Suggested reading on meditation

[Digi123]

Hello fellow Nexians. I hope you're all well

Ok. I'm wondering if I could have some suggestions for books, audio or videos to look at to learn more about meditation, chakras and working with energy to heal myself and others. I'm pretty new to this subject, I was curious from around 10-12 years old and then became hyper-skeptical about the whole thing. Now I'm 25 and ready to dive right back in however I'm not sure where to start. There's so much info out there I dont know what is reliable.

So far I have been practicing visualizing my chakras and drawing energy up from the earth to run through them, sort of like a washing machine, to clean and unblock them. I have a lot if trouble with attention span, I'm always being distracted by stray thoughts, I guess this will lessen over time.

Thanks to any replies. Best forum-goers ever

Peace

 

[d-T-r]

hmm.
Well from your post it seems as if you are gravitating towards the chakra side of things (there are many different paths that all ultimately lead to the same place)

try this chakra test;

Chakra Test

Take this free chakra test to find out how open each of your seven chakras is.

www.eclecticenergies.com

it's obviously not going to be 100% accurate to everyone , but for someone who is just begining to raise their sensitivity to their chakras, it can be a useful start.

you will find videos and reading material online to help you with these,but the best thing to do, is to just actually stop and 'listen' to your body.

You might not feel as if anything is happening for a while,(weeks ,months depending on the person) but persevere and eventually you are essentially learning to increase sensitivity to your subtle nervous system.

my personal path went like this

dreams/lucid dreams > Kundalini awakening > astral projection > chakra meditation > Reiki > Now

everyones path will be different but ultimately we learn how inter-linked everything is.


check this video for now to maybe inspire yourself about the infinite paths of progressions that are now at your finger-tips

 

[Digi123]

Hey d-t-r. Thanks for takin the time to reply

I started a dream diary two weeks ago as I really want to become lucid but still having trouble recalling dreams. I don't recall flying in dreams since I was young. I remember looking at my watch in a dream a few days ago and it seemed normal and didn't make me aware I was dreaming. Still I think ill need to be able to recall better before being lucid would be any use.

I will have a look at the chakra test and video tonight when I'm home. I think they might be quite screwed up at the moment as it seems every area they represent I have issues in life with.

Something I thought of after I posted, maybe I should check out some book shops and just see if I'm drawn to anything

 

[Shaolin]

Shinzen Young - The Beginner's Guide to Meditation

d-T-r, how did you awaken kundalini ?

 

[d-T-r]

yeah the book idea is good. just be in the shop for a while before picking up anything then just wait and see.

it might not be the first one, but just listen and you'll find the info you need.

And keep on with the dream diary too. I havnt had many lucid dreams in quite while but i feel thats down to certain habbits i've started/lost.

everyone has issues they need to resolve. chakras aren't something you just 'open' and then you're done. they're there to maintain continuously along side your day to day life to help you have a clearer perspective on what you need to do , and which areas need addressing.

as for 'how' i woke my kundalini, i didnt...It just happened.

Used to walk home form college/uni and i would have really emotional/dramatic 'epic' ( i dislike the over-use of that word too haha) music in my ears, and as i walked over a bridge, with the cold wind flowing past me, i would get a huge chill up my spine.

everyone has had these chills or shivers up their spine, and a lot of people dislike them as they sometimes come at moments that are perceived as negative for whatever reason. But you can get those chills from moments of pure inspiration and appreciation of beuaty as well and once you are familiar with that feeling, you can learn to raise the kundalini at will with your breath.

i had it for a while and at points, i would raise my kundalini for a 'fix' as i didnt know what to do with 'it' now i had it. now the path of Reiki has crossed me and you learn to consciously control and direct that energy more freely.

one step at a time though. i'm still progressing and still learning about this universal energy aswell so we're all in the same boat.

