64 replies to this topic

[Wobble]

I love meditation. I do a lot of breathing centric. heat meditation is also great, as a ski instructor I can vouche for the efficiency. Also motor centric meditation is fun, Just try to pay total attention to your body. I have persistent visual snow which is influenced by my hearing and it makes beautiful fractals and shapes when I meditate.

[Wobble]

Also, moving meditation like kata is very fun. My style of karate has an increadble circular kata which I will go down to my basement and practice if I cannot sleep.

[Kemal]

Thanks for this thread. is there any substance that will allow better muscle relaxation during meditation that will not affecting cognition and focus? I have a hip injury and the common meditation position are very hard for me.

Kava (Piper methysticum) has been known to improve mental focus while having a relaxing effect on the muscles. In higher doses it can also provide a sense of euphoria. Also Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is said to be physically relaxing without altering focus or cognition.

[LeonardElijah]

I do prantic breathing for 3.5 minutes and focus on the alignment of my crown and intestinal chakras. I then adopt the inverse hippo position and project the Diva within to exude universal awareness.

Maybe not. I sit in stillness with a quiet mind, and if I lose the quiet present moment I focus on something external until I have the quietness again. Meditation needs to be taught in schools. Great thread.

[Erstwhile]

I've become very interested in meditation after learning of its ability to induce neurogenesis in the hippocampus, such as reported here: http://blogs.scienti...ion-and-stress/

Has anyone here practiced meditation for a significant period of time and has experienced lasting cognitive benefits as a result?

Edited by Erstwhile, 01 February 2012 - 07:21 AM.

[jadamgo]

Yep. A year ago, I'd been practicing meditation 4-6 times per week for 5 months, and my ADHD symptoms were drastically reduced. I stopped meditating when clinical depression struck, but I've been trying to get back into the habit again. Its benefits are really astonishing.

[Introspecta]

The best meditation teqnichque I've found is close your eyes. Look at the little white specks you see when your eyes are closed. Stare straight ahead. Be aware of your breath in the beginning and you basically become the field. Eventually you stop identifying with your body and its just your consciousness alone that is there. You can get pretty deep fairly fast with this technique I've found.

[noema]

I do 20 minutes daily and find massive benefits beyond physical relaxation and a reduction in systemic cortisol levels.

I sit in an upright position with my lower back supported so I can relax my body fully. I do an open eyed meditation.

I focus on my breath and on catching thoughts as they come to mind and letting them go.

I am a vehement atheist and find that meditation is a fantastic practical practice for stress reduction, a commitment to "unplug from media inundation", and thoughtfulness.

It also helps me socially. I attribute this to my calm mind and my ability to hold eye contact for.. well.. a long long time
-Denny

[Raptor87]

I could use a little help in this thread.

[CIMN]

enviorment is also important. try meditating in a place you like or out someplace with nature,

[Anewlife]

So I have been meditating for almost 3 months now and I have found it very beneficial, the benefits are felt for hours after each session but there is residual effects that I I believe are accumulative over time.
I started out only being able to do 1min at a time then slowly up to 5mins then 15, 20, 30, 40 now the longest I have gone is 80mins with a ciggarette break inbetween it somewhere.

The type I do is breathing observation and focus but lying down instead of sitting, I am starting to sit now which I find helps me focus rather than drift off, I also find Magnesium helps at the start, and theanine. Magnesium helps me keep still and relaxed and theanine with focus.

A tip, you are not suppose to control your breath just observe it and not focus too heavily.

Now that I can easily meditate for 30mins at a time I am starting to incorperate more advanced techniques such as the leaves flowing down the stream and also body scanning. (look up ACT therapy for these), supposedly they each thicken different grey matter areas, such as concerntration and emotional regulation.

