New members - introduce yourselves here.

[Matthew]

The old thread was getting a bit long. If you just joined the forums you can say hello here.

[barrec]

Hello! My name is Everett and I recently began practicing meditation. I've been an avid reader of the forum for a while, and am excited to be a part of the community.

I've always been interested in mediation and found a copy of Still The Mind at a book store this past Summer. After reading it, I committed myself to trying to meditate once and see how it goes. So far, I've been meditating for these few months and have noticed a few, albeit subtle, changes in my life, and have found the most trying part can be making the time for it every day ).

I live near Portland, OR USA and have been happily married for almost two years now. My wife and I both work in education and have a beautiful black cat. In the Fall, I also play tuba in a polka band. I enjoy music, working out and laughing.

Again, it's a pleasure to be part of the community!

[chintan]

Hello Everett - welcome to the forum. Nice to have you onboard. Most of our introductions are in the previous thread on this topic. Hope to see you around.

Chintan

[Morning Dew]

Welcome aboard.

Love cats. I am owned by two;



Take care

[Andrew]

In the Fall, I also play tuba in a polka band. I enjoy music, working out and laughing.

Welcome Everett, when I read this bit of your intro, I smiled. That sounds like awesome fun.

[Matthew]

barrec,

Welcome to the forums. Making regular time to meditate and keeping it up is one of the hardest things for many people in this busy modern world. You are not alone in this.

Matthew

[Vivek]

Welcome to the forums, Everett. Hope to know more about you.

[Stefan]

it's a pleasure to be part of the community!

  ... not always, Battie, not always ...

Hi Everett, nice to have you here!

Greez, Stefan

[Vincent L]

Hi guys,

I was surfing the net to find a forum to further my learning of the path to enlightenment and found this forum so decided to be part of the community. 

I'm from Malaysia and having a dad that practices meditation for over 30 years I'm pretty much in believe of the Buddhism teachings and keen to learn more.

Hope to have some useful exchange here as I just started to meditate with a mantra and I find the benefits are limitless.

Thank you once again

 

[Matthew]

Welcome Vincent. May you find that which you need.

Matthew

[DerDomi]

Hi guys,

I was surfing the net to find a forum to further my learning of the path to enlightenment and found this forum so decided to be part of the community. 

I'm from Malaysia and having a dad that practices meditation for over 30 years I'm pretty much in believe of the Buddhism teachings and keen to learn more.

Hope to have some useful exchange here as I just started to meditate with a mantra and I find the benefits are limitless.

Thank you once again

Hi Vincent, welcome! Good to have you here, I hope you enjoy this place =)

I'm hell impressed by your dad! Does he talk about his journey in meditation? If he wants to (and you, too) bring him on here, I would love to hear what he has to say.

Warm regards to Malaysia from freezing Germany =)
DD

[Vincent L]

Welcome Vincent. May you find that which you need.

Matthew

Thks Matthew I am sure I will 



Yes DerDomi, I believe my dad could help as he has never one day not meditated for his 30+ years. Usually his session starts at 7pm - 8pm and 11pm - 12 pm. I believe he has reach some higher states in his mediation, but he always told me to seek a qualified sifu to learn the right understanding of meditation.

Some things he has told me about his stage of meditation is that he found that a person simply becomes selfless and without "Ego" reaching a higher stage and is keen to help others in need and mostly beneficial to his health. I believe he looks much younger then his age for one. 

I can't promise that he will be coming in here but I am willing to share whatever questions you guys may have and I will pose them as questions maybe to him.

He did shared some tales of his friends who has reach a higher stage of enlightenment and I can say some are in accordance with what the different Buddhist scriptures have said will happen.

Well this is the introduction section let me see where should I post the next comments if there are.

Good day to you too 

[Andrew]

Welcome Vincent.

[kanoo]

Hi Guys,

My first post here I am a Brit that has recently moved to Thailand and I have been dabbling with meditation / mindfulness and am keen to start learning more about Buddhism....am now actively looking for a temple where I can visit where I can learn from English speaking monks (not mastered Thai just yet) I have only had a meditation routine for the past 6 weeks so I am very new, but have been fascinated by mindfulness for a long time before this through the books of Tolle.

I have been practicing a form of meditation called The Relaxation response and I must admit I'm pretty impressed with the results I have had.

