Meditation question

[Tranquility]

Hello everyone, i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for medidation practice? I try to meditate a lot, every night lately, but i can't get those pictures to show up. Conway says to first relax your body, visual the white light enveloping you and then dumping your problems into the well and walking away, and then creating your own nature scene thats pleasant for you.. i can't visualize any of these, not even the white light.... Let alone use any of my 7 senses
Any excercises would be great for helping...
Oh yes, any does anyone know if Pre-Made altars are sold? im kind of looking for a unique design that i may build... Im looking for sort of the bottom are cabinets, the middle is a rack or shelf i can put books on ,and the top is a semi wide and big top i can put my cloth on, the cabinets i can store my supplies, candles, incense, altar cloth, anything in
Thanks

[Moon Daughter]

about meditation: i find it that the more you TRY and FORCE yourself to see the white light, or to visulize something- the more you fail.
i've never been able to force myself, but this is what i do and what works for me:
1) i lay down, close my eyes. i relax by telling myself that everything that belongs to my physical body is relaxed: my bones, my muscles, my blood, my nerves...you get the point.
3) i start from my toes and move up, on the way relaxing every part and organ of my body ( that takes up most of the time)
4) then, i do a 'grounding' - i imagine roots spring from my feet into the ground, down down , untill they reach the fire in the centre of the Earth. then, the branches grow up from my head..up and up, until they reach this pure energetic place...call it heavens if you will. then, i imagine my energy moving in a clockwise manner- it travels down , to the centre of the Earth, were it gets purified by the fire, it come back the other 'tube', travels up my body, and up into the skies, where it gets the energy needed ( strength, healing energy etc), then it comes back. i do this untill i feel that's enough, after which i get rid of the extra energy, close down the channels. and breath.
5) i tell myself that i will start counting from 10 to 1 and by the time i reach 1 i will be in a trance
6) i do the actual counting, after which i find myself in a trance.
7) i imagine being a forest and travelling through it in order to get to a place of my destination ( my place of power or any other place). sometimes, i cannot see the actual visual picture. and that's ok. i relax, and just continue with my imagination..the images come themselves without me even noticing when and how.
8) i do my thing, whatever it may be that night, give my thanks, and start going back the same way i came
9) at the end, i take 3 deep breaths to tell myself that i'm coming back.
10) i open my eyes and after a few moments i move my body- to make sure that i'm fully back

i don't know it this will help or not...
but good luck to you.

P.S. i'm not sure where #2 went...:)

[Ryhla]

On your question about the alter, have you thought about looking into furniture pieces. It seems like to me I've seen in different catalogs like JC Penny's for stuff like that. That may even be something to watch for in thrift shops and garage sales.

[Jenett]

Some people just don't work well with visual imagery. (I should know: I'm one of them)

I've gotten better with practice, but I've found that for me, the first thing I could hook into with meditiations was spatial relationships (am I in a big space, small space? Are there things around me, and how far away? Is the thing I'm standing on different than the thing over there - for example, in a meditation about standing by a pool, the grass would be a slightly different level than the pool.)

After that, tactile stuff worked well - the feeling of grass beneath my feet, of branches brushing by, of wind, of heat or cold -whatever was appropriate to the meditation.

One thing you might look at are some of the quizzes about learning style - you can use those answers to help you determine the ways that you most intuitively process information and things you experience.

Some online versions: http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/ilsweb.html

http://www.howtolearn.com/personal.html

http://www.oswego.edu/~shindler/lstyle.htm

I just typed 'learning styles' in at Google - I'd try several different pages, and write down and compare the results. Different tests will produce different results, and some of them don't include all of the different options.

(I personally like the stuff based on Harold Gardener's work, which has 8 different categories (Verbal/Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, Music/Rhythmic, Body/Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and one more that's much more recently added. I like this because there's a big break for *me* between how well I process verbal or written material (really well) and how I do with images or pictures (not so well), and a lot of the learning style stuff doesn't always make that distinction. )

Note: not all may directly apply to meditation - for example, I do very well with things I hear (partly by basic nature, but partly also because I started music lessons when I was 5 through a music major in college), but I have trouble 'hearing' stuff in meditation, still. So it's not a perfect solution, just a 'this is stuff that might help you out' and a 'knowing how you most instinctively/easily process information can give you some hints on ways to approach things'

Now, after about a year of practice, I *do* get visuals in meditation about 3/4 of the time - but I start by hooking into the spatial and tactile sensations, and I don't see things, as much as know what they'd look like if I saw them. (If you see the distinction. It's not quite so much like looking at a picture, as like hearing a really accurate description of the picture to the point you could reproduce it.) I do occaisionally get very strong visuals, but not all that often.