Something interested happened tonight, to give myself more of a challenge I tried to prevent intrusive thoughts and try to really focus on my breathing despite this not being the way to do zazen, and when I blocked the 1st thought I had a feeling in my head like when you try to rack your brain to remember something, I didnt give in and continued to meditate through it which was a challenge, focussing on my breathing heavily, this lasted a good 10 minutes, it eventually went away and I felt more relaxed so I began body scanning. I dont know if meditating through wanting to think of something was good or bad but afterwards it felt like I grew a new neuron cluster or something.

The benefits I have noticed are better concentration, more coherent speech, generally happier and more relaxed, more attention to detail in general, and I suppose I am improving my working memory but I dont know for sure yet as I havent tested it.
I am going to be mixing it up I now occasionally meditate at the park listening to sounds, and also try doing it with my eyes open, I also look forward to the body scanning meditation benefits.

I meditate for about an hour a day, 2x30minutes or 1x60min sessions laying down.

The 2 hardest things at the beginning is staying still and being bothered doing nothing for so long but it gets a lot easier, and it soon becomes enjoyable, kind of like an endorphin releasing exercise.

Edited by Anewlife, 29 June 2013 - 03:51 PM.

[Introspecta]

You can continue to meditate while smoking a cigarette. Just stay present on the act. Thats what I do at least if a craving for a cigarette arises while meditating. Also while meditating is great more results can be found incorporating your meditation in all your affairs rather than just doing it at specific times. Basically doing walking meditation and present moment awareness.

Its easy to have a meditation practice going good then life gets busy and you stop. So having a practice that goes throughout the day along with the specific time seated meditation is ideal for me. I am just recently getting back into meditation and being more aware. Seeing the beauty in evertyhing especially nature. I must say I feel 1000 times better than I did. I was a mess for awhile especially when using deprenyl. That shit pushed me way off track.

[machete234]

I meditated for 2 years every day a few years back because I read its beneficial for your physical and mental health and the book "meditation for dummies" fell into my hands. (no joke)
And its good when you want to start, tells you what the buddhist meditation is, I think especially zazen without very much buddhism included.

Also Im sure somebody has mentioned "mindfulness in plain english" theres a free epub,pdf on their page.

Meditating 20 minutes a day (in half lotus) and staying mindful throughout the day helped me a lot with my life situation that I perceived as dramatic at the time, in retrospect I could have changed these circumstances a lot earlier.
Also I had less and less hang ups over time and other people around me seemed highly erratic and neurotic with their stupid shit and buddhist empathy didnt really work.

Which brings me to the negatives of this: The being mindful every day all day became really stressful and then there is this mental censorship by monitoring your thoughts, because when you monitor them they dont occur freely.
In the end you probably constructed a more efficient mechanism by which you deny negative things.
That should also be stressful.

So if anybody wants to start, try a set amount of time per day and forget about it then, dont try to keep up the concentration all day, try it out sometimes.

Then there is this endless paradox why you are meditating when you dont want anything, your supposed to be free of any needs so your new need becomes be free of any need but isnt that a need? and that could go on endlessly.
In the end theres nothing you can or cannot do to radically change yourself. Or maybe its exactly that realisation

In the end I gave up meditating because maybe I realized I am where I am no matter what, or maybe I was just lazy or busy I dont know.
Hopefully Im a bit wiser than before but now Im surrounded by fucking lunatics
I might be starting a 5-20 min practise again but I definately will not overdo it again

Edited by machete234, 30 June 2013 - 08:44 AM.

[Introspecta]

Being mindful everday shouldn't be stressful. You shouldn't be willing youself and resisting. It should be a more gradual peaceful thing. I can see what you mean and what happend but in my experience when I got deeper into it being in the moment throughout the day brought on periods of bliss and it came naturally, I didn't really want to think of anything but just be. Most thoughts are from the past and future and just play over and over. But I guess if your fighting the thoughts from coming rather than just observing and choosing peace rather than thoughts it could be stressful. That is if i'm understanding you correctly.

[Anewlife]

I think there is more to it than being present minding, I got present minded by going to the gym 3 days a week for a year, counting reps and being exhausted in between sets brings you to the present. I was extremely present minded actually and would blissfully space out a lot.

