Meditation, spiritualism and I, a dude. Some random responses

Dr. Kumar Maruthur wrote:
Reality; 
Years ago I used to go a church in my neighborhood. A person died and he was a mason. They had a funeral service at a local funeral home. They showed photos and videos i think of his life. Then some give eulogy. There were a few masons there, all dressed in black business suits. Then one of them got up and eulogized. I think he spoke in tongues. Nobody understood anything. Later I heard people saying that that is a super secret mason language. They were very impressed. I knew they spoke in tongues. The best part of it, I didn't know what they said, but that was the best eulogy I ever heard.

I responded:
 Free Masons speak to create and communicate experiences that vary from person to person, and not to create or communicate a shared idea based on conventional meanings of words. They are what we call mystic. This is what a voodoo or mantra is also expected to do. Pentecostal sermons also follow the same route. But that does not, need not and should not preclude communication through formal language. Just like saying abstract painting that leaves the viewer to see into it anything he/she can imagine is the only way to paint, saying one should speak only by producing sounds that have no formal meaning - 'incoherently' - is the only way to speak is an extreme 'black if not white' position. There are 'infinite' shades between the two 'colours'. You found the Mason utterance to be a eulogy because of the context, the funeral service in honour of the deceased. If you hear the same sound bite from a patient, you might imagine it is an account of his disease. Decease and disease! See how close they are! But, I would rather wish that a doctor and his patient should communicate with each other on a mutually understood system of sounds. Why not give a break to this stream of thought?

Dr. Kumar Maruthur Wrote:

MEDITATION:
"IT HAS NO MEANING OR PURPOSE!"
It always good to normal weight, health and physical strength. That is where YOGA comes in handy.

In India they sit in a easy position with legs crossed on the floor or in padmasana.. You can sit in a chair with straight,back. The position is just uncomfortable enough, you won't fall asleep.

Breathing: take a deep breath and expire as slow as possible all through meditation. Expire fully and completely and inspiration will happen spontaneously. 

If you are in the NOW where there is no division of TIME into past, present and future, you can sit in thIs position for a long time as observed by the clock time.

Then you begin chanting. It is not the meaning of the word that is important but the repetition of the chant for a long time. 

While chanting keep the slow rhythms of breathing, very important,

You might have heard the chant OHM, OHM, OHM or Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare or Rama Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare or Hare Rama Hare Rama Hare Hare or just Ram Ram, or Krishna Krishna. it is not the meaning of the word that is important , but the repetition for a long period of time like 20-40 minutes which is important. This might stop the THINKING and might give you peace of mind. Muslims do Allah Allah Allah continuously for a long period of time. Sufis do LLA LLA LLA LLA for many minutes and to hours at a time, some whirl around at the same time.

Transcendental meditation group will sell you a chant specifically designed for you for a certain amount of money. It has no meaning and are nonsensical words. 

Chinese and Japanese Buddhists use MOO MOO MOO and so on. Zen Buddhists give you koans. Some ask you to laugh loudly for a long time. Some speak in tongues for a long time. Some sing kirtans and some dance at the same time.

The purpose is to still the continuous mind chatter ir still the mind.

You can just sit and watch the colors that fall on your eyes, sound on your ears, your feelings on the skin, the smell and the taste as it were just an happenings. You may consider them as many senses or one sense, you may listen to the mind' thoughts as just noise like water fall or chirps of bugs, or tv or music or car horns or telephone rings and so on, as it were mere happenings without INTERPRETING them. 

You can sit for a long time in the NOW. MAY BE!

Past does not propel the present. The past and futures just MOVES away from the NOW like water from the wake of a boat or ship.

Gradually your mind chatter may go away and you may be in the expansive eternal NOW.
You may forget your SELF. 

Don't pay attention to your thoughts and senses. Just ignore them.

Gradually you may achieve a meditation state; all according to your own temperament. 

OR NO THING AT ALL.

The difference between ALL and VOID is just NAMES.
What happens then is everybody's PRIVATE MATTER..

BEST OF LUCK 

P.S: Pardon my English, Sanskrit, Hindi or Malayalam or Chinese and spellings. I don't care about languages words or spellings other than just an utilitarian device.

20 hours ago via mobile 

I responded:
I am weary of spiritualism as I understand it; and of all its vendors, whichever the brand be. It claims to know everything through intuition. I would rather give a go by to such claims. Intuition does not blossom in a vacuum. It springs from thought, which needs experience as its springboard. Thought is therefore empirical. It is a function of the sensory organs and the brain. I do not want to numb my thoughts and get inside a cocoon, even if it is made of the finest silk. I am aware of natural sensory illusions our neural system brooks and am ready to live with them, but I do not want to amplify them thorough self-induced hypnotism. Meditation as concentration of thought is welcome. But as auto-suggested delusion, is not. To be aware of a state of mind that is unaware of itself is, to me, a delusion. At least, it is a confusion. I will not knowingly fly anywhere near that cuckoo's nest, let alone into it!

Dr. Kumar Maruthur wrote:
My friend B is as much argumentative as you are. But nowadays he found an outlet for mental peace.
He found this NAM yoga place . He joins in their group singing chants and dancing. He gets very relaxed and happy. He says he goes into a trance. He takes a 40 minute bus trip to Santa Monica to do that, once or twice a week,
May be good thing for you too.

I responded:
I wish B all the peace he can draw from his engagements. And I wish all others too the same for their respective minds. Period. I am not against anyone's peace of mind so long as they do not prescribe it for others. To treat a malaise, there may be different systems of medicine. Choice is personal. I would rather avoid a witch doctor. And an astrologer. And a god-man. And a yogi. And, certainly the god himself!

We might follow this