Have you tried different meditation methods, but are looking to get more out of your meditation? There are many different meditation methods out there. They range from breathing meditations, sound meditations, focusing meditations, mantra meditations, silent meditations, contemplative meditations, and discarding meditations. There are other sub types, but they can all more or less fit into these categories. These can be fully guided or done completely individually. If you have tried any of these methods and are looking to deepen your own meditation practice in your journey, then we will break down the various methods, their pros, and cons, and what we believe to be the best method for everyone.
All meditation forms are to do with the mind, so with the above, we can categorize these meditation methods into two main groups and mount an argument as to what we think is the most effective method is. The 2 main types are filling the mind and emptying the mind. With filling the mind, we are trying to add into our mind a sense of calmness and peace, whereas emptying the mind is the opposite and the beauty of it is your original mind within you is the calm mind. Before we look at these 2 main types, we need to understand what the mind is.
The Human Mind
The human mind is a 5 senses camera. We have our eyes, nose, mouth, ears and our body, and this entire being is a 5 senses camera. Just like a camera takes pictures, and store it on the film, what is on the film is actually just a picture, and is therefore not real, and therefore it is false. For example, if I was holding a $20 note, and you took a picture of it, the $20 note in my hand is the REAL $20 note – I can take it to the store and spend it and use it in the world. However, what is on the film, is just a picture – it cannot be spent. Similarly, what is in our minds is exactly the same. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could just print our own money from our mind!? Unfortunately, however, we cannot, and it is therefore just a picture, which is not real, which is false. And so, everything stored in our mind is not the real thing it is just a subjective reflection of the past and thereby not real and false. From this 5 senses camera, we are taking “pictures” (thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories) and storing them in our brain, and we are actually living inside of this self-made mind world! Our whole entire life is stored in our minds as a videotape, and because we are living inside of it, we are not actually living in the world, but in our own mind worlds. If you close your eyes right now, you can recall what you did this morning, where you had breakfast, where it was, what you ate – and you yourself are in there. This is the proof that we are living inside of that mind world.
This is the lived life in our mind. This lived life is built on top of our habits. The habits are the minds we have inherited from our parents and our ancestors. Have you noticed you resemble your parents in appearance? Did you think your mind was separate? Of course not! Therefore, we also have similar characteristics, temperaments, personalities, and ways of thinking. These mind traits (habits) are passed down through the generations. So, one with a fiery personality has inherited it from one of their parents, grandparents, or other ancestors.
Then there is the body itself, which is the 5 senses camera itself. When you close your eyes, you can “see” your body with your mind’s eye. That 5 senses camera, which has anxiety or stress stored in the body takes pictures of that and stores it in your mind. If this is making sense, but you want to understand it further, you can check out our latest lecture from our Restful Saturday series, which is a free online live guided meditation session that you can book and join in on.
Therefore, the human mind is the life lived, habits and body. Your human mind is an accumulation of all of this, stored in your mind, and it is because we live inside of this that all of our problems arise. Because this is an incomplete and delusional existence – it does not actually exist! Just ask Eckhart Tolle. He refers to it as the voice in your head, but doesn't this all stem from the self you have stored within the head? Now that we understand the human mind, let us look at the 2 main types of meditations
Type 1 Meditations - Filling the Mind
Breathing meditations
The Wim Hoff Method is currently taking the world by storm, particularly amongst men looking to find some respite from their own minds. The basic principle behind breathing, is that regulating your breathing, regulates your blood flow and chemical responses in your body. These methods calm the mind in that moment and are a way of regulating stress and managing it according to science. But wouldn’t you rather just get rid of the stress all together and not have to try and manage your stress?
Sound meditations
Listening to music meditation, sound vibration meditation – these trigger emotional responses in our body creating particular sensations we interpret in our minds. Because matter is simply condensed energy, our bodies respond to these vibrations, and with the right vibrations can illicit emotional responses, and can trigger a sense of calmness. Once again, these feel GREAT when we are doing them, but as we go out into the world, we cannot really take those gongs with us to create the same sensations – so stress, anxiety and other uncontrollable emotions and feelings consume our mind and take us away from any sense of control. This is because we have not dealt with the roots of the mind, we have only really created the sensation at that moment whilst meditating, and whilst repetition here can deepen that sensation, is it really dealing with your hidden minds, or do they tend to burst out unexpectedly?