Meditation is also about restructuring your brain for improved concerntration, more conscious emotional regulation, better self awareness, the present minded thing is just a byproduct of a healthy mind.

Also check this out http://www.spring.or...s-warp-time.php

Being present minded also makes weeks, months and years seem to go by slower, you feel like you are living more when you are thinking less.


I also read someone that linked to their thread say that when they meditated they would say stupid things and someone else concluded that anxiety acts as a mental filter, I think this person is confusing being dis-inhibited with being impulsive, meditation and being more mindful should reduce impulsive behaviour not increase it, the breathing focus should do this where you become more focused in what you are doing.

Meditation for me isnt a spiritual thing it is a way for me to strengthen my mind for the better, to be smarter, more focused, more present minded and have better emotional regulation and less impulsiveness.

[machete234]

Most thoughts are from the past and future and just play over and over. But I guess if your fighting the thoughts from coming rather than just observing and choosing peace rather than thoughts it could be stressful. That is if i'm understanding you correctly.

I became good at identifiying these looping patterns and that did me some good, but concentrating all day or letting all the information in felt a bit like piracetam and that makes me stressed out too.

And whats the point of accepting my thoughts? When I monitored them they stayed quiet until theres nothing to monitor.
In the end I loosened the grip on my thoughts by giving up completely.

This kind of paradox is really well known in zen, Allan Watts talked often about it.

BTW Theres a torrent of Allen Watts speeches on isohunt called "the huge collection", you need to hear the man speak, reading can only be dull in comparisson.

One day when Nangaku came to Baso’s hut, Baso stood up to receive him. Nangaku asked him, “What have you been doing recently?”
Baso replied, “Recently I have been doing the practice of seated meditation exclusively.”
Nangaku asked, “And what is the aim of your seated meditation?”
Baso replied, “The aim of my seated meditation is to achieve Buddhahood.”
Thereupon, Nangaku took a roof tile and began rubbing it on a rock near Baso’s hut.
Baso, upon seeing this, asked him, “Reverend monk, what are you doing?”
Nangaku replied, “I am polishing a roof tile.”
Baso then asked, “What are you going to make by polishing a roof tile?”
Nangaku replied, “I am polishing it to make a mirror.”
Baso said, “How can you possibly make a mirror by rubbing a tile?”
Nangaku replied, “How can you possibly make yourself into a Buddha by doing seated meditation?”

I also read someone that linked to their thread say that when they meditated they would say stupid things and someone else concluded that anxiety acts as a mental filter, I think this person is confusing being dis-inhibited with being impulsive, meditation and being more mindful should reduce impulsive behaviour not increase it, the breathing focus should do this where you become more focused in what you are doing.

I noticed that too, in that mindset you should not get intoxicated because you have many guards down.
Anxiety has a lot of functions that keep up our good reputation, if this is gone you will have to limit yourself with your intellect.
You are simply not prepared anymore about being impulsive, so supressed urges could come back with a vengeance when you drink some alcohol.

Edited by machete234, 30 June 2013 - 12:53 PM.

[Introspecta]

I'm into meditation for Cognitive and Spirtual Reasons. Mainly spiritual. Sometimes its hard to word things the way we mean them so my last post I think were understood in a different way than I had hoped. Oh well though..

I'll have to check out Allan Watts. I've studied tons of teachers. The best i've found is David Hawkins. Someday will be known as an avatar like the buddha. You'll believe me if you expose yourself to his work. He just recently died.

[Raptor87]

Let's give this a shot. I have meditated before but it just increases my anxiety. I am an easily stressed person who's always jittery, jumpy and nervous, I even have blackouts and faint if the situation get's to severe. I just read that a Buddhist monk is able to stay calm in the most stressful situations, he's even able to bypass his startleresponse, a reaction that is very primitive and biologically linked to override any kind of mentalstate, like the bodies own panicbutton. I don't know if the monk had other reasons for not reacting (like being a person who's able to control his emotions to a very large degree- just like some fighter who don't flinch) or how accurately the test was conducted. My experience with meditation is that it worsens my condition and I become more sensitive and I am already at the lowest point in my life mentally. A lot of people has recommended meditation but I don't know if it would be good for me.

