7 most powerful yet simple meditations

solo's picture
Submitted by solo on Sun, 02/24/2008 - 22:52.
Tags:

Average: 4.8 (6 votes)
  1. Accepting and observing whatever is now.
  2. Self Inquiry - Observe your sense of "I", your many personalities, all these false "I"s you can observe as objects and therefore are not truly you, the observing subject. Make sure to observe these "I"s with no identification. Use the question "Who Am I?" but do not try to answer it intellectually, wait for the mental pointer to arise spontaneously from the question and direct you to a current sense of "I"
  3. Being - abiding in the "I Am", in the subject, with no objects observed. It's easier than you think.
  4. Death - realizing the mere fact that this "my body", this "me", is only a fleeting episode, temporal, soon to cease and die.
  5. Am I the Body? - Look at your body as an external object. look at parts and processes of the body and realize that you have no idea how they exactly work, you have no control over them, you didn't designed nor created them. So on what basis, then, you claim ownership over them, regard them as "I"? Isn't it the same situation also with any world object? So why don't you reclaim ownership over all world objects?
  6. Level of Trust - check on your current level of trust or/and the corresponding opposite level of skepticism, disbelief. Note that both of them are conditionings of the mind, beliefs (also the disbelief) and so, at some stage, you better go beyond both.
  7. Fundamental distress - check your current level of fundamental distress, the underlying basic energy of sorrow, fear and pain within you that attracts all painful emotions. Observe this underlying pain and accept whatever you feel with no identification. If you find it hard to locate this pain, ask yourself "How do I feel right now?" or "Do I feel a complete bliss and serenity right now? And if not, why? what basic emotion within me covers the substratum of bliss and serenity?" Let these questions point you to the fundamental distress energy.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Magnoliacom
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Technorati


kalgo's picture

I would add Anapana to this excellent shortlist

A great shortlist. I also think that it includes the most valuable meditations for true spiritual progress.

I would add another one, very simple yet proves with time to be very powerful:

  • Anapana - Just observe your breathing. Do not try to control it (in the beginning you might see that once you observe it, you try to control it, it is ok, just be aware of that and soon it will dissolve), just observe it - do not even mind the exact parts of the breathing (as this highly involves the mind), try to observe without analyzing the breathing. If it helps, focus on some part which is involved in the breathing process (e.g. your nose, your chest, your belly etc.) and observe the effect of the breathing on this part (it is easier to observe a certain physical process than an abstract mental object such as "breathing").
kalgo | Sat, 05/10/2008 - 12:30