Focusing meditations
It can be said that mindfulness meditation falls under this category, but there are others like it. The idea is to simply focus on either an object, or a sensory feeling, or energetic responses in our body (e.g., chakras), and keep the mind in awareness and purity, and attempt to even purify ourselves through this process. As you do this, your focus flickers around and it is incredibly difficult for beginners to get a grasp of because our minds are filled over with “pictures” (thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories). This can deepen your focus with practice, and if that is all you are after, it may be quite good for you, but it really depends on what you are looking for.
Mantra meditations
This is similar to focusing meditation – the act of repetition in the mind takes our mind away from what we do not want to be thinking about or feeling, and instead focuses it on the mantra. What we are doing here is layering over another “picture” over the mountains of pictures in our mind and takes a great deal of devotion to maintain. Transcendental meditation is the most famous of this type, and it is a way for people to catch a glimpse of their true selves, although this can be quite rare.
Silent meditations
This is self-explanatory and we should be silent on it! But really, again, we're trying to fill our mind with silence.
Contemplative meditations
This is where we contemplate scriptures, or reflect on ourselves, in particular on “who am I?”. This process forms a picture in our mind about who we are and what is righteous. It can be said that this is the type of meditation a priest would practice. Through this process of deduction, we can discover for a moment “who am I?”, but the moment is fleeting. It can be transformational in the rarest of cases, and the reason is whilst we catch a glimpse, our human mind still remains and the self-made picture world which overlaps the world ends up taking a picture of this moment, and we then return to being trapped within it.
Type 2 Meditations - Emptying the Mind
This, in our opinion, is the more effective of the types of meditations. Because we live in our own mind worlds that overlap the world, calming the mind can be wonderful for that particular moment, but what we hope most people who are seeking to deepen their practice, is a permanent shift. The single most permanent shift is completely coming out of that self-made mind world, and not just glimpsing the true reality and experiencing fleeting enlightenment, but to actually become the enlightenment itself.
Mindfulness meditations
Amongst the most popular of these is mindfulness. We allow the thoughts in, not judge them, and let them pass. It is difficult to completely categorize this as discarding, as we are not actually dealing with the roots of the mind, we are just learning to “detach” and “let go”. But because the roots remain, the thoughts continuously persist, and it is a never-ending battle which can be difficult when the emotions and feelings are incredibly deep to simply “let them go”.
Discarding meditations
True discarding is actually a combination of many of the above types of methods, all united into one complete method. When we reflect on the life lived, we can see ourselves and how we lived, and as we discard these “pictures” from the self-made mind world, we find that we naturally change as we attachment to those pictures are released from our minds. All those trapped minds and energies are released from our body, and we naturally become free from those minds. So, for example, as we discard the experiences, feelings, emotions, and memories of stress from our mind over time, when a stressful situation occurs, we come to find that stress no longer arises! And this is actually a miracle. The stress is GONE. There is no management required as the stress has DISAPPEARED! Therefore, your mind is always at rest, always at peace, always happy, and better yet, your entire body is completely liberated and blood flows better, and so it has benefits not only for your mind, but for your entire body. You have dealt with the roots of the mind, and therefore you become completely free. What could be better than being completely free, forever happy, and forever living in the present moment unrestricted and unconfined? This is great freedom and liberation.
On top of this, along the way to discarding your false, self-made mind world, you will experience many enlightenments, and finally you will become that enlightenment itself! The world is already enlightened, but because my mind world overlaps, I am not living as the great Universe itself, which is within me.
So how can we help you?
So, if you are hitting roadblocks with your meditation journey, and it is not fulfilling what you are hoping to get out of it, why not just try discarding your mind? Not only do we believe this is the most thorough and profound method, but it is also completely guided live, in person and online. On top of that you will receive consultations and a network of support to ensure that you are moving in the right direction – something you do not get just by listening to guided meditations on YouTube. This is a complete method, and the whole point is that your own mind is the source of all of our problems, and it overlaps the Truth within you. You have everything you have ever desired, and all your problems are resolved, when you find that Land of Truth within you. And we can guide you there.
But you need to make the steps. Nothing is stopping you except for that false self.