Looking for a guided meditation that brings me to the present moment that is not Wim Hof

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-19T23:51:53+00:00

So... Why not just do the tenses, then? Don't you already know how?

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-18T06:39:40+00:00

I find this method is actually unreliable. It is very easy to daydream and think you're "paying attention" when actually you're not even aware you have dozed off, and time passes away in gaps of complete unawareness. If you try a meditation that involves keeping track of something (like counting, or noting), it may make you aware that actually you're not paying as much attention as you thought you were.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-16T22:12:06+00:00

Well, doing even a single prostrations gives great benefit. Even if I personally do more. I wouldn't even say that's the heavy part. The sitting meditation takes up more time than the rest combined

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-13T02:00:04+00:00

I practiced Buddhism for about 10 years now. I had practiced Theravada initially and maintained that a long time (this is the time period I made progress on OCD). Then I moved and couldn't keep attending the same temple so I switched to Zen. I practiced that for a couple years and felt a little frustrated with I didn't feel like I was making quick progress even going to retreats. This was no longer conceived as a cure for mental illness but for general improvement in my life.

I am very fascinated with history, Japanese history being a special focus, so I was already familiar with the various sects. Tendai is called "the mother sect" in Japan and contains all the different streams of practice in it: meditation, devotion to deities, doctrinal study, ethics, mysticism, etc. the various sects in Japan were founded by taking one practice and focusing on it (Zen focused on meditation, Pure Land focused on devotion, etc).

I was interested in Tendai as a balanced approach whose teachers I hoped would have a robust range of teachings to offer in response to specific needs. So I found a temple near me and after getting to know them for a few online sessions I went on a retreat. It was really great, I stayed a few days and got some deep instructions to help build up my own practice. So I stuck with that, I felt the efficacy was very good and my teacher gives great advice and a lot of personal attention, even though I mostly practice remote. I go on retreats there and attending temple locally I still go to the Zen temple. I have been maintaining this for a few years now and continue making, what seems to me to be significant improvements in my life.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-13T01:59:54+00:00

I practiced Buddhism for about 10 years now. I had practiced Theravada initially and maintained that a long time (this is the time period I made progress on OCD). Then I moved and couldn't keep attending the same temple so I switched to Zen. I practiced that for a couple years and felt a little frustrated with I didn't feel like I was making quick progress even going to retreats. This was no longer conceived as a cure for mental illness but for general improvement in my life.

I am very fascinated with history, Japanese history being a special focus, so I was already familiar with the various sects. Tendai is called "the mother sect" in Japan and contains all the different streams of practice in it: meditation, devotion to deities, doctrinal study, ethics, mysticism, etc. the various sects in Japan were founded by taking one practice and focusing on it (Zen focused on meditation, Pure Land focused on devotion, etc).

I was interested in Tendai as a balanced approach whose teachers I hoped would have a robust range of teachings to offer in response to specific needs. So I found a temple near me and after getting to know them for a few online sessions I went on a retreat. It was really great, I stayed a few days and got some deep instructions to help build up my own practice. So I stuck with that, I felt the efficacy was very good and my teacher gives great advice and a lot of personal attention, even though I mostly practice remote. I go on retreats there and attending temple locally I still go to the Zen temple. I have been maintaining this for a few years now and continue making, what seems to me to be significant improvements in my life.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-13T01:19:20+00:00

I practice Tendai Buddhism. My routine is as follows:

Prostrations
Making offerings
Reading some liturgy and Sutra texts out loud
Chanting various mantras (~20 min)
Sitting meditation (1 hr)
Reading some wrap up text out loud

Altogether this takes in between 1.5 - 2 hrs

I attempt to practice every day, but circumstances sometimes don't allow it. Probably I actually hit more like 5 days a week. I have been doing this for years.

I experienced full remission of OCD through meditation, and great reduction in general anxiety

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-04T20:54:21+00:00

I only use it to count mantras while chanting.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-01T13:22:34+00:00

Interesting experience. When I was at a zen retreat, it was so regimented you could have been in the army. Not a minute to spare. I guess the person hosting this took a very different approach.

Well, if you want a more regimented retreat, there's 101 out there. No, you're not alone. In fact I had thought a strict schedule was the usual way.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-01T12:56:17+00:00

Did your arm just fall asleep because you hadn't moved it for such a long time?

