| For the study, participants were taught to meditate by focusing on the sensation of their breathing, acknowledging and dismissing any stray thoughts that popped into their heads.
For those who do practice meditation, what are other techniques that are effective to you?
It's worth spending a bit of time reading on, as I find the descriptions here to be overly superficial, perhaps largely because meditation is more defined by what you do not do, than what you do. It's also worth noting that there are many types of meditation. Years ago I read "Buddhism without Beliefs" (on "agnostic Buddhism"). Bullshitty as the title may sound, the major thing that I came away with was a decent meditation practice that I stuck to for a few months.
Sadly, I've found even for those convinced of meditation's benefits, like exercise, knowing you should do it doesn't mean you do.
As a side note, the all time best quote on meditation, from Tom Robbins' Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates:
"Meditation hasn't got a damn thing to do with anything, 'cause all it has to do with is nothing. Nothingness. Okay? It doesn't develop the mind, it dissolves the mind. Self-improvement? Forget it, baby. It erases the self. Throws the ego out on its big brittle ass. What good is it? Good for nothing. Excellent for nothing. Yes, Lord, but when you get down to nothing, you get down to ultimate reality. It's then and exactly then that you're sensing the true nature of the universe, you're linked up with the absolute Absolute, son, and unless you're content with blowing smoke up your butt all your life, that there's the only place to be."
I highly suggest "The Tibetan Book of The Dead" and "The Power of Silence." Try to find the TBOTD version translated by W.Y. Evans-Wentz if you're not one for happy meal, watered-down philosophy. Take these texts with a grain of salt at first only because they will be thoroughly alien to your mind; once absorbed use wisely.
"...that which clingth not no fall can come. Where no fall cometh, there is rest, and where rest is, there is no keen desire. Where keen desire is not, naught cometh or goeth; and where naught cometh or goeth there is no death, no birth." -GB, TBOTD
"Cutting our chains is marvelous, but also very undesirable, for nobody wants to be free." -CC, The Power of Silence
EDIT: btw yogic flying is for idiots. Those who've practiced meditation for years and those fewer who've reached Nirvana have accessed and gained control enough to manipulate what they call the dharmakaya which is connected to the right temporal lobe I believe (also referred to as the silent mind). Those with this degree of mastery have OOB experiences with great maneuverability.
Both the practice and the book are honest and simple in approach. I used to hunt for complex, cerebral stuff, dismissing anything else, but have slowly realised the error of my ways.
Your problem is that you thought understanding could guide you in meditation. It can't. But it's still necessary for advanced techniques. Anything worthwhile takes time and discipline--don't give up. Real meditation isn't a weekend retreat. Sorry yuppies. :(
Why on earth would an old translation in that kind of Biblical language be preferable above a newer translation? That kind of language is perfect for suggesting wisdom, through age, where there isn't any.
> It doesn't develop the mind, it dissolves the mind. Self-improvement?
> Forget it, baby. It erases the self.
> Throws the ego out on its big brittle ass.
This doesn't sound like it fits the western culture at all. I'd think twice about going down a path that is so fundemantally different from what we've learned since kindergarden.
I don't mean to offend, but kindergarden teachers are rarely cognitive neuroscientists. The whole idea of having no idea, of having nothing and no ego is to get you out of your own way. People get caught up on the words, concepts, and ideas of things, which are not actually the things they point to. There is no spoon because a spoon is only an idea, a socially acceptable approximation in a particular context, while what you hold to eat is unspeakable.
The article describes the basics of vipassana (insight) meditation. The same description applies to zazen, the meditation practice in Zen. I believe it is actually the basis for all meditative practice.
You can layer on certain guided thoughts (like mantras and chants), but meditative practice is more powerful the simpler it is. You must strip away as much as possible -- to just sit and bring the body, breath, and mind into sync using breath focus and an aware non-judgmental mind. There are many books written on the subject; I can personally recommend Mindfulness in Plain English (free version at http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html).
Meditation of this form is key to transforming your entire life. It is the gateway or pathway you can use to find and accept your true self and see yourself and your life for what it is. It is how you truly see that you cannot escape the present moment and that you have the full ability to choose how you relate to it. Sogyal Rinpoche says it better than I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tIBYxed16s.
I practice it as samatha meditation. If this was not HN I would have corrected you and say it was samatha (tranquility) meditation and not vipassana, but on HN I have learned that people usually know what they are talking about ;-) and thanks to Wikipedia I have just learned it is used for vipassana as well. Apparently the Buddha himself regarded it as a Swiss army knife that develops all "seven factors of awakening: sati (mindfulness), dhamma vicaya (analysis), viriya (persistence), which leads to piti (rapture), then to passaddhi (serenity), which in turn leads to samadhi (concentration) and then to upekkhā (equanimity)."
