Inquiry

I'm a 37 year meditator, and pretty much self-taught. My first explorations with formal meditation (though I can think of childhood experiences that were meditation-like) arose from reading a Ruth Montgomery book and following her advice. I quickly found that with my two job- pre-med school lifestyle I did much better if I meditated for 40 minutes in between jobs than if I fell asleep. At that time, I simply used a mantra from the Ruth Montgomery book, and then imagined myself in a place of very high vibration and high consciousness. It worked. Since then I have been taught a third eye meditation, and taught to remove myself from my body during meditation. This is good for recharging batteries also, but left me with too much completely unclaimed shadow. About 5-6 years ago, I began frequently inviting every one of the cells of my body with me into the cool, clear zone of my meditations, to celebrate with me. For probably about 6 months I was disturbed in my meditation by what felt like pockets of crap that had an emotional valance that would not let the cells in that region celebrate. By being with those, more in the fashion of Father Thomas Keating's "divine therapy," I was able to clean up those places. Now my meditation feels much more complex, more complete, and very clean, and I don't have to leave my body out of it. I was not familiar with 3,2,1 at the time, but these pockets of crap were so ill-defined, I'm not sure how I would have done the 3,2,1.

Whatever form my meditation has taken -- nondual at times, mindfulness at times, Centering Prayer at times, it has always been undertaken with the intention of being in the presence of sacredness. That has underpinned all my efforts far more than being true to any particular technique. I will also say that I would not have survived medical school with even a little bit of my sanity intact had I not continued to meditate. Every time I stopped because I was "just too busy" I would start to slide sideways mentally. Whatever technique(s) I've hit upon absolutely benefit me.

I have just begun using Holosync, which is a completely different type of meditation experience for me, feels far less complex and rich, but is definitely "doing something." It is also helping me reach my ordinary depths of non-Holosync meditation more easily and quickly. I am noticing some new perspectives occurring, seem to be staying in a witness state amost 24/7, and a certain "flow" for lack of better word that is new since the Holosync. I certainly intend to keep exploring that, but I will continue to seek those deep, rich personally induced meditation moments daily as well.

I'm afraid I've never found a technique that works for me. As some-one who's been interested in meditation since the age of 15, and is now 52, I've tried a few different techniques, and been trained by any number of individuals and organisations. I'm not short on willpower, but I'm afraid this is one area where my will definitely ain't. I got terribly excited when the Integral Institute recommended Holosync and, although this hasn't worked as a form of meditation either, I think it may have led to a breakthrough on understanding my chronic depression. Meditation like Holosync leads to slower brainwaves all over the brain, and it seems as if depressives are that way because our brainwaves are too slow in parts of our brains already. I'm afraid I had some very unpleasant experiences on Holosync that made it dificult for me to function. With advice from this community I logged on to a site called 'To Holosync or not', and from there found out about a brain entrainment programme that can be adjusted to depressives. I don't suppose it's meditation, though the right side of my brain is being entrained to alpha, but I'll report back on my experiences after trying it for a month.

Anyway, I don't feel such a failure now. Evidently, meditation can't be the way to enlightenment or stage progression for all of us.

Helen

I've been exploring all kinds of approaches to meditation - from very traditional, like Zen, to very "modern", like Shree Rajneesh's (Osho) Dynamic meditation, to untraditional and direct approaches like Adyashanti.

I can see value to all of them and each seemed to have attracted me when it was appropriate in my life.

The most important aspect to me seems to be to stick to a regular practice of any kind, and stick with one practice over a set period of time.

Exploring various approaches was probbaly the most helpful thing to me to be able to stick to practicing regularly.
It helped me overcome restlessness, boredom and initial skepticism, especially at the beginning (the first few years).

The biggest challenge for me to overcome was to meditate no matter how I feel, not to see meditation as a way to feel better, but as a practice to go beyond feelings.

I mostly practice by myself, but went to a few retreats, which enhanced my understanding and commitment a lot.

I also used Holosync for about 1 and a half years to assist my meditation practice and did find it helpful to stay on the mat for longer periods of time.

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