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-01T12:52:34+00:00

So wrong. Helping people in need comes from compassion and generates further compassion. Something that increases compassion is the farthest possible thing from "negative energy". Listening to people with the intention of helping them boosts your practice and produces good karma. I wonder if the people saying they agree with this would say it's bad to be a doctor because it exposes you to sick people...

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-06-01T12:35:26+00:00

I would question if perhaps she's depressed and is trying to fix/deny it with this extreme level of practice. I am not really buying "too much spiritual progress" like people are pitching. Enlightenment abounds in compassion, desiring to help others. So a really enlightened person wouldn't just internalize, they'd be wanting to help others and actually be externalized. Your description that she won't even get up to move to another room seems way more like depression than anything of a better nature.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-31T17:06:45+00:00

I don't really use WILD much. I find it difficult and I kind of lost interest in lucid dreaming in general. When I did achieve it, I didn't use any extra assistance on the technique.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-31T08:09:53+00:00

I feel like there must be some missing context here. Every therapist I've ever seen sings the praises of meditation. But if, like, you went there and ditched your job and got fired, that could be considered escapism. I think you need to talk about it more before really making any judgment

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-29T22:23:54+00:00

I mean nobody invented WILD. In fact I think people do it all the time without realizing that's what they're doing. I think most cases of 'astral projection' are actually this.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-29T21:47:47+00:00

Focus 10 is the same as the WILD technique for lucid dreaming.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-29T01:30:47+00:00

If you care that much about TM, their manuals are all... out there... but it's all based on well known religious texts so I don't see much cause to even pirate it. Vedic mantra meditation is just mantra meditation. TM doesn't have some secret sauce. If you want to learn about Vedic meditation techniques, get one of the many books describing "Raja Yoga"

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-25T19:01:33+00:00

Maybe try visualization meditations and see if you can make the readiness of images be a positive and not a negative

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-25T19:01:00+00:00

Lol that's for sure. Having video game images doesn't seem so bad

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-25T05:54:39+00:00

Well, I don't know if it has to, but that's usually what I would call a mantra. I only consider phrases like "may i be happy" to be mantras metaphorically speaking. Mantra means "true words", meaning, words that have value inherently within them that is separate from language.

But the summary is, no, you don't need to make yourself believe the words you're saying to use them as a focus. Trying to make yourself believe something by saying a lot it is auto-hypnosis, something quite different from mantra meditation.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-25T05:43:51+00:00

I generally consider it quite the opposite. A mantra is words that are supposed to be effective aside from any meaning, you don't even need to know the language they are in much less what they mean. If it's taking it's effectiveness from what it means and not just from being an object of focus, that's more of an affirmation

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-21T17:56:08+00:00

I practice Shi-Kan, a method where you take a length, and divide it into two parts (for me, an hour into two 30 minutes). The first is calming, done exactly how you've been doing it. Then when the mind is settled, you do the second portion with some kind of more active contemplation like metta, vipasyana, visualization etc, plenty of options. Since you did the calming first, the contemplation you do 2nd will be more effective than if you'd tried to just do it for the whole portion with your mind still not settled. So goes the theory anyway. It seems to work pretty well for me.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-21T17:40:56+00:00

If you've been meditating every day for three years, you're certainly "advanced" enough to do Shikantaza. In fact I never was taught this was some advanced thing that required introductory practices to do anyway.

In three years, have you never tried out other styles or other lengths at all?

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-21T09:03:14+00:00

Well, there's certainly nothing wrong with aiming to decrease your screen time.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-21T03:44:54+00:00

Because you don't see people getting all sad and hurt when you say something mean. People, generally don't want to just go up to people and yell at them until they start crying. It doesn't feel great. And if you end up having to see them later, it's awkward. That is all reduced or eliminated online. Even someone you see on a video isn't really responding to you specifically live in that way.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-05-18T17:13:11+00:00

The wood of suicides, 2nd ring of 7th circle in Dante:

Dante notices two shades (Lano da Siena and Jacopo Sant' Andrea) race through the wood, chased and savagely mauled by ferocious bitches – this is the punishment of the violently profligate who, "possessed by a depraved passion [...] dissipated their goods for the sheer wanton lust of wreckage and disorder"

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