As I understand the distinction, samatha meditation develops the ability to achieve mental tranquility and sustained focus, and vipassana meditation develops insight through awareness, introspection, and rational analysis. It's easy to see why breath-awareness meditation can be used for samatha, but I did not understand how it could be used for vipassana. According to what I just read, it becomes vipassana when the meditator takes his consciousness itself as the object of awareness.
I sit on a cushion for fifteen minutes or so, sitting cross-legged so that my back is relatively straight and my knees keep the whole posture relatively stable.
Beyond that, it's just sitting and observing. If (ok, when) I notice my focus has drifted and I'm getting caught up in thoughts, I stop feeding into them and return focus to my breath, posture, and surroundings.
It can be dreadfully boring, but when I do it periodically, it really does help - like taking the lid off a pot on the verge of boiling over. (It's an especially direct way to train your mind to stay focused, too.)
There's a decent chapter about sitting meditation in Brad Warner's _Hardcore Zen_, which I also recommend because it isn't a bunch of new-age-y sunshine and lollipops. (Looking at a lot of other Western books on Buddhism, you'd think Zen had antioxidants or something.)
You needn't sit on a couch, cushion cross-legged ..
You can very well walk in a park and keep your focus on breath or feet or on the ground in front, or the bushes and greenery, all the while ignoring any thoughts that come up.
You can also sit on a park bench looking at the trees, focusing on the looking, being aware of looking.
This is known as awareness of awareness, or consciousness of consciousness which does sound fake but its very simple and effective. You soon start getting a feeling of what you really are as opposed to the belief of being a body/mind.
Being aware of this "I-feeling" is considered by many to be the fastest or direct path. This I-feeling is also found in the present moment when there is no past or future.
or Be aware of what is present between thoughts.
or Put your focus on what is conscious of existing.
There are tonnes of references that point to the same thing in different words:
- Power of Now (Tolle)
- Michael Langford (albigen.com - full book available)
- Youtubes of Papaji, Mooji, Tolle and many others
I've only read the google books previews of Brads books, but im impressed. As a hardcore punk fan myself i wasn't as surprised as most to the connection the Brad Warner made between punk and zen. Also anybody who puts dirty toilets, and tattooed Buddhas with mohawks on the cover of his zen books gets my respect. People should also check out his blog: http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/
As for meditation practice, just sitting is enough, every time i have a thought or a disturbance of any kind i just readjust my pose.
Yeah, usually when my mind starts to wander, it's reflected in slouching. I don't know which (if either) comes first, though.
BTW, if you're getting hung up on having a perfect cushion, let it go. You can sit zazen on the corner of a couch cushion. Seiza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiza) works, too, but I wouldn't unless you're already used to it.
That description of meditation uses terms which cause a lot of confusion. Focusing on anything leads to problems. Dismissing thoughts leads to repression and unconscious expression of the thoughts. The way my teacher puts it is "rest in the experience of breathing." That means fostering awareness of every aspect of experience: the physical, the emotional and the mental.
As for "effective," if you practice with any hope for improving your life, you're likely to end up disappointed. That said, I do two hours of dzogchen meditation a day, one hour when I've just gotten up, and one just before bed. This allows me to be highly functional on five hours of sleep a night. (I've always gotten about five hours of sleep a night, but this allows me to function that way) and has opened up a world of new possibilities in emotional awareness and emotional regulation. It does force awareness of the pressing problems in life, which is uncomfortable, but better, in the long run, than ignorance.
In this case, he/she is probably referring to dealing with things before they have a chance to turn into big issues - remembering to buy toilet paper when you're almost out, picking out clothes the night before when you need to be up early, actually getting enough sleep / exercise, etc.
Uncomfortable and boring sometimes, but you can avoid a lot of stress by catching things before they turn into big issues. Of course, if you thrive on drama, then making a habit of ignoring things until they blow up in your face will feed the fire. (Know anybody like that?)
I think the people at my old Aikido dojo called this "zanshin".
Are you kidding? If you want to see the negative consequences of ignorance, just look at the trajectory of the US over the last decade. All the new problems the US faces today were anticipated by astute Cassandras.
It is supposedly a transcript from the buddha discources.
There is nothing "spiritual" about it and is very systematic (basically lists of what to do) and worded very carefully. Most practaces I have gone to seem to lack the precice details.