Everyone knows how to progress and will have their own unique way of moving forward , so find the route that sits comfortably with you and keep on keepin on

(i'm not typing/thinking as clearly as i know i can, so apologies on any bad grammar and spelling! )

 

[actualfactual]

http://www.amazon.com/Meditation-Dummies-Stephan-Bodian/dp/0764551167

I've read a lot of books on Meditation, and this is one of my favorites. It is an in-depth look at the history and practice of meditation. Excellent place to start out.

 

[Digi123]

Shinzen Young - The Beginner's Guide to Meditation

Thanks Shaolin, Will check it out

d-T-r. Ok I've just done the Chakra test you linked and as I suspected they seem pretty closed off. Here's my results.

Root: under-active (-50%)
Sacral: under-active (-12%)
Navel: under-active (-56%)
Heart: under-active (-19%)
Throat: under-active (-6%)
Third Eye: under-active (-6%)
Crown: open (6%)

Deffinately going to keep on with the dream diary. Determined to be able to rebember my dreams in detail and to be able to have lucid dreams.

I think I know what you mean about the shiver, think I had something similar last week. I recently met up with an old friend I hadn't seen in about 4 or 5 years, turns out he's just recently become interested in all of this stuff too. I sent him a message one day after work to see if he wanted to come over to visit. A couple of minutes after sending the message I decided I was going to give him a gift of some incense as I've got loads. When he arrived at my house I pointed to the table and told him they were a gift for him. He started laughing really hard, he had brought incense for a gift for me too! What's even weirder was when I asked him when he had decided to bring the incense, it was right after I sent him the message, roughly the exact same time I'd thought it too!! That gave me major goose bumps (not like I was cold though, just all the hairs went crazy)

Ah yes, a 'For Dummies' book Those things are amazing! I never even thought of those, will have to check it out! Thanks actualfractal.

Thanks for the help

 

[tetra]

The Path, by Whitley Strieber, is my meditation. It is the most simple yet productive meditation (that I know of). It's essentially paying attention to objective physical sensation. Paying attention to physical sensation is paying attention to energetic sensation. Being awake to oneself and one's surroundings increases the intensity of the impressions so that they affect the spin of the electrons that are present in the nervous system. In this context, being awake means being aware of one's own self while at the same time absorbing impressions from the outside. The increase in spin and enrichment of the complexity of the pattern of being that results brings more and more form to the radiant body.

A part of the electromagnetic field that fills the nervous system rests a few centimeters above the skin, outside of the body. This field is an organ just like the heart or the brain. It is in quantum superposition, the electrons effectively everywhere in the universe and nowhere specific. It may be imprinted by information from anywhere and any time. With it, you may see other worlds, you may see the past and the future, you may see into the lives of those around you. You may haunt God. However, the process of imprinting itself causes the organ to cease to be in superposition and thus to cease to be accessible to further imprinting. In psychics, there is either an inborn or learned ability to balance the attention in such a way that these impressions do not cause this organ to become focused into particulate form. The ability to control this organ can be developed. How? Many practices will work, but the best is to meditate in such a way that the mind is concentrated on physical sensation. This relieves the pressure of impressions incoming from the physical world on the electromagnetic body and enables it to expand.

If interested, I can write up a step-by-step guild to the practice.

 

[Digi123]

The Path, by Whitley Strieber, is my meditation. It is the most simple yet productive meditation (that I know of). It's essentially paying attention to objective physical sensation. Paying attention to physical sensation is paying attention to energetic sensation. Being awake to oneself and one's surroundings increases the intensity of the impressions so that they affect the spin of the electrons that are present in the nervous system. In this context, being awake means being aware of one's own self while at the same time absorbing impressions from the outside. The increase in spin and enrichment of the complexity of the pattern of being that results brings more and more form to the radiant body.

