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AnonymousI am interested to hear about other people’s experiences with meditation, mindfulness and budhism.
Here is my experience.
A few months ago, a friend and I went on a weekend meditation retreat run by the Triratna budhist order. I was rather sceptical about the whole thing but I have to say that it was a really profound experience for me. Not really in a ‘spiritual’ way – I certainly didn’t convert to budhism or discover the true meaning of anything. But it gave me the space and time, just for a couple of days, to get away from the craziness and distractions of city life and spend some time being quiet. In fact the simplicity of the experience was the beauty of it. Since then I have been trying to meditate regularly and I do find it a really positive and helpful thing to do. I have been along to our local budhist centre a couple of times and find it nice to meditate with others. I am less comfortable with the rituals (pujas). To me they seem to be very ‘man-made’ – and almost a little bit silly. I am also very aware that the particular way in which people do meditations (e.g. sitting in a particular posture, focussing on particular things etc.) is ‘man-made'; I think that the way I have been taught is as good a way as any to be quiet and reflect but I would not want to get sucked into thinking that the method of meditation has some sort of special power.
Anyway, that is where I am at just now. I find the meditation practice I have been taught wonderful but have no desire to get too involved in the ‘religious’ aspects of budhism. I found this article about the ‘dark side of Budhism’ interesting: http://rationalist.org.uk/4021/the-dark-side-of-buddhism
What have others experienced?
Hi Kirsty! I think you can take the techniques (i.e., creating a space for meditation, how you sit, hand placement, stilling your mind, etc) without adopting the principles of Buddhism. You can say whatever prayers you want and create your own rituals.
When I was going to a Catholic church, they had a meeting around how to pray and it came from a statement that someone made to them. This woman told someone there that she became a Buddhist b/c they taught her “How to pray?” Nothing with learning how to do it.
The meditation helps you center yourself so you can connect to the Divine, nature or to just clear you mind. I think other religions have meditation as well but may call it something else (mystical experience, transcendentalism, etc).
Hope that helps!
AnonymousThat article was interesting to read, thank you for sharing it. Any thought system which takes on a heirarchical pattern wherein one person has more knowledge or access to knowledge than another has the capacity to become dangerous in the ways the author mentions, methinks. Overall, I really appreciate Buddhism and what it has to offer in terms of considering one’s relationship to the world and one’s self. I’ve also had success with meditation and mindfulness practices, though I didn’t learn them out of studying Buddhism so much as studying the desert fathers and mothers of Christianity, then Centering Prayer. Only recently have I begun to read about Tibetan Buddhism.
I started meditating because I was suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. I wanted to try to rewire my brain without anti-anxiety meds. Personally, mindfulness works better for me as a practice than does meditation for this particular issue. I’m trying to learn how to be with the anxiety when it pops up inside me – treat it like the tool it is. Acknowledge it, look at it, work with it. Mindfulness techniques wherein I stop whatever I’m doing/thinking about and think or say aloud to myself, “I am sitting in this chair, my ankles are crossed, I see the cedar trees through the window, I sense my breath, etc. etc. etc” helps me get grounded so that I can then acknowledge the anxiety.
Mediation is a practice I’d like to approach more regularly because I think it helps center me in a bigger-picture kind of way. I believe that there is nowhere else to go but within for answers, confirmation, knowledge, peace, etc. However, I don’t think I have to meditate in any particular way to access that part of myself either. It’s funny that way.
I’m excited to read about other people’s perspectives and experiences with this.
