Quick question; how does meditation bring about enlightenment, or precious insight onto problems, or a more relaxed conscious state?

It seems to me that meditating by focusing on breathing wouldn't give these sorts of results, or would you have to meditate on other things to give different results?

The books I've been reading have only really mentioned focusing on breathing.

All help appreciated.

Just realised it wasn't that quick a question, sorry.

A thought enters your mind you had never noticed and your outlook on life changes. Simple as that.

From my experience, just calming down and breathing regularly or in a certain way allows you to stop and take a look at life. You can view a situation from all sides, not just one.

quote:Originally posted by ArgonPlasma2000:

A thought enters your mind you had never noticed and your outlook on life changes. Simple as that.

I thought in meditation you weren't supposed to recognise thoughts and give them power?

I don't know how the fuck it give 'spiritual enlightenment. you don't think about jack shit and it's harder than hell. have you ever tried 'NOT THINKING'? it's tough, really. but i DO know that after a half hour of meditating i can send two barstools floating across the room. so it obviously does something, right?

quote:Originally posted by The_KrAZ8:

I don't know how the fuck it give 'spiritual enlightenment. you don't think about jack shit and it's harder than hell. have you ever tried 'NOT THINKING'? it's tough, really. but i DO know that after a half hour of meditating i can send two barstools floating across the room. so it obviously does something, right?

Shut the hell up.

quote:Originally posted by Jerry Maguire:

I thought in meditation you weren't supposed to recognise thoughts and give them power?

Thats true for most cases. However you always analyze the thoughts that come to you. Its an instruction in your brain inherent to reconition of any thought. That said to have a thought enter your head you must recognize it and know what it is about. So if the enlightening though happens to enter, you recognize it as the answer and viola.

In some cases however the goal of your meditation may be to focus on one thought only. Usually for problem solving.

quote:Originally posted by ArgonPlasma2000:

shut the hell up

Don't make me kill you.

You clear your mind, then you'll know when to start thinking. And you'll be a better at it, sort of.

depends on who you are. for me, meditation is all about perception. so thats why i like to alter my reality by toking or something else. when im high i see life in a deifferant way.

i dont think about tomarrow or yesterday, i just enjoy the moment. i think thats what meditation works the best. i just like to sit and wonder man.

i wonder about everything. i guess enlightenment would be different for everyone. if your views chenged dramatically or something then you reached enlightenment. im not happy, but i dont worry about prissing shit that dont mean anything to me. i just like to look at life as something that you have a choice. most religions say that we cant have a free will and we have to do everything the "good book" says.

im sellfish and i dont give a shit. i dont get into other peoples business or try to tell them how to live their lives. i just say thats nice...

i use meditaion to visualize what i want

to do this, first you must.

picture a candle inside your mind imagine its fire igniting and blowing in the wind; imagine the colour of the fire changing to whatever you choose.

see how vibrant and controlled you can cause the fire to be, control it with your mind; in your mind shape it into objects.

this will take time and improve visualisation.

once you have reached a certain level of ability you can imagine yourself standing up in the room you are in, outside of your body.

slowly walk around the room in your mind, examining objects and seeing how detailed you can make everything.

once it becomes easy you can visual things changing or happening in a setting that exsists only in your mind.

in other words you can "computer simulate" in your mind what you want to happen, before ever trying it.

some say it can, when done right, guarantee success.

thats all it can do though, no magic powers or anything.

Changes your brain waves. Slows down beta (normal waking consciousness) to alpha (light trance) or theta (shamanic state of consciousness).

No mystery and easily accomplished.

what i do is imagine a void--a perfect void with nothing in it. and everytime a thought enters your mind puch it away and go back to the void. screw the breathing. dont hink about it. think about the void. you'll find its harder than you think and if you do it right you shouold be able to lose track of time quite easily. music does not help cause it gives you a refference point to time. after you're good at the void thing you should focus on getting better at it in harder circumstances ie with traffic a few hundred metres away... music playing.. peaople screaming. the objectice should be to train yourself to be able to go blank. no thoughts, no stress, no worries, hakuna mattata http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/wink.gif)

woah man its like the secret of life

when one thing that pops randomly in your head and it wont go away no matter what.

but then everything starts to make sense and its like the fifth sense or something. when you know the truth about why everything works and why mankind was placed on the world to sin...

but why are we really here on this plane? we dont do anything really and nobody will remember anything you've done. but what if history changes in each afterlife? would we even recocnize ourselves if something in history changes like is histler was killed as a baby? if we were shown a dream about how things are, then what are we dreaming? I totally believe in alternate realities, thats one of my theories on dreams.

has anybody else learned something, but you cant remember what it is? it makes everything click into a perfection of nothingness and a inner universal harmony within your being.

woah that just came out of nowhere

There is no one single best technique for meditation. Do whatever works for you. I like to simply relax and let my thoughts flow naturally. "Non-thinking" is not a state of thinking about nothing, it's a loss of ego - there's nothing "standing over your stream of thought with a club," as Bruce Lee put it.

I find that this relaxes me and provides valuable insight into things, but different things work for different people.