Here is the main part, sorry for the length, but I tried to summarise and it would not do.
"Now how is mindfulness of in-&-out breathing developed & pursued so as to be of great fruit, of great benefit?
"There is the case where a monk, having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree, or to an empty building, sits down folding his legs crosswise, holding his body erect, and setting mindfulness to the fore.[1] Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out. "
"[1] Breathing in long, he discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, he discerns that he is breathing out long. [2] Or breathing in short, he discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, he discerns that he is breathing out short. [3] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the entire body,[2] and to breathe out sensitive to the entire body. [4] He trains himself to breathe in calming bodily fabrication (the breath),[3] and to breathe out calming bodily fabrication.
"[5] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to rapture, and to breathe out sensitive to rapture. [6] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to pleasure, and to breathe out sensitive to pleasure. [7] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to mental fabrication (feeling & perception), and to breathe out sensitive to mental fabrication. [8] He trains himself to breathe in calming mental fabrication,[4] and to breathe out calming mental fabrication.
"[9] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the mind, and to breathe out sensitive to the mind. [10] He trains himself to breathe in satisfying the mind, and to breathe out satisfying the mind. [11] He trains himself to breathe in steadying the mind, and to breathe out steadying the mind. [12] He trains himself to breathe in releasing the mind, and to breathe out releasing the mind.[5]
"[13] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on inconstancy, and to breathe out focusing on inconstancy. [14] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on dispassion [literally, fading], and to breathe out focusing on dispassion. [15] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on cessation, and to breathe out focusing on cessation. [16] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on relinquishment, and to breathe out focusing on relinquishment.
I have not practiced in a long time, but the core idea of mindfulness meditation is to enjoy the "right here right now". If focusing on your breath isn't for you, you can focus on something else that puts you in that state, like closing your eyes and simply listening to the sounds around you.
This should help in quieting your inner monologue. When you find your brain trying to restart that monologue, just acknowledge that it happened and refocus. Remember not to think of these events as somehow being bad or failing since then you are dwelling on the past, just refocus without judging.
That's the essence of mindfulness meditation (the technique used in the paper). There's a completely different school that requires the use of mantras like "om" etc. Transcendental meditation is an example of a mantra-based technique. For myself, I find the mindfulness approach more useful and grounded than the mantra approach. There are also more active techniques such as tai chi, qi gong and yoga but they only qualify as "meditation" if they're done with a very conscious and meditative mindset.
I have been burning birthday candles in little wooden heart shaped blocks. (drill 1/4" hole) They take about 20 minutes, and provide just enough structure and "accomplishment" to keep up the practice. I usually do this in the morning before dressing.
Initially, I would count breaths and see how long I could go without thinking about anything. Over time (years), the "water got clearer" and I usually spend the time drilling deep down to see how I am "really" feeling. It's like practice so I remember to do that throughout the day, and feels like a natural consequence of quieting your thoughts.
As for reading, I recommend "Three Pillars of Zen" to hear about other people's experiences with enlightenment, and www.101zenstories.com for koans to contemplate.
Other techniques ? There is only one core technique. Some people do yoga as an adjunct activity. I have an hourly chime that keeps me centered in case I stray. Minimum amount of TV. Walking vs driving. If I have to drive, I stay in the right lane and focus on the sensation of driving instead of pedal to the metal. I throw away stuff or sell them on ebay constantly to keep down the clutter.
Do you mean other meditation techniques? Or other techniques, outside of meditation?
I can't speak to the non-Buddhist traditions, but within Buddhism, there are literally hundreds of different meditation techniques beyond the technique described above.
There's a lot of breath-based techniques, but there are also a lot of techniques that use other objects of meditation. Personally, I find walking meditation to be quite effective, for a change of pace.
I highly recommend http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion as a forum for open and fairly nondogmatic discussion of practice. The existing threads have a huge variety of practice techniques and discussions/diagnosis for their results.
The key to proper meditation is a good view and three well made cocktails. For the view your choices run ocean, mountain, or city. In each case, classy hotel rooftop works well.
For the cocktails, the importance of quality vermouth and bitters cannot be overemphasized. A top notch Americano requires both and will aid you greatly in your meditation.
Comments
| For the study, participants were taught to meditate by focusing on the sensation of their breathing, acknowledging and dismissing any stray thoughts that popped into their heads.
For those who do practice meditation, what are other techniques that are effective to you?
