Meditation

Reply to Meditation on Mon, 21 Dec 2020 07:13:56 GMT

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Reply to Meditation on Sun, 19 Jul 2020 05:52:29 GMT

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Reply to Meditation on Mon, 13 Apr 2020 10:46:43 GMT

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Reply to Meditation on Tue, 07 Apr 2020 09:35:30 GMT

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Reply to Meditation on Wed, 09 Oct 2019 06:13:59 GMT

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Reply to Meditation on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:19:39 GMT

Faun — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:19:39 GMT

insider:

Thanks again for your tips!

Privacy doesn't really matter much to me actually for this kind of personal retreat. Will still go even have to sleep in a barrack-style room...

That Indonesia sounds better to me coz of its cooler weather (my body is a super 'heated' one like a radiator which then makes it a 'magnet' for mosquitoes and so minimal risk of mosquitoes attack if possible).

You may want to change your trip to OCT or later. June time could be warm for Bogor too, according to the old students. There are a lot of mozzies but surprisingly, not in the meditation hall (Thank God!) I had a couple in my room but I found a way to chase them out so I can sleep in peace.

Over and Out.

Reply to Meditation on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:59:16 GMT

Faun — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:59:16 GMT

insider:
Faun

Just read your post!

Yes! I will go by your recommendation and that'll be my next personal activity after Nanjing (and I hope to go before June next year).

Thanks for sharing. Greatly appreciated!

Insider,

You're very much welcome. Just a few other tips for you. The Centre in Bogor has rooms for single, double, fours. Bathroom is common. I was lucky I was given single room. If privacy matters to you, you can try the one in Malaysia or Thailand (Kanchanaburi). I heard these centers facility are good, all rooms are single with bathroom ensuite.

Cheers!

Reply to Meditation on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:40:56 GMT

Faun — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:40:56 GMT

Hi ppnqq

How old is your child? If she’s too young, you can just do it with her at home, just 5-10 mins.

If she’s older, you can try Yoga.

My girl is 11 and joins me for Yoga this School Holiday. She’s the only child in the class but she is quite matured and can follow the session well.

In the class, she learns the 5 pillars of a healthy life. We do pranayama (breathing exercise) and asanas (postures) and short meditation (with commentary). It is very good for her as she is going through puberty. The Yoga helps to regulate the hormones and balance the moods. Also teach her how to handle stress.

I think Yoga is very good for teens as it teaches them how to take care of their mind. I feel that in Singapore, we bring up our kid’s emphasizing too much on their intellectual development and not enough their mental well being. It is very important to teach them how to relax, how to use the breathe to bridge the mind and body so they can better handle the feelings inside them. Yoga also massages the internal organs and glands and increase body flexibility and better one’s posture.

Reply to Meditation on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:43:58 GMT

ppnqq — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:43:58 GMT

All posts are very insightful and quite enlightening in some ways. Thank you!

Btw, wish to know if there is any meditation class in Yishun area for adults and children? TIA.

Reply to Meditation on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:44:02 GMT

Faun — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:44:02 GMT

On the topic of Vipassana Meditation.

I’ve just come back from the 10-day course in Bogor, Indonesia. It was a great learning experience. I wish I had done it 2 decades earlier. The wisdom learnt was experiential.

I hope those of you who had the seed of thought to take up the challenge will do so. It will definitely make your life better. Your body will have better vibrations. You’ll become more aware of your cravings and aversions that brings so much miseries to our lives and learn techniques of how to let them pass instead of clinging on to them.

I went to Bogor because they run 2 courses per month, unlike Singapore only twice a year. Also, the weather was lovely, 20-24 degrees and not humid.

The meditation centre was perched on a mountain overlooking a valley of vegetation. I had a lot of time for reflections. We meditate a total of 10 and 3/4 hours a day over 6 sessions. Over the 10 days, we practice noble silence in order not to disturb our mind with too much food for mental chatter. We talk only to administrator when necessary and also when having interview with the teacher. For fellow students, we treat each other like transparent.

A lot of time for introspection and self observation. Through the course, I
really got to dig deeper to understand many issues that had be locked inside for ages. Also learnt how to release these impurities in the mind.

