Quote:
Originally Posted by Mercuryrising:
Some people say that meditation shouldn't have a goal, but I think it is necessary to entice the mind to take up the practice. At least that has been my experience.
We were talking about enlightenment somewhere else and it occurred to me at some point that 'enlightenment' was just a carrot to get the student to take up meditation. The monkey just won't sit down unless you have a banana for him.
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Very true mercury... remember we're talking about sitting still for maybe hours at a time ! Or staring into nothingness for a long time...
Like it or not our minds are most likely going to start saying "boring" louder and louder after awhile. But having an interesting goal- like receiving the answer to a problem, will usually have you looking forward to doing something that will produce a desired result you've been wanting.
I discovered that the mind or subconcious tends to try to respond to our requests or desires in various ways. Like having a dream for example;
Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, 1845, but in the beginning he was completely stumped with the design. He didn't know how to make the needle part work. He tried one idea with the needle having tips at both ends with the hole in the middle, but that didn't work at all.
One night he had a dream he was taken prisoner by natives. They were dancing around him and he noticed that the tips of their spears had holes near them! He realized that dream had given him the answer and he immediately tried it and it worked perfectly.
He must have thought about the problem constantly- and his subconcious (don't ask me how) returned with the answer and even incorporated it in an imaginative dream to make sure he would remember .
So we can imagine how our subconcious would respond when we want to seek "enlightment" or manifest something or even heal ourselves...
I had a similar experience myself a few years ago, concerning the idea of bliss and enlightment, among other things which leads me to think having a specific goal is one good way to work with meditation.