AnonymousI studied yoga for two years in college. It is a deep subject for sure. I love my yoga poses though. They have helped me so much in my life. I use yoga to combat the onset of arthritis. Mobility is a cure in itself for my bod. I prefer to meditate over prayer. Prayers go too negative for me, I find I like to “plan with God” in my prayers and that is soooooo not cool for my soul vibrations. God needs my design advice? lol. I know it is my early education in Christian symbols. Some great, some Transcendent. I think we are set peeps. We are here. We have already arrived somehow. I don’t know how. I am just trying to stay open. It’s tough but I am standing by my conviction that we are supposed to be as flexible and loving as we can, extend mercy and earnest good will towards all people and spread the love as much as we can, however we find ourselves able to do that. I don’t believe we are going towards a one world, we are all reacting to the new economic/disease realities and life pressures of the shift that has already happened on too many practical levels. We are all developing a global immune system, you know? It’s amazing. And it’s gonna hurt. Overpopulation always hurts, history shows us this. We gotta keep ourselves as positive and strong as we can, I am always wanting to learn more about ways I might incorporate good habits into my life. Yoga is a great habit. Ah, it’s Sunday. I love Sundays. I used to not love Sundays so much. But now I love Sundays. They are almost always lovely days with lovely gifts.
I do a process each day where I fully enter my body. I find that I have a tendency to stay in my thoughts and this can bring me anxiety because I can process so many what I call “what if’s” that they take me out of the present and into fear. It can also be exhausting because my mind engages in solving problems (what if’s) that may never happen. When I focus on the sensation of what it is like to live in my body it helps to ground me and silence the chatter. It gives me clarity without the anxiety. It has helped me learn to trust that I will be able to figure out solutions in the moment. I don’t have to solve every contingency before hand.
Oh wow, thanks for this thread. I’m really interested in Buddhism. I like the Eightfold path idea. Didn’t know there was a darkside? Christian mystic Madame Guyon would “mediate”… at least that is the impression I get when I read her. And I’d love to learn to meditate.
Plus, I really like Buddhists. Hope to hear some more of what you all have to say.
AnonymousIsn’t it ironic that Christians are adamantly taught that “Jesus lives inside us” or “Jesus lives in our heart,” yet during my 50 years in the Evangelical church, I heard nothing but warnings about how dangerous it was to “look within yourself for answers,” or to “practice meditation,” or to “do yoga because you should never let your mind go blank”, etc. I honestly used to be afraid that if I ever tried any of those things Satan was going to literally take over my mind. Pretty ridiculous in retrospect!
I have been doing Centering Prayer for about a month now, and I really like it. If I go a couple days without it, I find myself yearning for the opportunity to get quiet and still my thoughts so that my spirit can commune with God’s spirit on a subconscious level. I like to think of it as “deep calling unto deep.” I also greatly benefit from it when I feel stressed out or overwhelmed.
I tried Yoga for the first time 1 1/2 years ago. As a way to supplement (stretching etc) a Running program I was doing. I thought the class and practice was amazing. I remember commenting to a ‘mature’ Christian lady that the people at the yoga class were one of the happiest, joyful, caring bunch of people I had been around for a long time. Her response was ‘ Well of course, because Satan is the perfect counterfiet’. I’ve been practicing yoga ever since. LOL.
AnonymousHi! I”m new here (my intro is in the meet and greet section). I just wanted to chime in because I LOVE yoga and meditation but I’m afraid to talk much about it because of all my conservative friends. I am slowly trying to “come out of the closet”. LoL… i do recommend it to my clients (I”m a health coach).
I remember in Bible college, we had to watch a video on the “evils” of yoga. I don’t think I ever did buy into to but i was afraid to practice it.
When I went to school to be a health coach I was introduced to all these things , mainly through Deepak Chopra. (who Christians think is like the devil). I just don’t understand why people think that if you do these things, you are participating in Buddhism.I”ll continue these practices because they do help me to feel peaceful (unlike reading the Bible which I would have never admitted).
Jo White, I remember being told that if I left my mind open, anything could drop into it. I was leaving the door open for saten to e4nter my thoughts. What pray tell does “Be still and know that I am God” do? It is the same idea, we let ourselves be open to hear what the Great Divine wants to share with us. That small still voice, you have to quiet yourself to hear it. Good thread.
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