Meditation?

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- Blade Gunner
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Meditation?
OP - January 15, 2011, 11:06 PM

It's been quite a while since I stopped praying. Occasionally I miss praying (I used too like doing Isha from time to time) and would like too although I know it would be silly. When I used to pray I always used to see it as a way of trying to form a connection to god to try and put mind and body at peace - meditation if you will (rather than a form of 'classic worship'). My reasoning was that in the Qur'an the word used for prayer is Salat which when more accurately translated means 'contact' and extrapolated to 'contact prayers'. Therfore praying for me was trying to get into a state to form a connection with God rather than worship. And I thought it used to work - I used to feel calm and at peace and generally warmly happy after praying.

But of course people in general who meditate feel these things as well. So is there benefit in meditation and why is there this benefit? I know that most people think that meditation is for hippies and as a guy it's something I would feel uncomfortable doing and I probably wouldn't do any meditating again. But should we all, or more of us at least, be medidating (in whatever form)?

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #1 - January 15, 2011, 11:08 PM

Quote from: abuyunus2 on January 15, 2011, 11:06 PM
But of course people in general who meditate feel these things as well. So is there benefit in meditation and why is there this benefit? I know that most people think that meditation is for hippies and as a guy it's something I would feel uncomfortable doing and I probably wouldn't do any meditating again. But should we all, or more of us at least, be medidating (in whatever form)?

Not sure if could work on somebody like me, but there was a thread on it a while ago where Allat & Osmanthus discussed the methods they sometimes used & swore by its affects.

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #2 - January 15, 2011, 11:09 PM

damn hippies do you have link?

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #3 - January 15, 2011, 11:16 PM

Quote from: abuyunus2 on January 15, 2011, 11:06 PM
But of course people in general who meditate feel these things as well. So is there benefit in meditation and why is there this benefit? I know that most people think that meditation is for hippies and as a guy it's something I would feel uncomfortable doing and I probably wouldn't do any meditating again. But should we all, or more of us at least, be medidating (in whatever form)?

Meditation is just a form of mental exercise, yoga for the mind.

It doesn't have to have any religious or spiritual attachments to it though.

And you don't have to sit down in a lotus position and feel self conscious doing it. You can do it sitting wherever you like however you like. The only thing is that you need a quiet, peaceful surrounding (doesn't have to be completely silent - sometimes a small hum in the background helps, birds singing that kind of thing)

I'm sure there are a lot of tall claims made for meditation in terms of how it can help you relax, lower blood pressure, unlock creative corners of the mind and transcend yourself and all of that. You can just do research on that online. What I would say is that short periods of interior solitude can be refreshing mentally. But I won't lie, I did some meditation techniques and they were fun. Its good to try and clear your mind and quieten all the noise in there. But even though reading a book is the opposite of what meditation is, you feed the mind with images and ideas and words, I found sometimes that reading a book put me in a similar state of consciousness as formal meditation - I would awake out of my reading with a startle, feeling refreshed, having locked out the outer world, and just lived intensely in my mind, concentrating so much that I forgot myself.

Has to be a good book though, thats the problem.

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #4 - January 15, 2011, 11:19 PM

Quote from: abuyunus2 on January 15, 2011, 11:09 PM
damn hippies do you have link?

check these..

http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=6545.msg171389#msg171389
http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=5948.msg151526#msg151526

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #5 - January 15, 2011, 11:20 PM

thanks billy

and cheers Islame for the links

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #6 - January 15, 2011, 11:27 PM

Oh yeah, the other thing is that it doesn't have to take a long time. You can do a simple meditation for five minutes. Some of the people who are deepest into transcendental meditation, which is supposedly the best, most effective technique, which you have to be taught by a qualified trainer, they only meditate for 20 minutes a day and that is enough.

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Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Re: Meditation?
Reply #7 - January 16, 2011, 12:24 AM

Meditation, I think, shouldn't be an activity but a way to live. One should always be meditating.

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Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings. - Stevens
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Re: Meditation?
Reply #8 - January 16, 2011, 12:27 AM

You'd keep crashing the car and bumping into things if you did.

Sometimes the mind has to be noisy and active and loud and crazy.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
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Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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Re: Meditation?
Reply #9 - January 16, 2011, 01:02 AM

I would think there is a difference between meditation and disengagement. One can still take part in the world but not be of the world.

At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings. - Stevens
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Re: Meditation?
Reply #10 - January 16, 2011, 01:13 AM

Well, I don't know about that. There's nothing wrong with being of the world and being engaged in it. Meditation is space to move away from that and focus inwardly. But then maybe we have different conceptions of meditation.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
God is Love.
Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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Re: Meditation?
Reply #11 - January 16, 2011, 01:20 AM

Yes I think so. To me, meditation is just a heightened sense of living and doesn't necessarily have to be inward exclusively.

At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings. - Stevens
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Re: Meditation?
Reply #12 - January 16, 2011, 01:47 AM

Quote from: z10 on January 16, 2011, 01:02 AM
I would think there is a difference between meditation and disengagement. One can still take part in the world but not be of the world.

spoken as a true philosopher ...

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #13 - January 25, 2011, 09:24 AM

New study to be published later this month...

Meditation Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2011) — Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter.

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Re: Meditation?
Reply #14 - January 29, 2011, 03:33 PM

Here you are abuyunus, interesting in its own right, but as a scientist maybe extra so.

+++++++++

Even a little meditation can change the structure of your brain

Just a few weeks' worth of light meditation can change the structure of your brain, seemingly for the better. Thirty minutes a day can actually increase people's capacity for learning while shrinking the parts of the brain responsible for stress.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital asked their sixteen study participants to take part in an eight-week meditation program centered on building non-judgmental recognition of one's own feelings and sensations. The participants only had to meditate for thirty minutes a day.

After the program was completed, the researchers imaged the participants' brains. The gray-matter in the hippocampus had consistently increased, which suggests an increase in their capacity for learning and memory building. Meanwhile, the density of the amygdala had actually decreased, specifically in the areas governing anxiety and stress. However, there wasn't any apparent change in the insula, the part of the brain in charge of self-awareness. That seems like an obvious part of the brain for meditation to affect, but the researchers suspect more long-term meditation would be required to alter its structure.

Indeed, it's important to keep in mind just how little the participants were really asked to do. It wasn't as though they were locked away in a yoga prison or anything similarly strenuous - rather, they just did a total of 28 hours of meditation spread out over eight weeks, and yet this was enough to alter the structure of their brain. It's a powerful reminder that our brains are incredibly malleable and structurally responsive to even modest changes in our lifestyle.

http://io9.com/5741192/even-a-little-meditation-can-change-the-structure-of-your-brain

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
God is Love.
Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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Re: Meditation?
Reply #15 - January 29, 2011, 03:34 PM

Quote from: arX on January 25, 2011, 09:24 AM
New study to be published later this month...

Meditation Changes Brain Structure in Eight Weeks

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2011) — Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter.

ha, I didn't scroll before posting the same news.

"we can smell traitors and country haters"

Quote from: arX on May 01, 2011, 03:33 AM
God is Love.
Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.
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