[MammaStar]

On #1. I know how you feel. Here I am, embarking on my FOURTH year of studying and following my path, and I STILL have trouble meditating. I don't know what my problem is. I don't do it often enough. Honestly, I think I let myself get distracted by things at home (note to peanut gallery; QUIET!) Hey, everyone has an issue, right? When I do attempt my mediation, I do a simple one, that I found here. I'll poke around and see if I can find it again.

Question #2--furniture pieces work great. For a time I was looking all over. AC Moore is a craft store here, and they have unpainted cabinets which would probably work nicely. I was saving up to buy one, when my office (of all places) was throwing away a medium sized bookshelf. I asked if I could have it and got the okay and it now sits at my front window as my altar. :D

[Flar's Freyja]

I struggled with this for a long time. I'm not the kind of person who can sit still for very long. I began using my yoga for meditation. You can also use walks, journaling or drawing. I have a book of mandalas that you can color which are very focusing. Making runes out of clay also works for me.

I was fortunate to be able to participate in a few group meditations, and that helped. I couldn't visualize for a long time either. It took over a year, and I began to see colors and then, finally, images. I find that I can only do this when I go into a great deal of preparation, such as taking a ritual bath first. I have had some incredible visions.

We currently have a few threads going in the Magick and Rituals forum about altars. Come on over and take a look!

[Cajime]

you're not alone, I find it IMPOSSIBLE to visulize!

And I think I know why, when I was a kid I would always see my carebear wallpaper move, the carebares would slide down the rainbows and swing on the swings. They would paint little stars and jump from cloud to cloud. And this I didn't have any controll over and it would scare the hell out of me that sometimes I would refuse to enter my bedroom. In otherword I think I've completely blocked the ability out due to what happened earlier on. I don't know if it is a posible reason why but... ^^;

did you have anything like this when you where young?

[Marchosias]

Before you dive headfirst into visualization, why not focus on clearing your mind? Try closing your eyes, breath deep. On each exhalation, say "one" in your mind. That is how I started. Soon, youll find that you dont need "one" anymore. Once you have mastered that, then maybe try visualizing.

[Tranquility]

When i tried "The red dot" excercise, where you put a red dot on paper, look at it for a minute, then try to see it in your head, and repeating, i saw the colors the other way, i saw the dot white, the paper red... wierd... don't know

[cosminv]

About the meditation technique, I was fortunate to participate to some seminars during my crystal spirituality period. I don't know (I'm new to the pagan way) if it's aggreate by the pagan/wiccan system but, for me it was efficient and i still use it. First of all you have to kepp a quartz crystal (energize first) in your hand (usually left hand). It starts by a complete relaxation in an horizontal position and after the muscular relaxation I use a complete mind relaxation. I start by eliminating gradually all thoughts and listening only my breath. After that, you visualise the crystal growing as high as a house. You can now enter and feel confortable in it. I always ssociate the atmosphere in the crystall with a early spring. You sit down near a mirror but at the beginning you can.t see anything in it because it's too dusty. Imagine you clean it with white solar energy comming from your crystal. After this process you can now look. The visualisation process is not so easy, at the beginning you will see only colors and not shapes. After some training the mirror will function well enough to visualise objects, scenes, persons. It's not clear for me from where these images but there are clear and somethimes associate with sounds. After you finish, you have to take the reverse way, getting out from thecrystal and comming in your own body. After a few deep breaths the process is finished.
It can look strange and maybe a little bit silly :) but it is the way I use.

[Tranquility]

Thanks, ill have to try all these. Usually what i do every day is i practice some visualization and sense techniques, then i practice an actual meditation, for thrue practice eventually something will have to improve, get better, or get found out.. so eventually the more i meditate the better ill get of course, so hopefully with this my practice time each day, hopefully soon ill be sort of able to visualize and go on guided meditations.
The book, by Oak , ash, and thorn that imreading for every like 10 pages has a meditation or exercise to do, thati do not do because my meditation skills are not well enough

[sanacrow]

The following is from an article by Willow Moon entitled "Concentration: Gateway to the Celestial Arts" which originally appeared in Witch Eye. I have found this approach much more effective than many of more common methods.

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The 'application of one's intention' is a style of learning concentration where one trains the mind like one would train a dog, consistently and patiently bringing the mind back to the object of concentration. The intention is like a leash that keeps our attention from wandering too far from the chosen object of concentration. This must be done with care, as forcing the mind to "stay" is counter-productive in the same way as any intelligent being would resist being forced to stay in one place. The training must be fun, rewarding and be set up in a way that you can actually do it comfortably and realistically. Trying to train your mind till you are tired does more harm than good. It's important to stop while you are still alert and can look forward to practicing again later.