A part of the electromagnetic field that fills the nervous system rests a few centimeters above the skin, outside of the body. This field is an organ just like the heart or the brain. It is in quantum superposition, the electrons effectively everywhere in the universe and nowhere specific. It may be imprinted by information from anywhere and any time. With it, you may see other worlds, you may see the past and the future, you may see into the lives of those around you. You may haunt God. However, the process of imprinting itself causes the organ to cease to be in superposition and thus to cease to be accessible to further imprinting. In psychics, there is either an inborn or learned ability to balance the attention in such a way that these impressions do not cause this organ to become focused into particulate form. The ability to control this organ can be developed. How? Many practices will work, but the best is to meditate in such a way that the mind is concentrated on physical sensation. This relieves the pressure of impressions incoming from the physical world on the electromagnetic body and enables it to expand.

If interested, I can write up a step-by-step guild to the practice.

Very interesting. Yes I would like to read more if you're willing to write Sounds like the same thing d-T-r was talking about earlier with 'listening to my body'? I wasn't really sure how I would go about doing that, what to feel for etc.

The field you are talking about here

A part of the electromagnetic field that fills the nervous system rests a few centimeters above the skin, outside of the body.

Is this part of the aura? I have recently been practising seeing auras around people again (Used to do it when I was young then totally forgot/ignored that I could do it!). I see a slight luminescent glow around people, roughly 1 - 2cm all around their body, it appears slightly hazy like when you look at a road on a hot day and see the heat rising (not quite the same but similar)

 

[olympus mon]

Midfullness- by Thich Nhat Hanh had a profound positive effect on the coarse of my at the time troubled life. its so simple and beautiful. no mind blowing revelations just quite peace and present moment awareness.

 

[tetra]

The first thing we want to do, when we are beginning to use attention as a tool, is to direct it to the sensation of our bodies. Begin with the left foot. Concentrate you attention on it--but gently. It's not a matter of forcing anything. Simply open your mind to the way your foot feels, including each toe, and gain as detailed a sensation of it as you can. If you can't sense a single thing, it doesn't matter. This isn't about your foot. It's about the effort.

Then do the same thing with your right foot. Concentrate your attention on it. Then, very gently, include both feet. Then move your sensation up your left leg, first to the knee, than the whole leg. Get a sensation of your leg, not forgetting your toes or your thigh.

Do the same thing with the right leg. Then sense both legs. Hold that for a moment, concentrating all of your attention on your legs.

Next, do the same thing with your hands and arms, in the same sequence. Concentrate first on one arm, then include both. Then add your legs, expanding your attention to include both arms and both legs.

Then take your attention to your coccyx, your tailbone. Move your attention up your spine. The sensation will be very faint, so be careful. Don't let you r imagination run away with you, either. Forget such things as Kundalini energy for now. Your spine is not going to turn into a rope of gold--yet.

Take your attention up your neck and let it include your whole head. Include your face. Then take it down your chest, being careful to follow your breathing rather than interrupting it. Let it go as it will. Just feel the sensation of it.

Go down your stomach, to just below your naval. At that point stop and expand your attention to include your whole body. Sense yourself from the tips of your toes to the top of your head.

Next, focus your sensation again into a point just below your naval. Penetrate into your body. You will have little sensation, if any, from the inside. That's fine. It doesn't matter. Go to an imaginary spot right in the center of your body. You will be able to feel hardly any sensation here. Use your imagination. Stretch your sensitivity to capture what little there is.

Now let your attention flow into all parts of you. Sit, being aware of yourself in this way. Don't close your eyes completely. Let some of the outside world in as you work. The state you have entered is one of the most healthful and valuable of all human states. Remain in it. Enjoy it. Even if you're entirely anesthetized to your body, it doesn't matter. If you are partially paralyzed, or entirely paralyzed from a stroke or accident or something, it doesn't matter.

What matters is not the outcome but the attempt. Never forget this. The path is the effort to be on the path. The work itself is the goal.

Now, quiet your mind. Do this by concentrating your attention on the sensation of your physical body you have attained. Stay that way. Let your mind go. Leave the world behind.

