Thread: Ancient's Meditation Workbook

Lesson 1 Homework

Meditation is a great way to relax and focus one's energy, with many benefits to regular practice. My goal is to learn better meditation practice, be motivated to attempt daily, and use this knowledge to get more in tough with the spiritual and subconscious aspects of myself that are sometimes ignored. I also hope for it to lead to more frequent lucid dreams, and a better awareness of altered states of mind in general.

Experience No. 1

Last night I decided to attempt void meditation, and if I am to be honest, it was completely unsuccessful. I was getting ready for bed and stretched out my arms and shoulders before trying. At first I sat down on a bean bag chair with my arms resting on my legs and began relaxing with my breathing. However, I soon became uncomfortable and tried sitting cross-legged on the floor. This also didn't last long, as I had to strain to keep my knees off the floor and my back straight. I finally tried sitting on the edge of my bed with my hands resting on my knees. This worked for a minute, and I was able to actually begin relaxing. Once again, I soon became uncomfortable and restless and decided to call it quits for the night and go to sleep.

Possible issues:
- Poor everyday posture led to discomfort. Sore/strained muscles from slouching all the time.
- I was restless and frustrated all day yesterday for no apparent reason. It's these that I would like to eliminate through meditation, but I had difficulty getting past this to actually relax :p
- Restless legs led to discomfort. When this happens I'll usually go for a quick walk or stretch them to get rid of all that excess energy, but I didn't do that last night.

So I suppose I shouldn't call this completely unsuccessful. It highlighted some things that I should work on for future attempts.

Experience No. 2

Last night I once again attempted void meditation. This time around I was more aware of what would prevent me from being successful, so I took steps to eliminate those obstacles. To begin with, I stretched and relaxed my body more thoroughly than before, and more than just my shoulders. I also changed my position. I was cross-legged on the floor, but this time with my back against the side of my bed so my lower back and legs could relax completely and not cause a distraction or discomfort. I began with my head resting against my bed as well, and started being aware of my breathing. After a minute or so I began allowing my thoughts to drift past me. In the background I could hear my parents talking, but allowed that sensation to drift past as well, and they soon quieted down. As my thoughts calmed to a trickle, I lifted my head up and straightened my back slightly. I was deep enough into my meditation that this almost subconscious movement surprised me slightly. I was now within a relatively calm space of mind, and feeling some slight energy vibrations. These consisted of a tingling almost electrical sensation in my legs, and a sense of vertigo that came in waves. Nothing I haven't experienced before, but I wanted to let that excess energy go so it didn't distract my meditation, so I took a few deeper breaths and let it out. Then I started experiencing "3D blackness", or a sensation of the space you see with closed eyes as having depth, and felt that the back of my eyelids was becoming impossibly large and I was traveling forward. Clearly my attempts at letting go of that extra energy were not completely successful, but I enjoyed the feeling. It didn't last long, and once it was finished I took a few more breaths and allowed myself to come back to waking consciousness. I opened my eyes and sat for a moment enjoying the physical relaxation and feeling of peace. Definitely an improvement on my first attempt.

Possible improvements:
- Excess energy was slightly distracting. Learn or improve techniques so that I can meditate more deeply.
- Relax my body even more
- Exercise so I don't require something to lean against while meditating. (Working on this one now, I just have to commit to it :p )

Experience No. 3

This morning I once again practiced void meditation. My warm up was the same as the previous experience - stretch, relax, and sit cross legged with my back against my bed. I let myself become aware of my breathing and calmed my thoughts. As they drifted, I once again lifted up my head and straightened my back. This time I began to see a mental picture of all the ideas and thoughts I had racing through my head, as if they were physical objects taking up space in my mind. There were the ones I was aware of that were close to the middle, large, and vivid in detail. The extra, smaller thoughts that I'm normally not aware of made a small flood racing along the outskirts. Shortly after this interesting imagery I was distracted by my parents waking up and making breakfast, and was unable to relax again.

You're doing well with meditation Keep up the good work!

ShockWave.

Experience No. 4
Tried void meditation again last night, and had results equal to my first attempt. My legs were so restless that I was completely unable to relax enough to enter a meditative state. I had several different songs stuck in my head battling for attention, so meditating and calming those down would have been welcome. I quit after a few minutes of trying and went to bed.

I'm slightly frustrated with this. Some days my legs are restless, and others they are not. I stretched them out thoroughly and tried a few different relaxation techniques, and those were effective for all of thirty seconds. There seems to be no clear answer to eliminating this. I have noticed that it is most often after I have spent the evening holed up on my computer with my legs under a desk, and I will begin to feel cramped and closed in after a while. In the future when I notice this I'm going to get up and find something else to do, and hopefully eliminate the problem.

Sometimes I find that the best way to solve this is to lie down for a bit with my eyes closed. I get a song in my head, then I try to relax. At a certain point, I suddenly notice the lack of noise around me, and I realize that the song in my head is gone. I can get up at this stage and my whole body feels really relaxed, as well as my mind and my eyes.

