Starting Virtual Meditation Session in 5 minutes.
1:34 PM Eastern
Just finished meditating. As always, the experience is immediate and personal. This time, though, there was an element of something else. I was not only connecting to a gathering of people who had long since finished meditating. I was also, in some unique way, connecting to people elsewhere who were united in a common purpose.
A truly beautiful experience. Thanks everyone.
Jack
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17 comments:
Hi Jack,
I joined in late. I finished at 11:24pm Indian Standard Time.
This was my first time meditating for more than 5-10 minutes.
Question: relaxation was near impossible. I was in constant pain (hence never meditating for more than 5-10 minutes). Back, knees, legs. Is that normal? When she said to relax even more my thought was "I'm not relaxed in the first place!"
That all said, the 25 minutes went by much quicker than I thought.
Thanks,
Karol
@Karol,
It might be your posture. Do you have any physical/medical impediments?
You could always meditate lying on on the foor, on your back. Many westeners start meditating that way because they are not used to sitting down in a pose.
Let me know how it goes next time.
No, no physical problems. Sitting up with my back straight just doesn't feel good. Legs fell asleep and my body felt really tense.
I'm going to keep it up, if only because there was a bit of serenity in the torture. :)
Sorry I missed it! We were meditating on a walk outside. Hope everyone had a great mediation!!!
Jack,
I am so glad that you were able to get something more from it this time. Unfortunately, family responsibilities pulled me away from the session but I kept you all in my thoughts and sent my positive energy in hopes to further the connection.
I hope you will organize another session.
Distractions chased me in the form of a stiff back, a little girl wanting to play, and a phone that wouldn't stop ringing.
But for those first twenty minutes before all hell broke lose I was serene.
@ Karol,
I agree with Jack that you should check your posture. The key is getting your knees below your waste, which allows the spine to stay straight without really putting in crazy effort. Really sit up high on a zafu or pillow (or two) and towards the front of the cushion, in order to get your knees down to the ground.
If that is still is uncomfortable, you might try sitting in hero's pose (google it) rather than cross-legged. It's helpful to stick a vertical zafu or cushion between yours legs on this one. Sitting upright in a chair is fine too.
Jack, did you hear Tara advise the lying down position? While Tara's tradition isn't quite as posture-centic as some others (like Zen), I'd be a little surprised to hear a buddhist teacher advocating this.
Heya there,
You have a great blog...keep writing..All the best.:)
@ The Middle Way
Thank you so much! I just did the 12/16 meditation while sitting on 2 pillows with my knees below my waist. It felt fantastic. Wow.
Thanks again.
And thank you Jack for prompting me to try meditation again in the first place.
Karol Gajda,
Your blog is most excellent! And you write well too.
I'm sorry. You do have a great blog, Karol Gajda, which I did go on to check out. But my first comment was intended for the Finance blog of Neeru's Corner. Good job Neeru!
What a great thing to do! I'm sorry I missed it.
Speaking of meditation: there's a book by the Dalai Lama called "How to Expand Love" with meditations on how to, well, expand your sense of love. It may sound hippie-ish, but it was a quite practical guide.
It was very influenced by the thought of reincarnation, so it was not for me, but if you belive in reincarnation you should definitely read it!
Take care!
/Linda
Jack this is kind of cool. If you wanted to set a up webcam thing try stikam or ustream.tv. Either one of these is pretty easy to set up as basically a tv show with an attached chatroom. I think ustream allows to to add six other webcams from your viewers.
@Karol,
There are some aspect of meditation that call for you to be aware how your posture affects your body. But remember that meditation doesn’t necessarily have to be so painful.
@Heather’s…,
I think they did. How often do you meditate on your walks?
@Cozy Tiny,
Next time for sure. And there should be plenty of next times.
@La Coccinelle,
Well, then it was worth it!
@The Middle Way,
Those are all great suggestions. And no, she didn’t specifically advocate it directly, but our teachers at some of the introduction seminars I attended mentioned it as a way to meditate when the pain is an issue.
@Neeru’s Corner,
Thanks. Always nice to hear good things.
@Karol,
Glad you figured out a pain-free way to do it.
@Judith-in-Indiana,
I’m sure no one minded the little mix-up
@Mike,
I will check it out.
@Miss L,
Not sure the religious aspects of B. is to my liking. But I will check it out.
@Coyote,
Thanks for the info. I will use these next time something like this takes place.
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