So I'm figuring that I'm not the only one who meditates here. what are some of your basic practices, achievements, and hopes of accomplishments with the use of meditation?

I've meditated before; quite a few times, actually. I used to do it more often a year or two back, but I have done it less and less recently. I'm not sure exactly what the practices I would consider other than the conventional. As in, whenever I meditate, there is not any big preperation for it, I just sit down and clear my mind. Most times I do this, my thoughts tend to lazily wander, and thankfully I can keep them under control. I'd say that's a good first achievement, and a second would be that many questions I meditate on seem to come out answered in one way or another. The last thing I can accomplish with this would be the releaving of stress, which I would presume has a direct relation to most meditation.

Hopes for it? My hope is that when I am in a bind, meditation can be there to soothe my mind. :3

I've met a couple of people who like to use mantras and some other techniques. But personally I just like to sit down in a quite place and then let my mind wander without putting any restraints on it, thinking of all the things that need to be thought upon. I use to meditate very heavily but now its usually only a few minutes a night.

Keep it on topic, Pretear and Shank. Thank you. And can we tone down the hateful cursing at each other, justinwa? I don't mind cursing, but when we start flinging hate around here, it gets out of hand.

holy shit!! so you actually Know of some of Dostoyevsky's works??? I am actually a very big fan of his works. I love Dostoyevsky's crime and punishment, the idiot, and the brothers of karamazou (which im currently working on)

Unofficial TAN rule: Don't expect a conversation to remain serious, we're not that serious of a bunch around here.



I know I'll take some flak for that, but it'd take a very concerted effort to disprove me, at least from what I've been observing around here.

I read Dostoyevsky in High School & College ( Worked in the University's Library, what are you going to do when the new books come in and it's your job to make sure that they don't have any printing quality problems, eh? ). I always envied my mom's boss at the USDA Lab where she worked, he read and could quote Dostoyevsky in the original Russian.

Returning to the topic:

I got started with meditation in earnest in College too. It was the late 1970's and a lot of the students were using it. I didn't combine it with any of the "recreational" drugs like some of them did. I thought that would defeat the purpose.

It's still a useful thing for me, I try to spend time every day on it, 30 minutes - 1 hour or better if possible.

Mark Gosdin

Razmoudah wrote:


Yeah and I don't have a problem with that. Although from time to time I do like to converse about such things such as philosophy, meditation, literature, and other matters you know?



That's awesome mgosdin, but as I'm very tired from work today I will have to get back to you.

Justin,

Hope you got some good rest.

Sometimes meditation melds into a very restful sleep, this is no bad thing I find.

Mark Gosdin

First of all I would very much like to apologize for my behavior. Things have been going bad for me for quite some time I let my emotions get the better of me (which rarely happens) and I expoleded :/

I've read Dostoyevskys crime and punishment a few years ago and loved it. Here recently I read his The idiot which I liked better and I now have the brothers of karamazou that I have yet to begin to read.

I use to absolutely hate reading in tell I read crime and punishment; Then I realized it was just a matter of finding the right books to read. Now I use reading itself as a meditation technique. To be able to sit down and read another persons works/words and to get lost in them, trying to understand what they were trying to convey to the reader.

Justin,

Not a problem. Explosions happen, life gets to us all sometimes.

Mark Gosdin

so whats the general opinion about religion here?

Justin,

For the time that I've been posting here it seems that a general opinion on religion is to keep it at "arms length".

Like most groups you will find some that want nothing to do with it and others that have embraced one form or another to some degree.

For myself, I find that religion is rather like cats. Soft and cuddly, but with claws, fangs and a whole host of annoying habits including paying no attention to you whatsoever.

I have scars to prove this.

Mark Gosdin