There were 10 of us foreigners, rest were locals about 40 of them. I was the only Singaporean. It was nice to see people of different religions, Catholics, Hindus, Christians, Muslims and Buddhist all coming together to help themselves to learn something so universal, liberate oneself from sufferings.

I recommend those who wants to do this to try Bogor. The weather and scenery is beautiful and facilities is good. Food was really yummy even though vegetarian everyday.

May you have the opportunity to try it at least once. It’s a life changing
experience.

I plan to do this retreat again next year, perhaps in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

Insider, remember you mentioned about your leg problem. You need not
worry, they have special low chairs for those with sitting problem. In the course, there were many old folks, some had fractured legs before. One lady was 8 month pregnant. She was doing the meditation for her baby. What a great gift for her child!

Reply to Meditation on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:41:01 GMT

Faun — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:41:01 GMT

tisha:
I've also heard of a one day meditation camp for kids. Anyone knows more about it? Anyone has sent their kids to it?

Hi Tisha,

When the time is right, you will be ready for the 10 day camp. I believe if we have that intention, the day will come. Ha ha, 3 years and mine hasn't come.

I sent my son for the 1-day camp before many years ago. Hmmm... I think it's not useful unless you do some follow-up.

Reply to Meditation on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:36:11 GMT

tisha — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:36:11 GMT

I’ve also heard of a one day meditation camp for kids. Anyone knows more about it? Anyone has sent their kids to it?

Reply to Meditation on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:32:08 GMT

tisha — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:32:08 GMT

Faun:
Any one here interested in Vipassana Meditation?

There's a 10-day meditation retreat organized by Vipassana Centre Singapore. Venue is St John island. Date 20/4 to 1/5. Payment by donation.

I'm interested but looking for kaki to go with. Not too confident if I can tahan so many days. No handphone, no books, no everything, just you with your mind only. It's a time for self- discovery. Thought it'll be good to go with someone to pressure each other to stay through. Heard some give up and take ferry home :).

Ever since I've heard of Vipasana I've wanted to learn meditation from them. The 10-day camp is a big commitment though. Right now I'm not ready for it, but one day when I'm ready I will do it.

Reply to Meditation on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:49:29 GMT

Faun — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:49:29 GMT

Dear Insider,

Agree with you this is really serious business. I’ve wanted to go since 3 years ago but never got near because I feel very guilty to leave dh to take care of the 2 kids alone. DH is very very supportive though. Also, looking at the time table and it was very daunting. I tried a short course before and it ended with a 2 day retreat. It was quite tough already for me but I had a short good experience. Yes, it comes when we get physically worn out, then we let go. So 10-day is necessary.

Your point about weather and mozzies is true but I saw the HK venue for the retreat some time back, the place looks dilapidated. DD just brought back her test schedules for semester1 and I think I can’t go anymore. I was hoping it’ll coincide with her overseas exchange program. Will wait for Dec, they had one last year and hope they will do so again this year. It’s back into the backburner again.

Thanks for sharing. Really appreciate it. Hope you bone problem is okay now.

Reply to Meditation on Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:21:03 GMT

Faun — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:21:03 GMT

Any one here interested in Vipassana Meditation?

There's a 10-day meditation retreat organized by Vipassana Centre Singapore. Venue is St John island. Date 20/4 to 1/5. Payment by donation.

I'm interested but looking for kaki to go with. Not too confident if I can tahan so many days. No handphone, no books, no everything, just you with your mind only. It's a time for self- discovery. Thought it'll be good to go with someone to pressure each other to stay through. Heard some give up and take ferry home :).

Reply to Meditation on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:37:42 GMT

autumnbronze — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:37:42 GMT

Sun_2010:

I want to stress that I am just a novice, and this is a totally on the spot write up of my understandings. My husband has immensely benefited from meditation; he does it twice every day. It has helped my migraines; though I struggle to make meditation a daily routine. So i wanted to share it here.

Wow Sun_2010!

This is fantastic sharing too :goodpost:

Just got 'blown away' reading this. For an \"on the spot\" writer, you sure have an art of using your pen or errrrrrrrrm, in this case fingers here effectively

What I used to practice in the past, when facing turbulent times and esp when I was pregnant, was visualization ....ie what and how you wanted (ideally) the outcome of something to be.