I am normally quite a high strung, stressed and jittery person, easily swept away by my thoughts. But after a month I feel way better, more confident, calmer, relaxed just mentally more balanced than ever since I can ever remember really. I feel so lucky now as I feel this is going to have a massive positive impact on the quality of my life.

During my research though I came across something similar to the Relaxation Response (RR) called Natural Stress Relief (NSR) a TM imitator at a fraction of the price of TM and apparently claims to be 3 times as effective as the Relaxation Response?

I know this is primarily a forum for Vipassana but I just wondered if anyone has any direct experience of using one or both of these methods? do you have a preference? what are the pro's / cons of each - as I have just switched to (NSR) in the past couple of days to try it out.

I have heard from one healer who says he was seeing some regular TM practitioners for stress problems that they only managed to conquer after switching to The Relaxation Response?.

Many thanks, looking forward to sharing information and hearing your views.

Kanoo


Mod Report: Deleted links to external paid meditation programs

[Andrew]

Hi kanoo,

Welcome,

Sounds like the basic meditation method practiced in these parts, that is; relaxation before investigation. Would you mind posting this topic in the "Meditation Practice and Path' section of the forum so we can keep this thread for intros? That way we can have a good ol' conversation about the technique you want to discuss...

Metta to you

Andrew
 

[Vivek]

Welcome, Kanoo. If by TM you mean transcendental meditation, I doubt if there are many here who practice it. Maybe we have some who have come across TM in the past.

Also, seconding Andrew, you may start a thread in the forums to get help with your questions.

[kanoo]

Thanks guys will do 

[Jeeprs]

Hi All - as you might have noticed, I have not been participating a great deal since September or so. I have decided to join an online Zen community.  This is not because of any negative views of this community but simply because I identify with Mahayana Buddhism, and in particular, the Soto Zen form of practice, and I am going to concentrate my efforts on that particular form of Dharma. Even though both forms look externally similar, there are subtle but significant differences in philosophy and approach.

My personal blog is at http://sunyavadi.blogspot.com if anyone wishes to contact me. Many thanks to Matthew for providing this facility and all the moderators for their generous work and assistance. My best wishes to all my friends here.

jeeprs

[Andrew]

I like your blog, nice and peaceful looking!

Well, keep in touch, I'll try to stop by and leave random comments on your blog... I'v started one as well, just to get some thoughts out of my head that don't seem to fit anywhere else..

http://budoreflex.blogspot.com/

I think it is a good thing to do, there are plenty of things that need to be said without others having to feel an obligation to discuss. I can get out the ideas and see what they look like in the real world.

[Vivek]

Wishing you all the best, Jeeprs. I would still urge you to visit this place now and then, just to keep in touch.

[Quardamon]

Farewell. I am sorry to see you leave. I like your clarity.

[Matthew]

Jeeprs, wishing you the best - you'll be missed. Be well, Matthew

[DarkNightOfNoSoul]

Hi all!

I've been interested in Buddhism since I was a kid, but only started studying it properly in my mid 30s when I found myself in the fortunate position to be able to take time out from my career. I attended a 10-day Goenka retreat in 2006, and have been to two others since then.

Following my last retreat (nearly three years ago), I started experiencing emotional difficulties, which to me seemed to arise from significant changes in my values and in the way that I experience the world (about which I'd like to ask the forum's advice in another thread). Consequently, I have not had a regular meditation practice for about two years now. However, I now suspect that giving away meditation altogether is not going to help me - it's almost as if the changes I've experienced are irreversible. So I've recently started meditating daily again, and plan to attend my fourth retreat after Christmas.

My experiences during the first retreat inspired me to make a radical career change so that I could try and explore the vipassana meditation technique from a scientific perspective. Next year I'll be attempting my masters thesis in neuroscience, and I plan to study the physiology of the "sensations" that one becomes attuned to in meditation. I hope to move on to a PhD after the masters, but it all depends on whether my masters project gets approved, and how it goes.

However, I'm still very much a novice in Buddhist meditation, so I'm hoping to learn from this forum and from others' experiences, whilst trying to re-establish my own meditation practice.

Looking forward to chatting!

Cheers,
Dark Night.

[Vivek]

Welcome to the forums, DN. Glad to know about your interest in, and commitment to Vipassana practice. Good luck with your thesis. I hope you will be sharing your insights with us, as you proceed in the thesis. Wish you all the best.

[DarkNightOfNoSoul]

Thanks Vivek!