Kyletin's Forum Posts

I love the internet. While of course everyone would suggest you go to a meditation master for introduction, when you're sort of just dipping your feet into the pool, you want not for someone to try to get you to do backstrokes right away, but instead let you feel around a bit for yourself. 
As such, a lot of my sources are online. I find this very inspiring, for I am not trapped into one school of thought as of yet. Eventually, I hope to settle down in a place/practise that I find most suitable for me. 

 

Some of the sites I find the most helpful are: 

 

http://www.viewonbuddhism.org/  — This website appears to be put together by an individual. It's not a leading book on finding your "inner zen" but is almost like a very user-friendly wikipedia article. Of course, as with all information online, take everything with a grain of salt. I  think this site may focus on Tibetan Buddhism/information, but it at LEAST explains the other schools as well. All-in-all, I find reading a page every day or so to be good practise for expanding my knowledge, without feeling like I am adding another 3-credit course on my load. There is information on meditation here, including several styles of meditation as well as "hints" for meditation on certain topics. 

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe49/index.htm  — If I feel particularly zealous, I sometimes poke around on this site about Mahayana Buddhism. It's not really about meditation, but for MYSELF, meditation and Buddhism work together.

 

I don't really look for too much advise on meditation. I think if one allows it to get too complicated, it is easy to get trapped in pedagogical fretting. 

 

Good luck! :D

Thanks for the feedback on my feedback. ;D 

 

I think sites like these are a very good way to support the practise of meditation, and if more people knew about it, I have no doubt they would find it useful. It can help see to show students of meditation their current depth of practise, as well as how it may affect their mind throughout the day (e.g. "Oops, forgot to meditate today. Maybe that's why I'm somewhat unfocused and irritable..." ). 
I'm still working to establish some consistency. Often, I plan to meditate for 0.5 hours before going to sleep, but I end up finally finishing work/studying for classes at like 11:30 and don't feel like ascribing to practise; sleep is very alluring. I'm sure I'm not the only person who falls under these situations. That's life. :)
Gotcha. I'll look into playing with my mail client settings (I usually just go to websites to check my mail, haha! Would it be unwieldy for the feedback submission to take you to another page of the site, with a form (i.e., another page with some sort of built-in feedback entry) for feedback submission? I ask only because I do not know much of that type of coding, and I am sure you are more knowledgeable than I. 
Thanks for the reply!

I think for myself, my goal is to develop some consistency. I have "goals" written in my personal goals, but those are either really quite easy (short-term), or really quite extended goals. 
Before this site, I never really practised meditation. I was considering giving it another shot, but wanted a way to track my progress, such as how you can track things on fitness sites. I found Medivate through a related google search. (So, if you developers are looking for a way to improve the site, maybe add a feature where you can see visual graphs of your meditation habits? I was too lazy to use the feedback screen because it pulls up some sort of Microsoft Outlook thing, which I do not use). 
I am not too strict with my meditation habits. I am currently a student at a university who is volunteering at a hospital, taking quite a few hard science courses, as well as doing research on the side, so I have a very busy schedule that only seems to get busier. However, I've surprised myself with the ground I've covered. 
I think, in terms of "mental" goals, I would just like a bit more skill in meditation. Just to see that something is changing. I'm not out to gain "instant enlightenment" ('just add water!'), and what I am choosing to do now is more than what I was doing before. 

 

Hopefully I didn't ramble too much. That is perhaps in conflict with the minimalist/simplistic nature of meditation. 
Have a nice day, everyone. :D

Thank you for sharing with us. I found this a very insightful post. While it doesn't throw out any radical new thinking, it provides somewhat of an anecdote to help others understand how you've benefitted directly from meditation.

I am perhaps the strange person who finds the Dhyana Mudra strangely uncomfortable! I think I am putting it "on" the wrong part of me, for it will never rest " flatly " on my lap. One foot always moves it up (depending on which which is on top). I apologise if that is explained poorly!

I tend to do something like in what I found in this picture: 

http://www.hathayoga.co.za/yoni_mudra.gif

I wasn't even aware it was something that other people did, but hey. I googled "Yoni Mudra" and got something VERY different also in the google images pictures, so it could be a miss-labelled .gif on that hathayoga.co.za site, but at any rate, I find that a REALLY comfortable hand position. 

Thanks for the information!