I have done some research on meditation that elevates anxiety and fear and the only thing I find is some bullshit homepages with selfproclaimed guru's who doesn't know anything and just write BS that is just another cooked up fantasy. I don't know what type of meditation the monk did or if there is any kind of meditation that is able to serve as a killswitch for anxiety? Do you know any good resources? Please insure that they are valid.

[machete234]

Just try it out and don't get obsessive about your practice.
What type of meditation was ot that made you more anxious?
There's a thousand opinions about this so you will have to try.

[machete234]

And the meditators answer to fear would be to totally accept it and not fight it to not make it worse.
I can see how this is close to impossible for somebody with anxiety.

But having found this total center of yours
you can remember that in fearful situation, even more so when you find that center on a regular basis while meditating.

[BLimitless]

Let's give this a shot. I have meditated before but it just increases my anxiety. I am an easily stressed person who's always jittery, jumpy and nervous, I even have blackouts and faint if the situation get's to severe. I just read that a Buddhist monk is able to stay calm in the most stressful situations, he's even able to bypass his startleresponse, a reaction that is very primitive and biologically linked to override any kind of mentalstate, like the bodies own panicbutton. I don't know if the monk had other reasons for not reacting (like being a person who's able to control his emotions to a very large degree- just like some fighter who don't flinch) or how accurately the test was conducted. My experience with meditation is that it worsens my condition and I become more sensitive and I am already at the lowest point in my life mentally. A lot of people has recommended meditation but I don't know if it would be good for me.

I have done some research on meditation that elevates anxiety and fear and the only thing I find is some bullshit homepages with selfproclaimed guru's who doesn't know anything and just write BS that is just another cooked up fantasy. I don't know what type of meditation the monk did or if there is any kind of meditation that is able to serve as a killswitch for anxiety? Do you know any good resources? Please insure that they are valid.

You need to practise Lower Dan Tien breathing.


The lower dan tien (energy centre) is the point roughly between the V shaped part of the hipbones. Basically, breathe into your bladder, breathe as low as it can possibly go. If in doubt, try to blow air out of your butthole BY inhaling, as if from your nose to your butthole is an air pipe. Then you will feel the entire pelvic floor areas swell up.


Specifically you are looking for the feeling of quenching thirst. When you breathe in deep into the dan tien, it will feel like you have taken a sip of some refreshingly cool water each and every time the breath reaches past the navel.


If your posture is obstructing the flow, you may *think* you are breathing into there but you are not; keep aware of this. You MUST breathe into the lower dan tien to get this right.

The best way is to lie flat on your back on a flat floor and keep moving your body - shoulders back, head back and chin tucked, pelvis neutral, chest out, etc. Find the point where you can breathe as DEEP as you can and when you find that point, keep adjusting until you can go even deeper; look up Savasana. When you reach the Dan Tien, you will know for sure because the breaths will be refreshing like nothing you have ever felt before.



Your anxiety is much more likely caused by obstruction of the breath flow. Your posture is probably rather horrible and you are probably breathing into your chest and consequently gasping. It is THIS air flow deprivation which alone causes the tendency in the body, to even feel anxious in the first place. If you are breathing into the Dan Tien, then there is literally no way for fight-flight to even engage via volition/thought, the pathway is shut off entirely. In these cases, fight-flight is only triggered by actual survival situations.


The reason for your meditation creating anxiety is because you are taking shallow breaths and when you "meditate" you are taking harder, deeper shallow breaths (ironic, I know). I know this because I have been there, done that.



Hope this helps. If you breathe to your chest, then you only get 50% air exchange, to put a number out there. Imagine what you would rather have ever second, 100% air exchange or 50%? The latter will feel like being choked out 24/7. This feeling of being choked out 24/7, is what the body confuses as a survival threat - because it is! And because it senses this survival threat, the immediate response is... anxiety.