It's worth spending a bit of time reading on, as I find the descriptions here to be overly superficial, perhaps largely because meditation is more defined by what you do not do, than what you do. It's also worth noting that there are many types of meditation. Years ago I read "Buddhism without Beliefs" (on "agnostic Buddhism"). Bullshitty as the title may sound, the major thing that I came away with was a decent meditation practice that I stuck to for a few months.
Sadly, I've found even for those convinced of meditation's benefits, like exercise, knowing you should do it doesn't mean you do.
http://monkeymindonline.blogspot.com/2008/04/critical-analys...
As a side note, the all time best quote on meditation, from Tom Robbins' Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates:
"Meditation hasn't got a damn thing to do with anything, 'cause all it has to do with is nothing. Nothingness. Okay? It doesn't develop the mind, it dissolves the mind. Self-improvement? Forget it, baby. It erases the self. Throws the ego out on its big brittle ass. What good is it? Good for nothing. Excellent for nothing. Yes, Lord, but when you get down to nothing, you get down to ultimate reality. It's then and exactly then that you're sensing the true nature of the universe, you're linked up with the absolute Absolute, son, and unless you're content with blowing smoke up your butt all your life, that there's the only place to be."
I highly suggest "The Tibetan Book of The Dead" and "The Power of Silence." Try to find the TBOTD version translated by W.Y. Evans-Wentz if you're not one for happy meal, watered-down philosophy. Take these texts with a grain of salt at first only because they will be thoroughly alien to your mind; once absorbed use wisely.
"...that which clingth not no fall can come. Where no fall cometh, there is rest, and where rest is, there is no keen desire. Where keen desire is not, naught cometh or goeth; and where naught cometh or goeth there is no death, no birth." -GB, TBOTD
"Cutting our chains is marvelous, but also very undesirable, for nobody wants to be free." -CC, The Power of Silence
EDIT: btw yogic flying is for idiots. Those who've practiced meditation for years and those fewer who've reached Nirvana have accessed and gained control enough to manipulate what they call the dharmakaya which is connected to the right temporal lobe I believe (also referred to as the silent mind). Those with this degree of mastery have OOB experiences with great maneuverability.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmakāya
I had a great experience with a very simple practice called Vipassana. I wrote about it straight after doing a 10-day course of meditation - 9 days of no speaking was an event in itself: http://weblog.squareapple.net/archives/2004/11/26/art_of_liv...
A book I've really appreciated on the practice is called "The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation" - http://www.amazon.com/Art-Living-Vipassana-Meditation/dp/006...
Both the practice and the book are honest and simple in approach. I used to hunt for complex, cerebral stuff, dismissing anything else, but have slowly realised the error of my ways.
Your problem is that you thought understanding could guide you in meditation. It can't. But it's still necessary for advanced techniques. Anything worthwhile takes time and discipline--don't give up. Real meditation isn't a weekend retreat. Sorry yuppies. :(
Why on earth would an old translation in that kind of Biblical language be preferable above a newer translation? That kind of language is perfect for suggesting wisdom, through age, where there isn't any.
That final quote is a mind-blower, could not have put it better myself. Hits the nail on the head. Thanks a lot for it.
I don't mean to offend, but kindergarden teachers are rarely cognitive neuroscientists. The whole idea of having no idea, of having nothing and no ego is to get you out of your own way. People get caught up on the words, concepts, and ideas of things, which are not actually the things they point to. There is no spoon because a spoon is only an idea, a socially acceptable approximation in a particular context, while what you hold to eat is unspeakable.
The article describes the basics of vipassana (insight) meditation. The same description applies to zazen, the meditation practice in Zen. I believe it is actually the basis for all meditative practice.
You can layer on certain guided thoughts (like mantras and chants), but meditative practice is more powerful the simpler it is. You must strip away as much as possible -- to just sit and bring the body, breath, and mind into sync using breath focus and an aware non-judgmental mind. There are many books written on the subject; I can personally recommend Mindfulness in Plain English (free version at http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html).
Meditation of this form is key to transforming your entire life. It is the gateway or pathway you can use to find and accept your true self and see yourself and your life for what it is. It is how you truly see that you cannot escape the present moment and that you have the full ability to choose how you relate to it. Sogyal Rinpoche says it better than I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tIBYxed16s.
I practice it as samatha meditation. If this was not HN I would have corrected you and say it was samatha (tranquility) meditation and not vipassana, but on HN I have learned that people usually know what they are talking about ;-) and thanks to Wikipedia I have just learned it is used for vipassana as well. Apparently the Buddha himself regarded it as a Swiss army knife that develops all "seven factors of awakening: sati (mindfulness), dhamma vicaya (analysis), viriya (persistence), which leads to piti (rapture), then to passaddhi (serenity), which in turn leads to samadhi (concentration) and then to upekkhā (equanimity)."