Allowing the mind to rest quietly is another style of developing the ability to focus. In the Tibetan language, concentration practice is called shi-nay, which means ''calm abiding." The use of this word is based upon the recognition that our mind performs best when we are friends with ourselves, rather than looking at our mind as something evil or as an unruly child that needs harsh punishment in order to learn discipline. Forcing one's mind to concentrate may work for a while, but it binds up vital energy to maintain the level of tension that inevitably en-sues from such a struggle. The meaning of shi-nay explains the meaning of the practice, which is to teach the mind to remain at rest by leaving the thoughts and emotions that agitate and disturb it alone.10
By learning to calmly abide with the object of concentration one can eventually maintain a focused state of mind indefinitely because it becomes a self perpetuating feed-back loop. A single pointed mind generates a relaxed, blissful feeling due to the gathering and strengthening of the body's vital energy. When our vital energy is strong we feel comfortable and invigorated.
Pleasure naturally attracts the attention of the mind, like nectar attracts bees, making it easier (and more fun) to concentrate. Such one-pointed focus, if done properly, does not remove one from the every day world but brings it more into focus and releases tension from the mind so one is able to think and react more clearly.

Calm concentration is not done with a knit brow nor is it a narrowing down of one's awareness to exclude all other perceptions. That is a sort of tense concentration which most of us are familiar with in daily life. Calm concentration is effortless, natural and is not distracted by sensations or thoughts. In fact it includes all sensations, thoughts and feelings without partiality or compulsion. The quality of the mind at rest can vary greatly, it can be a coarser or finer state of mind. The coarsest state is a hibernation-like lethargy that is the opposite of calm abiding.
Calm abiding is a state in which mind is not in conflict with its thoughts; it is undisturbed and remains alert and lucid. If the mind lacks clarity, it goes into a state of dullness, torpor or sleep and calm abiding is lost. The mind should be neither too tense, because then it is agitated, nor too lax, because then there is the risk of falling asleep. Like a stringed instrument whose strings must be neither too tight nor too loose in order to play in tune, the mind should rest attentively.

After much patient training one can begin to dwell on the object with ease and grace. Experiences of contentment or the absence of thoughts often occur. When thoughts do occur they are less upsetting to the delicate balance of the mind poised between the agitation of distractions on one hand and a loss of awareness on the other. Through proper training you can learn to fully engage in the world without losing the object of concentration. If you strain at holding onto an object then the mind will become only more wound up and tight with tension. One is then easily interrupted and characteristically such a person becomes irritated at perceived intrusions. It is important to begin training by developing an attitude of non-chalance toward interruptions. If during a practice session you are interrupted, allow it to be okay, just relax and do not automatically get upset merely because someone dared to intrude. I am not saying that you should never be upset, that you should suppress your emotions, or not react appropriately to stimuli. What I am saying is to look at how your mind works when you happen to get interrupted during practice. Do you automatically become irritated with the intrusion? I believe there are people and spirits who can willfully try to interfere with magical rites. I encourage you to protect yourself in an appropriate manner from such beings before beginning any practice session or ritual if you feel the need. However, for purposes of training your mind to concentrate it is important to discover how your mind reacts to sudden change. Understanding this will help you develop a greater mental flexibility to move with daily changes without losing your balance.

Tibetans have for centuries developed a psychic technology in much the same way our culture has developed a material technology. It is from this ancient tradition that I have adapted techniques to use in our own art of magic. In general, to learn the knack of abiding in a calm and focused state there are two main approaches: learning to fix the mind with a support and fixing the mind without a support. A support is any object, whether physical or imagined. Usually, mastery in fixing the attention upon an object is achieved first before you continue on to practice fixing your attention upon non-substantial infinite vastness, which is without thinking of the past, present or future, free from contrivance, fabrication or alteration of the natural mind. Learning to fix the mind without a support is an antidote to obsession and furthers the development of psychic abilities by opening the mind beyond our everyday concerns.

Some techniques include both approaches together in order to facilitate a faster and more graceful development of concentration. Also, some methods of learning concentration use vocal sounds to integrate the various stages of learning. When one first starts to practice concentration one often notices that the mind acts like a waterfall: thoughts constantly tumbling over one after another, each one pulling at us to follow, distracting us from the object of concentration. After training a while, the mind becomes like a stream, with the thoughts flowing more slowly and steadily. One can start to perceive intuitive feelings arising in between the thoughts. After continued practice the mind becomes like a clear, serene lake with mysterious depths of feelings and insights. With more practice the mind is said to become limitless and unfathomable like the ocean, constantly in motion but never moving. This is a natural state of calm abiding in which focusing on anything for any length of time is effortless.
Such an experience may seem far-fetched to most Westerners. In general we are charged up mentally, swimming in a sea of changing emotions and thoughts, raising us up and dropping us down. How can we possibly live in a calm state without our minds filled with constantly churning thoughts? The method of fixing your attention upon a single object is one way to begin. Choose an object you feel good about, something you like or that has a special meaning to you. This is so you will feel happy when you practice, which will encourage you. the object can be something physical or totally imaginary. It is easier to imagine an object or symbol that you are already familiar with. It is not a good idea to use a bright, shining physical object because that would damage your sight.