Suffice to say, it helped me tremendously during those periods in my life.

I do miss my yoga lessons at the CC (fantastic teacher, v v passionate) and I have been inconsistent practicing at home. But after reading Faun's and your article, I will really make an effort to get down to it.

Thanks for sharing :celebrate:

Reply to Meditation on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:01:56 GMT

dunnoleh — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 01:01:56 GMT

autumnbronze:
:goodpost: Faun.

Thanks for sharing.

My DS already tries to imitate me when I do my yoga for instance tailor, tree and cat poses :lol:

I may just try meditation with him for the fun of it, since he is still young

great idea! have fun! :celebrate:
and keep it that way.

have seen many students come and go in the 30+ years with my teacher.
One thing in common among those who stayed is in keeping expectations out of the way.
It's not easy, no kidding.

The worst possible thing to do is to start off with high expectations.
It could be more than a hindrance, even harmful in some cases.
Depending on individual, there is no telling what will spill out as the inner layers unfold.
It is not my intention to discourage anyone from learning yoga/meditation.
In fact, I hope more people could learn and benefit from it.
But I also hope that people do not start off on the wrong footing.

one more thing... its a skill that takes time to acquire before the benefits appear, and should not be perceived as a remedy to a problem before the skill is acquired.

Reply to Meditation on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:07:10 GMT

Sun_2010 — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 03:07:10 GMT

I am no expert or even in this field - a few things life has taught me and some I learnt from my Yoga teachers and I fused those together. Here is what I know

There are many methods of meditation, i think over 200. Start with one - any one. You will find improvements. If needed try some others - and settle into one that is seems most natural to you.

All I have learnt are yoga-based. Many think that yoga is synonymous to exercise or asanas , but just to calrify, yoga is classified into 8 parts. Of which Hatha yoga ie. asanas is one part only.

Meditation is the art of doing nothing. And that is not easy. They say thoughts are like waves. They are relentless, not for a minute they stop. Good one , scary ones, inane ones , all kinds. One after another they come. Meditation is not about concentrating on one thought or word . It is about not getting involved in your thoughts. Let them come and go – don’t stop them. For when you try to stop them you are getting involved with them. Let go. Ignore. Even when important thought comes to you - tell yourself not now, later.

That brings us to "mantra". Why do we say a mantra. A mantra is a vehicle that takes you to inner depths of your mind. It helps the ever distracting thoughts from disturbing this journey. Chanting falls into the same category

Normally a word has a meaning , so when you say dog, my mind visualizes a dog - in the colour and type I am familiar with. But a mantra is an unattached word, it has little meaning. It is just a positive sound/vibration that does not give you any images or feelings. It is after all a vehicle. So what it does is it helps you reach you destination. The real moments your mind transcends is when your mantra fades away. This happens only for a few moments, but those moments are enough to calm you and give you a self awareness. With regular practise the mantra becomes a trigger - when you start saying it, your mind and body have been "trained’ to know that "hey its time for mediation, get ready".

Often the 20 minutes goes in this struggle between our clambering thoughts and mind. So what we need to do is get in the right frame of mind. And how to do that?

Mind and body are connected. The connection is the breathe. Check, every time the mind is agitated, the breathing is affected. And once the breathe is affected body reacts. So to clam the mind your breathing should be relaxed and uniform. So a 5 min breathing exercise greatly helps meditation. Within a couple of minutes of meditation we can enter a meditative state. Thus the meditation is more effective.
And to do effective breathing, body should be ready. And this is where asanas play their role - in getting your body ready. So an ideal cycle would be asanas, breathing, then mediation. The main thing of course is the mediation.

For proper breathing exercises it is best to go to an experienced teacher as incorrect breathing can cause negative effects. Ideally join a class you are comfortable with and with a teacher who vibes well with you.

The most difficult part is doing it everyday. If you have the discipline to do it, the rewards are tremendous.

I want to stress that I am just a novice, and this is a totally on the spot write up of my understandings. My husband has immensely benefited from meditation; he does it twice every day. It has helped my migraines; though I struggle to make meditation a daily routine. So i wanted to share it here.

Reply to Meditation on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:46:57 GMT

schweppes — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:46:57 GMT

Faun:
I'm so happy to see so many of you also interested in helping yourself and family to have calm and clear mind.

