How to meditate?

[abcbac]

How do you guys meditate? What is meditation really? I have been trying but don't know if I have been doing it right. Is it a conscious or unconscious process?

[Andras]

...someone smart said; praying is when you talk to g-d - meditation is when you listen to him. The best way to meditate is to empty your mind, then imagine the physical embodiment of g-d for you, it can be the ocean, the stars filled sky, the burning flame, whatever you choose is ok, but do not think just BE, and let go with the image. See where that takes you....

Originally Posted by abcbac

How do you guys meditate? What is meditation really? I have been trying but don't know if I have been doing it right. Is it a conscious or unconscious process?

[ButterflyWoman]

Originally Posted by abcbac

What is meditation really?

It's an alteration of your brainwaves so that the predominant pattern is alpha or sometimes theta. Some experienced meditators appear to also have bursts of gamma.

Brain waves and meditation
Brain Waves During Meditation - Crystalinks
Brain Waves in Meditation - Project Meditation

Originally Posted by abcbac

I have been trying but don't know if I have been doing it right. Is it a conscious or unconscious process?

It's both conscious and unconscious. It's just something you have to try until you work it out.

One thing that might help you is looking into binaural or similar brainwave entrainment technology. I was already a meditator before I discovered BWT, but it really enhanced my meditation skills and very effectively showed me what different states feel like. I like the software from Transparent Corporation, but there are other options, many of them free.

[ChrisGinsburg]

Originally Posted by abcbac

How do you guys meditate? What is meditation really? I have been trying but don't know if I have been doing it right. Is it a conscious or unconscious process?

If there was a purpose to meditation I would say it is to stop 'doing' for a moment and clearly see the illusory nature of the one who thinks they are doing. In other words, meditation is the one activity that is done without any expectations in mind or any need to do something right, wrong or anywhere in between. It is Being appreciating itself in stillness without any other needs to be met. Meditation as simply another thing you 'do' becomes merely another distraction and quite often a grasping at mind states. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with interesting mind states but if this is the focus, meditation is really no different from any other activity done simply to reach an end during the day.

[wanzulfikri]

My prayers are my meditation if that what you want to know.

[ButterflyWoman]

Originally Posted by wanzulfikri

My prayers are my meditation

A quite valid form of meditation, I've found. It's known in most traditions. It goes by various names, including "centering prayer" and "meditative prayer" and a couple others. St Theresa of Avila named several, including "mental prayer" and "prayer of quiet".

When I was young, I would pray and eventually developed it into meditation, though I didn't know that at the time. I just did it naturally. Now I can see what I was doing with it.