How long does this last for you? A couple of hours?

I don't think so. A few seconds beyond mind represents a very effective effort. Your mind will recapture you time and time again. A fly buzzes past, the lights flicker, you remember a call you forgot to make--the list of distractions is endless.

The work is not to remain free of these annoyances, but rather to take the attention away from them and give it to your sensation, and do that again and again and again.

Since the struggle itself is our goal, we should take a whole new attitude toward the distractions that pull our attention away from sensation. These distractions are our gifts, because every one of them makes us a little stronger, even the ones that succeed and break our concentration completely.

An itch distracts me. I bless my itch. A horn honks. My heart is full of gratitude toward that driver. My dog rushes in demanding attention. My heart filling with thanks, I give it.

The energy we gain in the path does not come from being a hotshot at meditation with a special room and fancy robes, etc., it comes from the struggle itself.

This is the work that gains you energy, not being able to perform feats of meditation, remaining motionless for hours or whatever.

Work in this way fifteen minutes a day and you will gain immeasurably. Spend five hours a day engaged in elaborate false meditation, and all you will gain is a sore back.

(written word for word from The Path, by Whitley Strieber)

 

[cellux]

Daniel Ingram: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha - freely downloadable from Book — Integrated Daniel

(thanks to ragabr for this tip, great book)

 

[۩]

Suggested reading?

How about LSDMT.

 

[Digi123]

Thank you Tetra for taking the time to post that for me I will be trying this tonight. I very much liked the part about distractions. It seems like a lot of the time when I try to meditate my body starts finding any excuse it can to make an itch, which has always obviously put off my concentration and often I've become annoyed and simply given up because of it.

Thanks also Cellux, think I'm going to leave that one for now but I will take a look at it

 

[Digi123]

Suggested reading?

How about LSDMT.

Is this what you mean? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Confused-Lsdmt/dp/B0040WP80G

 

[۩]

Nope.

 

[distracted]

Daniel Ingram: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha - freely downloadable from Book — Integrated Daniel

(thanks to ragabr for this tip, great book)

I second this one. This book helped me alot getting ma foot in the door with concentration meditation, and though I never finished reading the rest, a knowledge of spirituality from any perspective is somethin that'll benefit you. When you read about them it's a lil hard to udnerstand the jahna's and how they feel, but explaining any shift in concious can be difficult.

The most important thing to remember is not to get wrapped up in the benefits like visions or say a more calm mind in daily life (or in this case the benefits of stronger chakra energy). There's a quote in the book to the effect of "the effort you put in is under your control, the results are not." So if your focusing on the results you really won't get far, just do it for the sake of doing it.

Also remember that thinking about not-thinking and clearing your mind, is just another way that your ego is attempting to stay in control and won't help you on the path to emptying your thoughts.

Good luck, n it's a long process but I'm sure you'll get where you want and beyond. :d
Have a nice one.

Ps. Ragabr was also the one who pointed me towards this book. Thanks ma man if you read this.

 

[Digi123]

Cool. Maybe I'll have a look at that book sooner rather than later then

I was listening to an audio thing about Taoists the other day and heard mentioned instead of trying to force your mind to be clear of thoughts, just allow the thoughts to float like clouds, try to not force anything one way or another. Easier said than done

I don't know what to call you as I have no idea what this --> ۩ is But I like your avatar anyway My first thought was you meant to take LSD and DMT together. Guess that was right I've no idea what that thing on amazon was, the only thing that came up for LSDMT xD

 

[a1pha]

"Flow" by Csikszentmihalyi is a fantastic read from a more scientific point of view. I highly recommend it.

LSDMT was great, too.

 

[Digi123]

"Flow" by Csikszentmihalyi is a fantastic read from a more scientific point of view. I highly recommend it.

LSDMT was great, too.

Can you link this LSDMT please ?

Thanks. Might be good coming from a more scientific point of view