The depth of meditation.

[Shaddowpumpkin]

When meditating, I don't like to stay on the surface so much as to dive Right in. I've tried various methods for tracking how deep I am, but none that I can make sense of yet. I realise this sort of meditation can lead to all kinds of places. But has any one tried to map it out in any way?

[Lewk]

When meditating, I don't like to stay on the surface so much as to dive Right in. I've tried various methods for tracking how deep I am, but none that I can make sense of yet. I realise this sort of meditation can lead to all kinds of places. But has any one tried to map it out in any way?

Mediation is such a vast and varied subject.

Do you mean map out the places you can go in meditation - that sounds like guided journeys, maybe via visualisation or shamanic journeying. So that would be mapping out the multiverse I guess. People have mapped out the structure and levels of the astral planes and the shamanic Otherworld.

Or do you mean mapping out the levels of depth that can be achieved? That sounds like which one of the 5 brain wave frequencies - Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta, and Gamma - someone's in.

Another metric could be how deep into one's consciousness one has travelled - if the meditation is one in which depth is an aspect of the method. Eg when I learned TM in 1971 the phrase 'ride the mantra like a horse into the depths of your consciousness' was used.

Another way of mapping where someone has got to in meditation is whether they've gone beyond, say, intermittent visuals or energy experiences and reached Samadhi - a state of oneness with the object of meditation, where the identity of the meditator disappears.

[Shaddowpumpkin]

When meditating, I don't like to stay on the surface so much as to dive Right in. I've tried various methods for tracking how deep I am, but none that I can make sense of yet. I realise this sort of meditation can lead to all kinds of places. But has any one tried to map it out in any way?

Mediation is such a vast and varied subject.

Do you mean map out the places you can go in meditation - that sounds like guided journeys, maybe via visualisation or shamanic journeying. So that would be mapping out the multiverse I guess. People have mapped out the structure and levels of the astral planes and the shamanic Otherworld.

Or do you mean mapping out the levels of depth that can be achieved? That sounds like which one of the 5 brain wave frequencies - Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta, and Gamma - someone's in.

Another metric could be how deep into one's consciousness one has travelled - if the meditation is one in which depth is an aspect of the method. Eg when I learned TM in 1971 the phrase 'ride the mantra like a horse into the depths of your consciousness' was used.

Another way of mapping where someone has got to in meditation is whether they've gone beyond, say, intermittent visuals or energy experiences and reached Samadhi - a state of oneness with the object of meditation, where the identity of the meditator disappears.

Your always so full of information it's wonderful. In this case I think I'd be talking about how deep into ones consciousness ones traveled. I suppose it's a funny question for to me to ask, cause for me I seem to be sorta traped in a ball. Doesn't mean I haven't got through it. But even so I can't pass it. So lines can get burry in a hurry.

[Lewk]

Your always so full of information it's wonderful. In this case I think I'd be talking about how deep into ones consciousness ones traveled. I suppose it's a funny question for to me to ask, cause for me I seem to be sorta traped in a ball. Doesn't mean I haven't got through it. But even so I can't pass it. So lines can get burry in a hurry.

Thanks

Looking back on my own experiences, the deep meditations seem to have come without me trying for them, kind of unexpectedly. But they were definitely sustained as repeated experiences by my having been committed to keeping up regular practice and investigating time and effort into that. (Which might even have been the reason they came to me in the first place.)

That kind of reads like the old spiritual adage to be patient, do the practice and let the experience take care of itself and not get too attached to it. We all vary in terms of our mind/body systems - so it's probably best not to measure ourselves up against other people, or to aim for a standard / benchmark experience.

[Lewk]

EDIT: keeping up regular practice and investing time and effort into that.