Place the object in front of you, either physically or seeing it in your "mind's eye." If you have a tendency to lethargy or if you find that you are falling asleep during the practice of fixing your mind, then place the object up higher so that you fix with your eyes wide open. With an imaginary object, you can imagine that it is radiating brightly colored light to prevent torpor and increase the clarity of the object. If, however, you are agitated or easily distracted then place the object lower so that you are fixing with your eyes half closed. If you are feeling neither sleepy nor distracted then place the object at a comfortable height. During a practice session it is common to shift between sleepiness and agitation, simply notice how you are doing and adjust the height of the object appropriately.

Once you have your chosen object in place and are sitting comfortably, start by fixing your mind sharply upon the object. Put all of your attention on it, using your mind like a sharp knife with all the aspects of your being pointing directly toward the object. As you fix sharply, you have no thoughts; they are automatically blocked. It is not beneficial to remain this way for long. If you do, then when you finish you may notice you are nervous. So, to start, only fix for a few seconds and then slowly relax the mind's focus. When you relax you will notice thoughts again arising to the surface of the mind. Observe the power of the thoughts and how they manifest in your mind until you become completely distracted from the object of concentration.

Once you notice that you are no longer dwelling on the chosen object, immediately fix your attention sharply on the object. Don't hold the sharp focus for long, again try to relax slowly and observe your mind. Continue on in this way during the entire session. Stop when you begin to become tired and start again only when refreshed.

If you have many problems fixing your attention due to agitation or confusion then chant Ahhh while you fix sharply as an aid to focus your mind. If you practice concentration in this manner, you may surprise yourself when you find you can relax without losing your focus. Even with many thoughts and interruptions you can learn to have no problem maintaining concentration. If after several attempts it appears that the imagined object is unstable, changing into something beautiful or terrible, then this is a sign of too much tension in the mind. You are fixing sharply for too long and you need to relax more. The appearance of something wonderful does not mean you are enlightened nor does the vision of something horrible mean you are being attacked. In this context, these sort of visions simply mean you are tense.
If you are not succeeding then it is important to use more sound. Try sounding Ahhh when you start to fix on the object, inhale while continuing to fix sharply, then sound again while you relax. When you finish sounding, fix sharply, then inhale while continuing to fix the mind. Again you sound and relax ending the Ahhh by fixing sharply once more. Repeat this pattern of relaxing while sounding and fixing while inhaling for seven, thirteen or twenty one times. When you are ready to stop do not fix at the end of the last Ahhh, just relax and rest. If you can immediately get into a calm state without losing focus even when thoughts arise or there is movement or noises around you, then you have developed the ability to fix your mind with an object. The next step is to learn to fix your attention without using an object to support the mind.

The best time to start learning this method of concentration through sky gazing is during the early morning or late afternoon light. The best place is with an open view of the sky. If you are practicing in the morning face West and if in the afternoon face East to avoid glaring light which could harm the vision. Fully open your eyes and gaze into the space of the blue sky. Start by fixing the mind sharply in the same way as you did with an object even though there is only open space. Although it's fine to blink softly, don't move your eyes around. This will help keep your breathing, energy and body calm. It's important to remember that you are not looking for anything in particular. Just gaze softly into the space, without focusing upon any object whatsoever. You need to have an attitude of waiting patiently to let your mind rest during practice.

Keeping your gaze stable, fix your mind sharply only for a few seconds; then relax and observe your thoughts and perceptions. If you lose your focus while observing the mind then once again fix the attention sharply on clear, open space and then slowly relax. By practicing in this way you can learn to integrate relaxation with concentration and thus stop fighting against yourself to achieve the ability to concentrate anytime, anywhere. Then you will not need any ceremony like sitting and looking at the sky. Once you notice and discover the nature of the state of calm abiding, with practice you will be able to simply enter that state of mind even when you are surrounded by confusion or chaos.
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The complete article can be found online at http://www.lustydevil.com/witcheye/concentration.html

[Flar's Freyja]

On the way to this path, I read a lot of Wayne Dyer's material, and he encourages using feelings and emotions as well as visualization in meditation, especially when you are trying to manifest something. For instance, one would work on getting into the feeling of how you would FEEL to drive that new car or go to work at your dream job. This makes sense to me because my most effective rituals and spells are the ones where I was able to use strong emotion to raise energy.

Just thought that was worth mentioning :)

[Tranquility]

Wow, that is a very interesting article
This not only is an approach to meditation easier, but a more relaxed approach to life