Meditation Routines

[Tzu-Logic]

Greeting, fellow seekers of knowledge,

I am not going to try and make a poll for this question but I pose to you:

Who here regularly practices meditation?

If you do meditate regurlarly, is it part of your ma classes? Is it something you do at home?

When do you make time to meditate? Before class? At the end of your classes? When you get up in the morning?

What do you meditate "on"... Martial arts? what moves you need to work on? what is happening in your personal life?

Just a few questions floating around the expanse of my mind...

should be interesting to see what other folks practice

[DWx]

I don't meditate in the strictest sense but have a daily stretching routine I do in the evenings and while I'm doing it I try to not think about anything else but concentrate on the stretch itself...

[GeoGiant]

When I was a lot younger I tried to meditate a few times but my mind always raced or I got sleepy. During my initial attempts I thought you closed your eyes, relaxed and some Zen type atmosphere was supposed to form around you. Needless to say nothing ever happened and I gave up the practice after a few tries.

Now years later I am exposed to meditation in my ma class. We meditate for a few moments at the beginning and end of each ma class. When we meditate we are instructed to clear our minds and think if nothing… let everything go.

At first, my meditation was thinking about how I need to stretch my legs because I would cramp up. Gradually over time I have learned to relax and take a few breaths while not thinking about anything. It hasn’t happened often but every once in awhile I do feel like I’m snapping out of very relaxed state of mind when my instructor claps for us to stand. I don’t know when its happening but I will hear the clap and think, man I wish we could have went for a few minutes longer.

[isshinryu5toforever]

I mediate pretty regularly. I meditate after every workout for 5-10 minutes.

If it's been a particularly long day, I generally concentrate on the idea that I'm wiping away the bad energy from the day and taking in the good. If it's been a good day, I generally try to go with the Tibetan Buddhist idea of no-mindedness. Concentration on nothing at all. It's a good mental challenge, because you'll always think about something.

[Lupin1]

I just started meditating recently. I try to take some time before work to do it and if I had a rough day I try to do it after work, as well. I don't meditate on anything yet. For right now I'm just concentrating on my breathing and picturing myself in a safe and secure place (like a bright white light surrounding me and protecting me) while I get the hang of the meditation thing and then I'll start exploring from there. I plan on making an meditation space in my new house and possibly an outdoor meditation space for if it's nice out.

We don't meditate in our karate class at all, this is just something I'm exploring on my own.

[sensei8]

The only type of meditation that I don't want to do is...meditating horizontally!

[evergrey]

Sensei has me meditate every day. It is a part of my daily practice regimen.

It, for me, has a steep learning curve. He wants me to completely clear my mind, dismiss any thoughts that float by, and simply meditate on my breathing without AFFECTING my breathing.

Much much harder than it sounds, as it turns out. Heh.

Yesterday it actually went better than it had before. Yesterday I acknowledged and was aware of everything, but not focused on anything but my breathing. The awareness remained, and somehow (I was waiting in a Chinese food place for my take-out) I just KNEW when my order was ready. I opened my eyes and turned my head a split second before the fellow behind the counter asked me if I needed napkins. Heh.

Since part of the goal of the dynamic stillness that is meditation is to learn how to achieve mushin, knowing that something is about to happen before it starts to happen was, in my mind, a good sign. Maybe turning my head and opening my eyes before the man spoke was too. I'm not going to claim to have achieved mushin yet, though.

Sensei has me doing it to begin to move towards mushin, and to develop a stronger, calmer, more stable core. Meditation and exercises in mindfulness are both being trained into me to help me get a better handle on my PTSD, as well as make me a better martial artist.

[isshinryu5toforever]

Meditating horizontally would that be the side, back, or face down technique?

As far as mushin, that would be no-mindedness, which I think is basically impossible. As I said before, it's a great thing to shoot for, and an interesting mind exercise, but so is considering Schroedinger's box. I'd worry about my breathing more than about getting myself into a state of mushin.

In fact, I think that's something meditation can be great for, working on and perfecting different breathing styles. There's an entire discipline in some yoga schools that's dedicated to it. Proper breathing is something we discuss all the time in the martial arts is it not?

[Spodo Komodo]

I meditate twice a day, zazen for half an hour to an hour first thing in the morning and again last thing at night. I have done for over twenty years now and it doesn't get any easier to get out of bed and onto the zafu.

As for what to do, the most traditional thing is to attempt to clear the mind and live in the moment, not considering the past and not minding what is likely to happen in the future. Yogic breath control comes from an entirely different background to zen. In zen the breath is used to tame the mind and stop the chatter that leads to our minds working slowly and inefficiently at processing delusions. Once the "monkey mind" has been tamed then it will be able to see things for what they are, not stopping to apprehend feelings of fear or slowing down to work out complex series of "what ifs". In yoga the breath control is used to purify the body in order to bring it closer to a state that can approach the supreme beings and become one with the divine principle. There are health benefits to practicing yogic breathing techniques but these are considered secondary to the religious aspects, and they require a good teacher to explain them properly.

If you just want something to help you relax and keep a clear head then I can recommend zazen, there are lots of places on the net where you can get instructions. Yoga is a whole-package solution and is both fascinating and powerful but you need a really good teacher to get the most out of it.

[Kuma]

I meditate before bed, it's moreso a full body relaxation thing than anything. I'll just lie down in bed on my back, breathe deeply, and start releasing the tension from my toes to my head. Usually I fall asleep pretty quickly by the time I get totally relaxed.