Let me elaborate on the root cause of the anxiety. Your body is not resting on its own two feet correctly. Your mind is not resting on its own silence correctly. Instead, you are doing a perpetual juggling balancing act with the body-mind, using one thought to prop up the next thought so as to provide a vague sense of stability.

When correctly relaxed, the body will stand up on its own with minimal muscular contraction. Your weight is supported by the skeleton instead of muscles and your breath is always deep in and out of the Dan Tien. This is the correct beginning point of the mind. Without starting from here you will never be at rest. So cultivate correct posture and correct thought and find this point of serenity and then you shall feel grounded and safe wherever you are.

Edited by BLimitless, 02 July 2013 - 03:22 PM.

[machete234]

You need to practise Lower Dan Tien breathing.


The lower dan tien (energy centre) is the point roughly between the V shaped part of the hipbones. Basically, breathe into your bladder, breathe as low as it can possibly go. If in doubt, try to blow air out of your butthole BY inhaling, as if from your nose to your butthole is an air pipe. Then you will feel the entire pelvic floor areas swell up.

Breathing into you bladderß That sounds a bit like mantak chia

I dont say it doesnt work but I guess its rather a visualisation for really deep belly breathing
And breathing deep can make you feel different (better) really quick within seconds or 1 minute

Edited by machete234, 02 July 2013 - 05:28 PM.

[Raptor87]

I just find it weird that meditation would make one more sensitive, shy, neurotic and prone to anxiety when it has become a universal cure for everything these days. I think that a faulty circuitry in the dopamine system could be a reason for this! I guess there is no answer and I can just drop the idea. Thanks for the breathing tip. Ill try this for a week and see what happens! Although I dont think it will help with the specifik problems I mentioned but it will probably help with tension!

[machete234]

Although I dont think it will help with the specifik problems I mentioned but it will probably help with tension!

Along with that you could read a buddhism for westerners kind of book that has a psychological perspective, I dont know any good book but Im sure there are some that arent cheesy or esoteric.

[BLimitless]

You need to practise Lower Dan Tien breathing.


The lower dan tien (energy centre) is the point roughly between the V shaped part of the hipbones. Basically, breathe into your bladder, breathe as low as it can possibly go. If in doubt, try to blow air out of your butthole BY inhaling, as if from your nose to your butthole is an air pipe. Then you will feel the entire pelvic floor areas swell up.

Breathing into you bladderß That sounds a bit like mantak chia

I dont say it doesnt work but I guess its rather a visualisation for really deep belly breathing
And breathing deep can make you feel different (better) really quick within seconds or 1 minute

I sincerely hope, for YOUR sake, that you are not the type of person to give different weight to a snippet of information based on who said it.

Thus;

"2+2=4" - Albert Einstein
=> "Obviously 2+2=4 how could nobody see that"

"2+2=4" - Adolf Hitler
=> "Meh I never really believed in mathematics anyway"



WHERE did I mention Mantak Chia?


Yes, it is deep belly breathing. No, it is not a visualisation. You are actually breathing, in such a way, that the *sensation* of breath reaches into the bladder and suffuses that area with the feeling of freshness. Fresh air.


This is my own experience. I am not really here to parrot things from other people that I do not know the efficacy of. Everything I have stated, I know for certain and I can assure you I have much bigger dopamine-calibration issues than most of the people reading this (the fictitious disease "schizophrenia" runs in the family and through myself).


If anyone is to feel anxiety or worry, believe me, I am the first. My entire upbringing was non-stop waterboarding-level mind torture. All solved by a simple belly breath.




The truth is that if you, whoever you may be, if you do not know how to breathe, you do not know the FIRST function of a living being. If you fail at that then how can you ever have any hope in yourself? You will NOT! Successful people, they belly breathe. Whether they are aware or not, they do this. This is WHAT causes them to feel "I AM POWERFUL. I CAN do this. I WILL do this. I SHALL do this". When you breathe shallow, you lose your centre. You lose your ground. The floor LITERALLY feels like quicksand, and you will only understand this, the one moment you finally swallow your silly pride and vain arrogance hidden as self-deprecating humility and actually... BREATHE!




