How do you meditate?

[anagogy]

this question is a big one, and is sort of dependent upon *what* you want out of your meditation - for eg, meditation for 'relaxation', to just quiet the mind, or a meditation as a preparation for magical work ('white magician') etc etc.

but that aside, how do you practice meditation?

the most classical technique would involve a watching of the breath. And one can watch the inbreath, the outbreath, or the pause between the inbreath and outbreath, when the lungs are 'full'. It's all a matter of choice I guess. I read Osho's Book of Secrets a little while ago (or at least I read some of it -- it's a massive tome!) and he goes through some of the various breath techniques and what sort of traditions they come from.

My own preference just recently is to observe the breath at the pause point; that is, the pause between the inbreath and the outbreath. That moment of infinite stillness, where you can observe, perhaps, more closely some of the thoughts with which you are then 'programming' into your experience via the outbreath.

You can also choose to observe the outbreath; and if the exhalation is not full, deep, and complete (as in my case), you can sometimes key into the things that you are unwilling to let go of, and release back into the wider world. Sort of the anxiety, and the things being held back, for whatever reason.

The breath is symbolic; but at the same time, according to many traditions, the function of taking in the commonality ('the air'), how we extract it and then infuse it, and then re-release it can also be a metaphysical/energetic mechanism we are just ignorant of most of the time.

so how does one meditate? I've definitely meditated before without a focus on the breath - more using affirmations/tuning processes.

I meditate in different ways, depending on the situation, and what I'm trying to achieve.

When I think of meditation, I tend to think of it more as opening my consciousness to the oneness of the universe.

When I'm interested in doing that, I usually sit or lie down. I find my ability to go inwards is *vastly* improved by physically exerting myself in some fashion before hand. At that point, I like to take a few deep breaths, and then say some kind of affirmation to myself to help tune myself to the purpose of the working, which is usually something to the effect of, "I now go within myself to dwell within the sacred confines of thought, and touch the Source from which I spring."

And then with every breath outwards, I let go, and try to open my consciousness to that which is. I try to place my consciousness on the feeling of being aware itself, which is like raw existence. In other-words, I attempt to rest in Beingness itself, which, in my understanding, is consciousness that has succeeded in transcending subject/object relationships.

The other kind of meditation I do, which I consider to be more like "prayer" because it involves consciously directing my thoughts to some kind of specific goal, is more like the white magician type of visualization. In this type of prayer, or meditation, I attempt to purely activate vibrations of that which is wanted, by visualizing things as I desire them to be. Sometimes, I use this type of visualization in the hypnagogic state between waking and sleeping in order to astral project or lucid dream (which are two sides of the same phenomenon).

I've had profound experiences with both kinds of meditation.