....

By the way, other ways we can teach kids to relax is to get them to exercise, take walks in the parks or go to the beach for some salty air.
we do these with our kids and as they feel the relaxation from such activites, I believe, they'll turn to them when they are stressed later on in their lives, instead of smoking, drinking, etc.

:celebrate:

:goodpost: Faun

Thanks for sharing. Very useful info

Reply to Meditation on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:35:28 GMT

autumnbronze — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:35:28 GMT

:goodpost: Faun.

Thanks for sharing.

My DS already tries to imitate me when I do my yoga for instance tailor, tree and cat poses :lol:

I may just try meditation with him for the fun of it, since he is still young

Reply to Meditation on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:23:00 GMT

Faun — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:23:00 GMT

I'm so happy to see so many of you also interested in helping yourself and family to have calm and clear mind.

I started my kids at around P1. I must say it takes discipline even though it's 5 mins. As parent, I have to say, \"let's do it\". Good to set routine, say before meal times.

Meditation is a life long practice. So please don't be so hard on yourself. There'll be periods of time when you stop. What matter is that you go back to it knowing that there is a way to help yourself get peace.

About the practice. sometimes, my mind get really noisy, chattery and restless. The best thing to get calm back is to just sit and meditate. Believe me, just 15 minutes and you'll feel better. You'll be fighting to settle down at first, all kinds of images, thoughts and feelings come in. Just
let them go and return to focusing on your breathe.

Basically, what we're trying to do is to get our mind to be present. For example, if you hear a loud crash from the road outside, you tell yourself that was a sound. What usually happens is that we'll start to think, hmm... could it be a lorry and a car? could it be a Toyota car, such a loud crash, someone must be badly injured, etc... This is why we need to go back to our breather to bring our mind back to present as those thoughts are of no use. With constant practice, we find that we'll be able to focus on the present better as we go through our daily activities.

Please understand I'm not qualified to teach meditation, but I do experience the benefits from it and hope you will too.

If you really want to learn, you can try the Vipassana Meditation. They say it's non religious but they do talk a bit about the Budddhist philosophy. Otherwise, the Yoga version is good too. Mathsparks recommended one too.

We care so much about our physical body. Must take care of mind too. It really takes so little effort. The point is, don't give up. Keep it simple to start with. It's not the intensity that counts, it's the frequency. It's at least so for me, still very much a beginner.

BTW, if you are wondering how to tell the time eg 5 minutes. I bought the
kids a kitchen timer for that.

By the way, other ways we can teach kids to relax is to get them to exercise, take walks in the parks or go to the beach for some salty air.
we do these with our kids and as they feel the relaxation from such activites, I believe, they'll turn to them when they are stressed later on in their lives, instead of smoking, drinking, etc.

:celebrate:

Reply to Meditation on Wed, 22 Sep 2010 02:28:06 GMT

dunnoleh — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 02:28:06 GMT

Thanks Faun for the sharing, here’s mine….

My children watched me go through my daily yoga routine before they could walk. They’ll get bored at the point when I sat still to do the breathing exercises, and leave me alone.

As they grew older, they started to imitate me, surprising me with their physical flexibility.

They started sitting with me through the breathing part when they were about 9 or 10.

Today, both of them are able to focus better than many adults, at will.
This ability serve as their “re-charge” whenever needed. It is a skill to “return” to themselves, a place away from the insanity of the outside world.

I believe this is not only beneficial to health, but is also a place where values such as kindness and compassion is internalised and anchored deeply within the individual.

Reply to Meditation on Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:40:01 GMT

schweppes — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:40:01 GMT

This is very useful. Thanks for sharing, mathsparks and faun.

Kids getting stressed as exams around the corner. Actually, their mommy also getting stressed too from all the juggling I have to do...

I find it very hard to quiet my unstill mind. Do I just let the images or thoughts come and go? I find the harder I \"fight\" to control my thoughts, the more fidgety I get.

But I like what you say about starting off with 5mins first.

Ommmm...

Reply to Meditation on Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:23:55 GMT

autumnbronze — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:23:55 GMT

Thanks for sharing mathsparks and Faun.

Faun, how old are your kids?? When did you start them on meditation??