Then also meditation can disinhibit the mind which might have been stated. You might find out that you are repressing things from yourself, which meditation is bringing into the open. Are there crevices of your mind, where you are afraid to think or question or look? Those crevices must be lit. Their darkness weighs you down. A truly sane mind, free of worry, it is not afraid to explore the most depraved of the depraved. How until then can you look at your worries and know that you encompass them in understanding? And only when you encompass a cause of worry in understanding and action, only then will the body stop giving you anxiety signals. Until then, name me ONE GOOD REASON why it should not? The body is smarter than the lies you tell your Self. It does not believe a single grain of dust of your BS, believe me (or not, it doesn't change a thing). If the body were to run heeding on the lies we hold dear to our hearts, it would never run at all.

Edited by BLimitless, 03 July 2013 - 03:23 PM.

[BLimitless]

Actually, now I understand where you are coming from a lot better, machete234.

[trimmed for brevity]
Then there is this endless paradox why you are meditating when you dont want anything, your supposed to be free of any needs so your new need becomes be free of any need but isnt that a need? and that could go on endlessly.
In the end theres nothing you can or cannot do to radically change yourself. Or maybe its exactly that realisation

In the end I gave up meditating because maybe I realized I am where I am no matter what, or maybe I was just lazy or busy I dont know.
Hopefully Im a bit wiser than before but now Im surrounded by fucking lunatics
I might be starting a 5-20 min practise again but I definately will not overdo it again

Basically you have gone through the phase of cultivating sitting still. But you have yet to *grasp* meditation. Don't fret... I was in the exact same boat for several years. One day it clicked and from then on I understood what meditation actually is.


Sitting still, and trying to meditate, will look to the outsider as a person meditating. But... when you TRY to meditate, two things can happen -

1.) You go into meditation
2.) You fail, but keep sitting still, and increase in tension


So basically, you *try*, you are open to failure. Do not take this harshly, I mean this all in the softest and warmest of ways. You are close, so very close! Meditation, is that point where you feel yourself relaxing into relaxation. Sinking into the sensation of weightlessness itself.

To get to that, you must first guard the mind vehemently and control the gate of thought. But then, you must let go of this guard altogether. Because you do not trust your Self, you have not let go of this guard. You still think that thoughts can hurt You and assail You and grief You - and the wrong thoughts "can", when you surrender to them.


When you drop this guard over the thoughts, there is a new sensation. This is the beginning of active meditation. This is the point where you meditate for real. When you go to sit down, you do not sit there hoping for meditation. At this point when you sit for meditation, you go into meditation STRAIGHT away. And when you start off, and try, the harder you try to meditate, the harder the mind rebels and starts making you feel tense and unrelaxed.




But when you drop the guard over the thoughts, every new breath is deeper relaxation. This is quantifiable. This is rigorous. This is mathematically provable, this will show up on EEG and EKG. I am not placed on this Earth to fuck around with word games like those of yore, I am not here for this childish crap.



Let each breath be progressive. Let each breath, create the foundations for the next breath. Nothing else, do not even care about anything BUT the next breath. All you want, is a little improvement. After 500 breaths you will have automatically built Rome.

But if you look to hit Samadhi (total absorption, deepest meditation) from the first breath, then do not be surprised to never ever enter meditation whatsoever. This is like having all your workers argue over pay and go on strike, the result is that Rome is never built but a lot of "work" happens.


Meditation is the process of laying down the house of total relaxation ONE BRICK AT A TIME. Breath by breath. Nothing more, nothing less. ONE BRICK AT A TIME. ONE BREATH at a time.



You do not leave the program running while you are debugging the code.



