids where just a tiny amount of light gets through. Its this light I focus on and eventually what I see is this little slip of light turn into a kind of second set of eye lids. I then visualize these imaginary eye lids open (while keeping my real eyes closed). And then once my imagined eye lids are open I truely begin to experience an altered state of mind (my eyes also shift so that I'm looking up indtead of down. What I see depends on my intentions. What I even do depends on my intentions. This technique can be used as a staging ground for lucid dreams, pathworking, ap ect ect. Sometimes I'll use sented candles and bath salts. Sometimes I''l turn off the lights so that its totally dark or only candle light is visable. I could spend days describing what I have expierenced.

So thats, more or less, just the basic technique. I can say that I learned the hard the importance of closing my eye lids, my imagined eye lids. Because as long as my mind believes my second set of eyes are open it will continue to percieve an altered reality. Therefore I have learned to always close my second sight when I'm done for the day.

This post has been edited by Acid09: Sep 11 2006, 05:06 PM

I've started mediating. This seems to work for me, and hopefully this is what i'm getting after.

I sat with my back to my wall on my bed and sat in a crosslegged position as still as possible. I started imaging mausaguing (i suck at spelling) my muscles and making them relax, starting in my hands and feet and heading up. They started to feel like they were going to sleep and had a warm fuzzy good feeling to them. After i went through my body several times, which took about 45 minutes, i got basicly to the point where i didn't feel like i had a body anymore. I knew it was there, but i didn't really feel. Then i started consentrating on thoughts, and tried to focus only on breathing... and each time a random thought came up, i swifty imagined sticking it in a folder and stuffing it a file in my brain. I never got to far on this, thoughts kept coming back up on me, and after a while i had to stop... and my body felt wierd for a couple of minutes... was any of this the right way to do it?

What else should i do while mediating? Any better technigues?

Well im fairly new to meditation but i always just sit in a room lit with incense and scented candles and just realx. i dont think about daily rubbish or conscience decisions. i just relax and then i relax my physical stae limb by limb. i regulate my breathin in for 2 seconds and then out for 4 seconds. i then close my eyes and sit. i usually see my most comfortable suroundings with me sat their but walking round myself. then i increase my breathing cycle to in for 2 seconds and then out for 5 seconds then your body clock takes over and you do it without counting

Damn Kinjo that's hardcore! lol (IMG:style_emoticons/default/evil2.gif)

I don't have a daily meditation but I usually switch it depending on what I need at the time or what kind of magickal goals I'm pursuing.

Sometimes I'll do a chi kung/kundalini type meditation that is based on energy work moving through the central and governing meridians.

Othertimes I'll be a more general energy exercise like pore breathing or variations on the Solar Grounding ritual.

Since I associate the meditative state with hypnotic trance and alpha/theta brainwave, sometimes I'll go into trance just to practice the skills. This is also a great state to get clear answers on questions in your life and I guess you could consider it a form of divination.

Usually I don't meditate just to meditate. I'll do it for a little while but then I just get bored.

I suppose I'd make a real sucky monk... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blablabla.gif)

My routine of late has been the Vajrasattva Meditation Practice, also called the Dorje Sempa Meditation Practice. This involves four stages of visualizations accompanied by the repeated recitation of Vajrasattva's Hundred-Syllable Mantra. Since I make a point to do one full mala of mantra recitation, along with setting the motivation and dedicating the merit, this practice takes me close to an hour to complete every night.

I'm trying to work on "Meditation" yet I can never seem to clear my mind. I know it's an important part of casting and what not, but my mind is so clogged with things that everytime I fall into a tiny bit of meditation where there is nothing on my mind, it comes back like not even 2 seconds later, it's becoming frustrating because I have such a serious mind for this, not just for fixing my life but because of the art of it. It's amazing to me.

Either way it's becoming annoying not being able to do it. Does anyone know what might be wrong, or maybe have any suggestions?

There is nothing wrong with you! It’s normal.
Remember there are monks who sit in caves for 20 years trying to still their minds.
Stilling the mind is incredibly difficult. Calming the mind is much easier.

The first important thing is to try not to try too much,
Often by trying we tense ourselves.
A thought is like a mini-tension in the mind.
So creating more tension is counter-productive.

Often the key is to prepare first.

One of the first skills learned in many magical traditions is rhythmic breathing.
A, 4-2-4-2 system is the most common in the WMT. It may take a great deal of discipline until your subconscious accepts and produces it automatically when you sit. (You will notice that your mind is a lot stiller once your breath naturally regulates itself.) Until such a time putting your attention on the breath is a good means of slowing down the mind, as a thought grabs your attention, don’t try to stop it but slowly disengage your attention and bring your attention back to the breath. (it is common to focus either on the nostrils, as the point where the air meets your body, or on the Hara centre about three fingers under your belly button.)

Another effective method is destroying the tension that exists in your body (this can be done by exercise, yoga, bioenergetics is good, or plain relaxation - but this is quite a difficult skill to master as most tensions are unconsciously held by the body, but they will become more conscious the more you work at them.) Sweating is good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


I would recommend starting with a basic Vipassana meditation. Try doing it for 20min every day for 30 days and then see if you notice any difference in the mind noise.

This post has been edited by Pilgrim Child: Nov 1 2006, 09:29 AM

loosinghope; please make sure you use the search option before posting a topic. Even if a thread doesn't specifically deal with your issue it might be closely enough related that its still on topic. There are several thread related to meditation and one that deals specifically with techniques and experiences.

This post has been edited by Acid09: Nov 1 2006, 01:29 PM