If you meditate, what is your practice like?

It varies, with most of the variants being classical Zen stuff.

In my training, I went through a typical progression: Years of focusing on the breath, many more years focusing on koans, then many more years just sitting.

Nowadays I teach, so at any given time I have students who are at various points in that progression. To better help them, I often revisit whatever practice they’re doing. That refreshes my memory of what that particular practice is like, so I can better relate to their problems and give them better guidance. That’s especially true of koans. I work on them right along with the student, even if I’ve been over that particular koan a million times already. But sometimes I’ll even spend time with a “beginner’s” practice, like counting breaths, just as a refresher.

Your “no idea where this is leading” and “not worried about it at all” is a wonderful way to work. It can take so long to find that unexpectant openness. Virtually everybody takes up a practice imagining where it will take them and get discouraged when they can’t plot some kind of progress toward that goal. But it isn’t about getting somewhere else; it’s about thoroughly being right where you are.

No doubt you’ve read this before, but here goes for posterity.

The aim of my meditation is to find out who the observer is. So attention points inward. “I am not the world around me. I am not my body. I am not my thoughts. I am not my mind. I come before the mind. Who am I?” The question points to the answer, but it’s not an intellectual answer—it’s a seeing.

Our great powers are belief, attention, and identity, and the meditation is an attempt to see from where these emanate. A side effect is realizing that what we normally view as our “self” (i.e. the conditioned person that has a first and last name and date of birth) is merely an idea in consciousness. I am not the person. I am that in which the person is observed. But again, this is not an intellectual goal of knowing this. It is coming to a place of seeing from consciousness.

An effect of this inquiry is that the “serpent mind” (or psychological mind or terrible master) that is capable of molesting the “self” that is normally believed to be the seat of identity is transformed into the “natural mind” (or wonderful servant), which can manifest all kinds of serendipities. Even with that seeming “magic” at one’s disposal, though, it’s really not a big deal, because one has already realized that all life (which is illusion) is harmonious and unfolding exactly as it should. In fact, the entire universe is contained inside “your” seeing of it, so there is no disharmony and no struggle. You are the timeless and formless Absolute (God/Supreme Being/what have you) from which all perception emanates. Here also, nothing is known and no knowledge is needed. The body and other functioning all take care of themselves spontaneously (and better than “we” do ourselves).

In the end, even the meditation and the meditator are observed and are illusory. There is no meditation or meditator.

This is more or less a regurgitation of pointings from the likes of Ramana Maharishi, Papaji, Mooji, Robert Adams, and Nisargadatta Maharaj, among others for anyone who may be interested.

@kevbo I am reading Ramana Maharshi in fits and starts.

When I dropped most of the things I was “doing”, I got to a place where there was a void. Something poked at the void with a finger, and I immediately asked “Who did the poking?” It was a profound question.

My methodology varies, from sitting in the sun in a peaceful state of no thought simply feeling the sun on my back, listening to the birds and other nature sounds around me as I fall into a deep state of relaxation and random thought ceases to arise.
Yesterday I went into a mini-meditative mode when hanging out with the horses here. I draped my arms over the fence ( I was on the inside of the paddock ) and just went limp in the sun while feeling the breath of three horses nosing around me, gently tugging on my clothes with their mouths, nudging me and sniffing me all over. I was the one being whispered to, not the whisperer. haha

@SecondHandStoke has been composing an answer for a few hours now. I haven’t decided if he’s writing a tome or if this is a commentary on the OP. Perhaps this is their way of demonstrating their meditation.

@Hawaii_Jake Perhaps he has fallen into a deep meditative state. Nobodies typing. haha

Then Manjushri said to Vimalakirti, “Each of us has given an explanation. Now, sir, it is your turn to speak. How does the bodhisattva enter the gate of nondualism?”

At that time Vimalakirti remained silent and did not speak a word.

Manjushri sighed and said, “Excellent, excellent! Not a word, not a syllable-this truly is to enter the gate of nondualism!”

Two ways I meditate:

1. At the end of yoga (either Bikram or Vinyasa) I typically attempt Yoga Nidra

2. When I meditate, I often lay in Shavasana – and if my mind wanders I often focus on the image of a blank sheet of paper or black construction paper. Occasionally, I see white chalk stars on my black construction paper. :) This is a good, peaceful state for me to meditate and clear my mind completely.

@thorninmud Yes, I was thinking that might be it. Thank you very much for the text. However, the use of Fluther creates a line of words about crafting a response. Does this not spoil the point?

@Hawaii_Jake Yeah, as someone once said, those words are “like a mouse turd floating in a bowl of clear soup”.