ShockWave.

Try flex-release relaxation on your legs.

1. Feet and calves: Stretch back all toes and tense both feet and calves at the same time. Hold for about five seconds, then relax them. Hold the relaxed position for five to ten seconds.
Now curl your toes downward and repeat, tensing both feet and calves. Hold for five seconds, and relax them for five to ten seconds. The timing need not be exact.
When you relax body parts after tensing, focus on releasing all tension from them.

2. Thighs: Tense both thighs, hold for five seconds, and then relax them. Press down with both heels and tense them again, then relax.

2. Hips and buttocks: Now push your buttocks backward into the chair and tense them. Hold this for five seconds and then relax them for another five or ten seconds. Rock your hips for-ward slowly, tense for five seconds, and then relax them.

3. Entire lower body: Tense all muscles in your lower body at once-hips, legs, calves, and feet-all at the same time. Hold for five seconds and then relax them, really letting them go.

This exercise continues into your entire body, I do full body relaxation to begin all my meditation now, and it makes it a lot easier to sit/lay for much longer periods of time

I did that last night actually, and it seemed to help. I've been checking out the DVASA stuff on my own time, but I'm not working on it regularly enough to warrant joining just yet. I tried to find the physical copies of Bruce's books yesterday in which case I would have joined (the pdf file is just too difficult to read and follow along with regularly), but the store had none in stock

Experience No. 5

Began with relaxation techniques as described by Merlin. Then I sat down cross legged on the floor with a meditation isochronic tone playing through some headphones. I focused on my breathing and began to calm my mind. Once again I had difficulty with this due to songs stuck in my head and an overactive mind. Strange that the very thing my goal with meditation is (calming my mind) is preventing me from achieving that goal. However, I noticed some improvement in relaxation and peace of mind, so it was a worthwhile exercise. I think the isochronic tone may have been more distracting than helpful, and I don't think I'll be using it again. It seems my morning meditation attempts are more successful than evening. Perhaps it depends on how busy of a day I've had.

Experience No. 6

I tried some focal meditation two days ago, and forgot to write it down then. I took a few minutes to enter a void meditation trance, letting my thoughts slip away and falling into a calm state of mind. I was attempting this meditation:
Stretch out all the muscles in your body. Let yourself relax more deeply than you ever have before. Rest in your preferred meditation area, and begin some breathing exercises. Let yourself be aware of your breath as it flows into your lungs, bringing rejuvenating life energy with it, and feel any tension still remaining in your body flow out with it. Once you are sufficiently calmed and relaxed, clear your mind of all thoughts. Let your worries and your fears slip away as you delve deeper into your awareness of yourself. Nothing is relevant but the existence of yourself right now. As you fall deeper into yourself, realize that you are not alone. We are all there within, as one single awareness split into multiple entities. Feel the thoughts and sentience of every living creature race by in a river of being. Watch the sparks of awareness that represent all of us make up one infinite stretch of being, and know that we are all connected through each other. Be a part of this, and observe it from within. When you feel you have spent long enough, slowly bring yourself back to your normal waking state, but remembering that deep within you lies the existence of everyone. We are all one.
My focal point was this visualization of consciousness. I was able to focus on it briefly, but I didn't spend enough time calming my mind, and kept getting distracted by stray thoughts. Rather than going back and correcting this problem immediately, I continued trying to focus on it. At one point I realized that the struggle for attention between my focal point and distractions had broken my meditative state, and I went to bed.

Experience No. 7

After my first attempt with focal meditation I thought it best to try void once again and familiarize myself with it more. I sat cross legged on my bed with my back against the wall. This is by far the most comfortable position I've tried yet. I was able to keep my back straight, my legs relaxed, and my head up and awake. To start with, as usual, I worked on some deep breathing exercises, paying attention to my breath as it entered and exited my nose, and kept drawing my attention back to this whenever it started to wander. After a few minutes of this I had sufficiently calmed my mind that I was actually beginning to see hypnagogic imagery swirling around on the back of my eyes. That doesn't usually happen that fast even when I'm falling asleep. At this point I reinforced my attention to wake up during the night and attempt a WBTB/WILD (I did attempt it for reference, but I didn't write down my dreams while I was awake and have since forgotten them, and didn't keep myself awake long enough to be successful, I just ended up falling back asleep). Once I was comfortable that the suggestion was firmly planted in my mind, I stretched out my senses to improve my awareness of the world around me. It's been quite a while since I've done awareness expanding exercises, and it felt good. My hearing created a detailed map of the world around me, and I had a definite impression of objects surrounding me, almost as if I actually sent my physical sense of touch out. At this point I opened up my eyes and was still able to maintain a meditative state - first time I've ever done that. I wanted to see if I could write in my journal without breaking it, but moving brought me back to normal waking consciousness. One of the most relaxing and energizing meditation experiences I've had yet.