Meditation/raising question.

[Tempestinateapot]

Ah, I get confused sometimes, 'cause I'm trained in Quantum Touch, and the terminology is used a bit differently. So, stimulating would be waking up the energy already inside you, and raising would be full body, including drawing in prana? Storage, for me, is always separate, and I have to put my intent on it to actually feel it go in. Otherwise, everything just keeps circulating and skips the lower tan tein.

[CFTraveler]

I'll admit that after doing the full-body circuit, which ends in storage, I do something that I invented (I think, I'm sure someone else's thought of it) I call it cobra breathing. I imagine the prana around me (like a halo or the cowled head of a cobra) and inhale it in; on the exhale I direct the energy to the sub-navel center (lower tan tien) and store it there. It makes me feel sure that I'm 'getting enough'.

[Aunt Clair]

can the repetitive action of drawing energy through the body act as a focus point and

act as a raising exercise as well
as a meditative exercise?

Yes , I feel that daily energy work will raise conciousness and the vibration and light quotient of the energy body .

[Michael Selwyn]

Brushing, sponging, stirring etc. actions I use for stimulation and then thirty minutes of raising energy using the full body circuit. The only qualm I can see is although the action of drawing energy acts a repetitive action drawing attention to a single focus point, there's no stillness, and the repeat actions of this meditative stance might not still the 'Monkey Mind'. But I don't know if it'd matter because I still use single focus point meditation anyway, through breath awareness or counting.

So I guess the question is, does single focus point meditation allow someone to achieve stillness over time? Or should it be superseded by an intent for complete stillness of the mind?

[Veles]

I prefer to raise energy while listening to some of my favorite music (some soft genre preferably), the setting is also important. For example, my backyard is coming out right onto a huge golf course, and right before sunset i get out there with an MP3 player and raise energy.
The setting and the music, serve as an inspiration, which is in my opinion a very important factor.

Give it a try and see if it works for you...

[wstein]

Focus on a single action is better many scattered thoughts. To arrive at the quiet state requires releasing all focus, actions, and thoughts. This is a step of a different nature.

The last step of the Tao is to is to let go of the Tao.

[Michael Selwyn]

Thanks wstein. I appreciate the comment. It seems easier to still the mind by focussing your attention on one specific thing, but to sit in the stillness is a bit different. I think I might've managed it, but i'm not too sure. I thought it'd be peaceful, which in a way I suppose it is, but it felt more alive & connected than anything. I know that probably doesn't make sense but I can't really describe it too well. I just know it wasn't like any sort of peaceful feeling I could've related it to. Could you perhaps point me in the right direction of some work which would help in taking the steps to nurture this stillness?

[Korpo]

Why shouldn't stillness feel alive?

The tranquil lake, the quiet wood - they are in fact full of life.

When the mind becomes still, everything eases. A big sigh of relief, the stresses fade, you feel yourself deeply relaxing and releasing. You just are. And what you are is alive.

Each level of stillness will in the end will make you aware of the more subtler things within you, deeper insights, the workings of the mind. Stillness removes the surface chatter, the monkey mind, and leads within.

Every insight you can share will surely help others.

Often our assumptions are just wrong, for example about emptiness. I once met emptiness within. We are often afraid of the void, because we wonder what might hide within the void. The truth is - nothing hides within the true void. As I encountered it in a glimpse I found it has no dimension, it is not a looming emptiness. It is just void, uniform, and nothing to be afraid of.

And so it may be with stillness. The more often you enter stillness, the more profound it becomes. The deeper you go inside. Stillness expands. It develops. It deepens.

Further good success,
Oliver

[Tom]

Could we be talking about raising energy from an outside source and then switching the focus from the technique to just feeling the energy flowing in at a specific point, so that the awareness of the energy flow keeps it going by itself? Having a meditation object that moves or changes in some way would make it easier to lock the mind in, because the mind is more comfortable with objects that move or change. It would be easier to develop concentration with this than with a lot of other objects.

I'm reminded of the main technique for meditation taught by Eric Pepin, who started his company "Higher Balance". It is to draw energy into a specific chakra while focussing awareness on a single point where the energy is drawn into the body over the chakra.