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Underground > Temple >

Meditation experience? (Stupid questions spinoff)

11:28 / 01.06.06

I had a "stupid question" which I thought I'd put in it's own thread. Basically, I'd like to ask people about their experience of meditation. Whenever I do it any time other than the morning, I get a lot more "mental noise" and sleepy feelings - I wondered do others have the same thing? ANyone here have any success in the evening etc?

12:23 / 01.06.06

Yes, but only out of necessity. When I was on a regular meditation schedule, the only time I could set aside for quiet time alone was in the evenings. There was a lot of mental noise which, for me, was mostly issues and thoughts about the day intruding. I just carried on through it, gently batting down the thoughts as the arose. Like you do. I've done maybe one morning meditation, so can't really say that I associate more mental noise with one or the other. I had none of the sleepiness you mention tho, at least not regularly. Hope that helps.

12:41 / 01.06.06

Yeah, it's interesting. When I say mental noise, I don't mean thoughts etc. I mean "voices" stuff welling up from the subconscious. The sort of noise that if you gave into it, you'd fall asleep, and eventually it'd become part of your dreams.

13:11 / 01.06.06

Edge of a dream-state, eh? Can't say I've experienced that.

13:25 / 01.06.06

I know what you mean about mental noise. I've sometimes meditated around midnight, and yeah, that border between awake and asleep is definitely closer.

In the morning, as i've just been in the sleep states for a while, it seems a lot easier to be alert.

When the sleepy sort of states emerge during meditation, there's often a desire to fight them and move back to a more awake mindset, but this fighting just tends to leave the whole meditation feeling a bit fruitless.

I've recently started just letting the sleepiness happen while holding an awareness that it is happening. I find that if I know theres a good chance i'll fall asleep, and 'watch' this sleepiness happen without trying to overcome it or anything, i actually fall asleep a lot less.

So perhaps just try letting your mental states just occur as they will. Accept that you may fall asleep, but that this is fine, and that dream states may occur, but this is fine too. With acceptance and observation, these things will (hopefully) start to seem less like obstacles, and more like a part of the meditation experience.

Or something...

13:35 / 01.06.06

I meditate in the evening and find that if I am drowsy, alternating periods of sitting and mindful walking is useful. Meditation can, in a very real sense, be done anywhere.

Also, meditating with eyes open is a good way to avoid sleepiness. Periodically allowing the eyes to sweep the environment, alternating between an internal focus to an external focus, and raising the gaze up to include more visual stimuli are also useful.

I hope this helps.

Metta!

Mark

11:52 / 02.06.06

Thanks for that all, very useful.

I was thinking of astral journeying, as well, the visualisations tend to go a bit bleeeufgh when I'm tired. I think this might be something to do with my physiology to be hoenst. If I stop moving, I find it very easy to go to drift off. I can go to bloody sleep anywhere, I frequently fall asleep on nighbuses whenver I've had a drink or while reading at home. think I could sleep on a bloody rollercoaster.

Unconditional Love

14:38 / 02.06.06

You need a crazy stalker zen master with a big stick to follow you around, an hit you occasionally as you drop off.

I tend to hear alot of voices at night, meditating or not, several traditions would have it that thats when spirits are more active and easily approached.

Particularly this week in fact my voice activity has increased to an almost impossible level and my perceptions have heightened dramatically with it.

I sometimes meditate to music to disarm this process and sometimes spoken word. It becomes possible after a while to just listen and not involve in the internal narrative, wether it be thought music or voice. Its at this point i find my awareness becoming one pointed , its a calm penetration, that allows for a surveying of the conscious contents. Seeing what thoughts hold tension and excitement or other emotional energys allowing for the motive to be revealed behind a process. Its a great sense of just watching as what i would normally call me, becomes like cloud gazing, or watching the sunlight flicker from wave to wave, like synapses firing in the brain.

There is a problem i find with meditating in a still position, the deeper i go into a meditative state the less i actually want to return to my waking consciousness, the meditation is so peaceful and relaxing that everyday activity begins to seem like more trouble than its worth.

Practices like tai chi and chi gung have helped me aquire a sense for moving meditation, but i find it can take a longer time to get deep into a really aware state. Although having said that i have become totally involved with a tai chi set on one occasion which created a similar state to a prolonged static meditation.

I am hyperaware alot of the time, i find meditation increases this hyperawareness through continued practice, does anybody know of any breathing practices that actually lower awareness rather than heighten it?

16:21 / 02.06.06

Yeah, it's interesting. When I say mental noise, I don't mean thoughts etc. I mean "voices" stuff welling up from the subconscious. The sort of noise that if you gave into it, you'd fall asleep, and eventually it'd become part of your dreams.

Yeah I've had this every now and then aswell. As far as I can remember though, I'm worse in a morning because I'm still that relaxed that I start drifting back into sleep quite a lot. When I get voices and stuff though (ever had visions of things? Like you're entering a dream and pulled yourself back?) it feels like I'm on an energy threshold, like if I just managed to find the balance somewhere around there I can get into a really deep meditation.

07:12 / 03.06.06

I've found over time that the best way to meditate for myself is to enclose everything in a unified field of awareness. Then the mental noise quites down. Some days are noisier than others, that's natural.

Noise is natural, it gets to be less over time.

Fritz K Driftwood

04:03 / 04.06.06

I do standing meditation (almost) everyday. I am one of those people that if I am sitting or lying down and meditating, I am quickly asleep.

I don't have much noise other than my own "squirrel mind" chattering, chattering away. I've read accounts of other people hearing voices or whatnot, but I get zilch.

What really "energizes" my meditation is meditating beneath a tree. I started to do it when I was waiting for my partner to come and pick me up late on Saturday evenings at the BART station in N Berkeley. (The Sikh cab drivers across the road alway seemed to eye me suspisiously.) Since I would be waiting for at least ten minutes it was a perfect time to do my meditation. Also, when I lived in San Francisco, I lived in a very busy urban neighborhood and while there were trees I didn't feel comfortable meditating there with all of the traffic and passersby. Now I live in Berkeley and have access to a variety of trees. There is a small grove of redwood across the street, and a huge oak in the park nearby. And it being Berkeley, no one thinks its odd that someone is doing standing meditation under a tree.

I find that I am much more energized and yet at peace when I meditate under a tree than I am if I just meditate in my bedroom or the living room. Perhaps I am "synching up" with whatever tree I am standing beneath.

11:57 / 04.06.06

Illmatic:
> I mean "voices" stuff welling up from the subconscious.
> The sort of noise that if you gave into it, you'd fall
> asleep, and eventually it'd become part of your dreams.

I'd have thought those kind of voices would keep you awake, not send you to sleep. I do a few different kinds of meditation; I get those kind of voices coming up when I'm in bed, sometimes clearly from the unconscious and sometimes apparently from without (slight relevance to the possession thread there). I usually do a wakeful inner mulling in bed anyway and that helps settle those voices down.

So yeah, I do meditation all times of day without usually getting sleepy. Mind you, if I'm at home I'm usually keeping one ear out for the kids, and if I'm out, I'm in the woods and unlikely to nod off, even though I'm sleep deprived - it's been going on so long you just live with it.