Open driver door. Get in. Key in ignition. Listen to and feel key click through ACC then ON. Hear and feel the fuel pump engage. Then START. Notice how short a start is needed to spin engine. Listen for any unusual starting sounds.

Get out of car, light cigarette. Close eyes and savor long drag. Listen to engine at high idle. Mild whine from intake. Subtle clicks from injectors.

Turn and look at drivers side. Look over wheels and tires for damage or unusual wear.

Slowly walk to rear. Low burble from exhaust. Observe dripping of condensation or steam. License plate secure and undamaged.

Walk to passenger side. Check wheels, tires.

Walk to front. Engine at low idle now. Slight rumble, No unusual sounds. Aircon condenser free of damage or obstruction.

Step back in. Settle into seat. Not perfect. Wiggle rear to settle in better. Attach seat belt. Hear and feel positive click. Check mirrors for perfect alignment using BMW overlap method.

Another deep drag, ponytail relaxed in the headrest. Check temperature gauge. Close to operating temp.

A moment to contemplate what I’m about to do. How will the car behave due to conditions? Is it cold out? Humid? Will the engine eat up the dense, cold atmosphere? Will the performance suspension bushings grunt?

A deep breath, Observe feel as clutch pedal is pushed to the floor. Feel is right. Grasp cold titanium shifter and engage reverse. Satisfying audible and tactile snap. Still cool transmission makes a familiar thunk.

Out of the drive. Slightest resistance from the still cool 1st-2nd synchro. Smooth, predictable engagement. Faintest flatspotting feel from cold tires. Second gear to the main road. Fully warmed engine wines at about 5K revs to the main street. Still cold brakes take a little longer to stop. Brake feel is firm but easily modulated. Red light. Another moment to relax and focus.

Minutes later. Engine, transmission, brakes and tires are up to temp. Time to pull hard, body relaxed. Seatbelt and seat doing the work of holding my body in place. The moist air means the suspension won’t be barking today. Low ambient temperature means they will be even slightly more firm.

The Nation’s deadliest Interstate is minutes away. Listening to noise from the rigid tires. Engine sounds and feels perfect. Long trips up the tach, quick but linear acceleration.

Left turn to the on ramp. then with some throttle and tiny inputs to the hand stitched leather wheel and I’m at least a couple cars ahead before merging onto I 285.

Trusting my mirror adjustment and nearly blindspot free greenhouse. Geared low for control. I make my way to the leftmost lane. Suppressing giggles induced by the drivetrain.

The car claws, seemingly starving for the nest section of pavement. at once stimulating and soothing. The Zone will be found soon.

Check mirrors. Shift lanes. Accelerate. Pass. Scan for hazards. Check instruments.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Technology and skill forcing me into the moment.

I just close my eyes and concentrate on my breath. There is a lot of mind wandering, which I accept. I do not seek any enlightenment or spiritual awareness. It is a nice way to start the day.

I have also found that there are good vibes when people meditate together. Is this real or a figment of my imagination? Maybe someone should do an experiment. I once went to a yoga studio that a woman ran from her home. She had a lot of property that included chickens and other animals. She claimed that the animals drifted toward the studio during the yoga sessions.

@LostInParadise “I have also found that there are good vibes when people meditate together. Is this real or a figment of my imagination?”

I’ve noticed the same thing. The “good vibes” feeling is, I think, the feeling that comes with still attention. We’re more likely to experience that in a group of other meditators because, as social animals, we mirror and mutually reinforce each others’ mind states. That’s why the shared experience of being an audience member in a theater or at a sports event is more powerful than watching the same thing alone in your living room.

I remember hearing an animal behaviorist, a specialist in baboons, talking about a singular event she witnessed one day. She was following a troupe of baboons in the field. Baboons are extremely raucous as a rule, always stirring up fights and other drama, never still. On this day, though, they got to a particular place and the whole troupe suddenly settled down and became perfectly quiet and relaxed. She had never seen anything like that before. It lasted for, as I recall, 15 minutes or so, then they all got up and moved on.

I think that anyone who does group meditation knows what that was about.

I find that if I do a short yoga practice before hand with a lots of stretches, up dog, down dog that it allows me to sit much more comfortably and gets the blood and oxygen flowing more freely.

I always light a candle and use that as my drishti point and even if I have my eyes closed I know it’s there and still can use it as a focus point to initially help still my mind. I have “seen” some really weird shit pop up in the star gaze of the flame. One time it was a rough black sphere with cracks that looked like it was hot lava and little beady red eyes….looked and felt demonic. I discussed with a meditation guru I took a few lessons with and he said to not subscribe any meaning to it as he said these images are part of the meditative process and over time I would develop a mental discipline where these distractions would be farther and fewer in between. I have had a number of supernatural and out of body experiences and why I love to meditate.