How long for actual Meditation...?

[conebeckham]

Music-

Tsalung means "channels and Winds" and is a method (or groups of methods, really) of practice by manipulating breath, the body, and wind and energy. It involves breathing techniques, physical yoga techniques, visualization, etc.

Trul Khor means "Wheel of Emanation" literally, but it's a Tibetan name for the physical practices associated with Tsa Lung practices. This stuff is also known as "Tibetan Yoga," and there are a variety of these traditions, most famously the TrulKhor and Tsalung practices of Naropa's Six Yogas. I should note there are also some systems developed by Western Yoga teachers, allegedly based on some of the traditional systems found in Tibet (and, mostly, stemming from India Tantric masters).

In most lineages, these are "advanced" practices, and often quite secret.

[Stewart]

listen to your own Guru SSJ3Gogeta http://video.buddhistdoor.com/movie/pla ... w_eng/1332

/magnus

....AKA alwayson/center channel?

[Pema Rigdzin]

Hmm, see I cannot help but think that there is no substitue for silent meditation (for want of a better description). Mantra, Yantra, Bells and Mudras seem to give me more to think abut rather than the opportunity to experience my mind. It feels a little like putting more furniture in the prison cell....thoughts?

BB...

In general, meditation can be categorized as either (1) shamatha/calming and focusing the mind or (2) vipashyana/cultivating insight. If you practice developing stability of focus and mindfulness on any object--be it an external object, your breath, a visualized object, or the meaning of the prayers/mantras you're reciting--without getting distracted, this is shamatha. Whether or not you're still is irrelevant aside from the fact that in the beginning stillness will probably be helpful because it's easier. But consider that you can't be still your whole life. If having to get up and go about your daily activities and responsibilities will always disrupt your shamatha, then what use is it?

Similarly, cultivating insight into the emptiness of self and other--vipashyana--can be achieved no matter what the object is and whether one is still or in motion. Stillness is just very helpful in the beginning until one makes some progress.

You may think you're emptying your mind and laying it bare when you meditate in stillness, but it's really still on an object: stillness or some idea of "nowness" or the notion or sense that you're mind is empty. So it's still quite full haha! In that case, it doesn't matter if what it's full of is "stillness/emptiness/now" or elaborate deities, mandalas, the recitation of mantras and prayers, and the motion of your body during mudras or yantra. In fact, if you can remain undistracted during the latter while simultaneously being aware of the emptiness of true existence of it all, that is much more thorough training to equip you to approach post-meditative life with the same mindfulness and insight.

[SunRay]

Hmm, see I cannot help but think that there is no substitue for silent meditation (for want of a better description). Mantra, Yantra, Bells and Mudras seem to give me more to think abut rather than the opportunity to experience my mind. It feels a little like putting more furniture in the prison cell....thoughts?

BB...

Why do you call Potala a prison cell?

[dharmagoat]

Hmm, see I cannot help but think that there is no substitue for silent meditation (for want of a better description). Mantra, Yantra, Bells and Mudras seem to give me more to think abut rather than the opportunity to experience my mind. It feels a little like putting more furniture in the prison cell....thoughts?

Compared with a tradition like Zen, Vajrayāna relies much more on concepts to structure and direct one's practice. To many of us this appears as unnecessary clutter.

Why do you call Potala a prison cell?

Maybe because it has very high walls?

[Lhug-Pa]

Compared with a tradition like Zen, Vajrayāna relies much more on concepts to structure and direct one's practice. To many of us this appears as unnecessary clutter.

Compared to Trekchö, or Karmamudra practice/Tsa-Lung practice of Vajrayana for example; Zen-meditation is seen as more conceptual.

Although I have heard that some Chan/Zen schools have Sexual Yoga within their praxis.

Regardless, there's a reason why it is said that Sutra methods generally take eons to attain Buddhahood; whereas with Tantrayana/Mahasandhi methods, it is taught that one can attain Buddhahood within sixteen lives, seven lives, or one lifetime.

[Steveyboy]

Hmmm... Interesting. Isn't the result of meditation more important than the actual meditation? I don't think any one form of meditation or formal practice is more superior than the other. I heard from a YouTube teaching by Tsem Rinpoche that he stresses to his students, what's more important is how we act and behave after we have left the meditation cushion or the 23 hours we spend off the cushion is the actual practice and the actual result of our meditations. Love this teaching and I thought it is very applicable.