When you first feel this meditation, in my experience there is a struggle. You think "DAMN, it should be illegal to feel this good!" and part of you does not want to allow it. You come up with 1000 reasons to get away, there and then. It's amazing. But each time you let yourself sink in and sink deeper, eventually you will realise. That the FIRST thing you should have done all along is this. And your body has been screaming out for years and years, saying "SIT DOWN YOU IDIOT AND JUST BREATHE FOR A SECOND" but the mind, eagerly seeks the next pleasure.




So I will say one thing, to anyone at this point. Breathe into the lowest point of the belly. Do not be surprised to find out that the lowest point is even lower than what you thought. For years I thought the lowest point ended at the navel. When I *first* ever wilfully breathed into the lower dan tien and felt the cool refreshing orgasmic sensation of just breathing, I was raptured. How could I miss this strikingly obvious part of my body, my whole life? So do not be surprised to find that your poor posture has blocked off the lower dan tien altogether. If you are anxious near enough all the time, then with about a 100% chance (+/- 0%) this is the truth, that your posture is blocking that part of the channel.





Hope this helps. Any further questions, hit me. I am eager to share. If someone had sat down with me, slapped me in the face and told me all of this two years ago, I would have been eternally grateful. I also would have conveniently never heard a word, because I was not at that time ready to understand

Edited by BLimitless, 03 July 2013 - 03:43 PM.

[sy bourgian]

Surely its counterproductive to use drugs for meditation? The general idea is to use native processes to enter that state. Any exogenous help means that you end up depending on those internal processes less. The beenfits we derive from meditation come from the control and focus that must be internally generated

[arvcondor]

I'm bumping this threat because I think there's a lot of potential discussion here that we haven't hit upon. I'd be curious to know which methods of meditation are the most effective at cognitive enhancement, for one, and how often/long one should ideally practice for. 

[OpaqueMind]

Dude, thanks for bumping this thread, you are very right there is much potential for discussion here. Meditation has been a cornerstone of my cultivation of mental facilities for a long time.

 

In terms of methods of meditation for cognitive enhancement, concentration meditation is a must. I highly recommend reading the book called Mastering the core teaching of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram, which I just linked in pdf format. It has been very helpful in understanding how the path works and how to tread it. Concentration meditation has a wide range of effects. I've experienced increased short-term memory, increased long-term memory, increased comprehension, increased intensity of the senses, better access to flow states, better creativity and many other mental benefits.

 

Concentration is such a key key aspect of mind. It is the focal point of awareness, and determines the degree of plasticity of the mind. If you focus intensely on something you encode it much more deeply into the mind-brain. Likewise to have splintered attention hinders your ability to absorb information and understand, comprehend, synthesize and be creative with that information. Concentration also relates strongly to short-term memory, which as we know is itself highly correlated with general intelligence (G). If you practice stilling the turbulence of your mind, you gradually bring more and more aspects of your subconscious functioning to the processing the object of your awareness. The mind trains this way and over time you can give complete awareness to anything, having complete control over it.

 

Two very powerful ways to augment this practice and develop a very solid base are HEG neurofeedback and Theta-alpha-gamma synchrony neurofeedback, which is designed to induce the EEG correlates of long-term meditators who've reached profound states of consciousness. Both of these are very powerful ways of training the mind. Soon I am trialling HEG, so I'll see how it works with TAGsync, which also trains the PFC to some extent.

 

Regards to how long you should practice, as much time as you're willing to give! Often 2 20 minute sessions a day is recommended, but I believe that is not enough for developing serious consciousness change and concentration development, more just for stress management. Ideally you want to sit around two hours a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, but the more, the merrier! I'm gonna start practising for about 4 hours a day soon, and I'll report back on my experiences here at some point. I'm really surprised this thread doesn't see more activity, meditation is probably one of the most powerful nootropics out there, it just takes time and effort to bear its ripest fruits.

[arvcondor]

Thanks for the response! How long have you been meditating and how long did it take before you saw effects? Have you found that using music helps or hinders your goals?