This thread is really helpful, thank you so much DmnStr8.

I started my meditation practice with Jon Kabat-Zinn (mindfulness) but shortly after got involved with a Buddhist group who's practice was based on Lamrim. This basically involved a set of prayers/ritual practices and then a 20 minute analytical meditation on one of the Lamrim stages (for example, you may analyse the fact that you may die today/take lower rebirth in your next life etc). Having done the analysis you would try to come to a conclusion and focus single pointedly on it for a period of time. There are a number of different stages and you do the meditations on a cycle.

This is extrememly powerful.

It does, however, require faith in the Buddhist doctrine, which I had a bit (or a lot!) of a crisis with recently (I think some of you commented when I posted on here about it). So I would say the Lamrim is absolutely worth looking at but just be gentle with it...

Now I'm focusing on breathing meditation as a daily practice. I was very frustrated with this for a while (I also posted on here about that) but I've made some progress recently and this thread has helped a lot. I can see why a lot of people just give up on this because there are no immediate 'results' and it requires patience, something I struggle with massively hahaha.

What has helped me a lot has been to hear/read about people's experience of, with practice, finding peaceful states with this type of meditation. That has encouraged me to continue.

Thanks all