As I understand the distinction, samatha meditation develops the ability to achieve mental tranquility and sustained focus, and vipassana meditation develops insight through awareness, introspection, and rational analysis. It's easy to see why breath-awareness meditation can be used for samatha, but I did not understand how it could be used for vipassana. According to what I just read, it becomes vipassana when the meditator takes his consciousness itself as the object of awareness.
I sit on a cushion for fifteen minutes or so, sitting cross-legged so that my back is relatively straight and my knees keep the whole posture relatively stable.
Beyond that, it's just sitting and observing. If (ok, when) I notice my focus has drifted and I'm getting caught up in thoughts, I stop feeding into them and return focus to my breath, posture, and surroundings.
It can be dreadfully boring, but when I do it periodically, it really does help - like taking the lid off a pot on the verge of boiling over. (It's an especially direct way to train your mind to stay focused, too.)
There's a decent chapter about sitting meditation in Brad Warner's _Hardcore Zen_, which I also recommend because it isn't a bunch of new-age-y sunshine and lollipops. (Looking at a lot of other Western books on Buddhism, you'd think Zen had antioxidants or something.)
You needn't sit on a couch, cushion cross-legged .. You can very well walk in a park and keep your focus on breath or feet or on the ground in front, or the bushes and greenery, all the while ignoring any thoughts that come up. You can also sit on a park bench looking at the trees, focusing on the looking, being aware of looking.
This is known as awareness of awareness, or consciousness of consciousness which does sound fake but its very simple and effective. You soon start getting a feeling of what you really are as opposed to the belief of being a body/mind.
Being aware of this "I-feeling" is considered by many to be the fastest or direct path. This I-feeling is also found in the present moment when there is no past or future.
or Be aware of what is present between thoughts.
or Put your focus on what is conscious of existing.
There are tonnes of references that point to the same thing in different words:
- Power of Now (Tolle) - Michael Langford (albigen.com - full book available) - Youtubes of Papaji, Mooji, Tolle and many others
I've only read the google books previews of Brads books, but im impressed. As a hardcore punk fan myself i wasn't as surprised as most to the connection the Brad Warner made between punk and zen. Also anybody who puts dirty toilets, and tattooed Buddhas with mohawks on the cover of his zen books gets my respect. People should also check out his blog: http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/
As for meditation practice, just sitting is enough, every time i have a thought or a disturbance of any kind i just readjust my pose.
Yeah, usually when my mind starts to wander, it's reflected in slouching. I don't know which (if either) comes first, though.
BTW, if you're getting hung up on having a perfect cushion, let it go. You can sit zazen on the corner of a couch cushion. Seiza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiza) works, too, but I wouldn't unless you're already used to it.
That description of meditation uses terms which cause a lot of confusion. Focusing on anything leads to problems. Dismissing thoughts leads to repression and unconscious expression of the thoughts. The way my teacher puts it is "rest in the experience of breathing." That means fostering awareness of every aspect of experience: the physical, the emotional and the mental.
As for "effective," if you practice with any hope for improving your life, you're likely to end up disappointed. That said, I do two hours of dzogchen meditation a day, one hour when I've just gotten up, and one just before bed. This allows me to be highly functional on five hours of sleep a night. (I've always gotten about five hours of sleep a night, but this allows me to function that way) and has opened up a world of new possibilities in emotional awareness and emotional regulation. It does force awareness of the pressing problems in life, which is uncomfortable, but better, in the long run, than ignorance.
Why not drop the meditation and sleep a more-normal (and certainly more-refreshing) 7 hours a night?
Likely insomnia prevents him or her from getting more than 5 hours of sleep.
Yeah, I'm a light sleeper.
My sleep improved a lot once I started using a white noise generator. It takes about a week to get used to it. Highly recommended:
http://www.amazon.com/Marpac-Conditioner-SleepMate-580A-Mach...
Yeah, I used to use an air filter for this purpose. Now I just use earplugs.
>...but better, in the long run, than ignorance.
How so?
In this case, he/she is probably referring to dealing with things before they have a chance to turn into big issues - remembering to buy toilet paper when you're almost out, picking out clothes the night before when you need to be up early, actually getting enough sleep / exercise, etc.
Uncomfortable and boring sometimes, but you can avoid a lot of stress by catching things before they turn into big issues. Of course, if you thrive on drama, then making a habit of ignoring things until they blow up in your face will feed the fire. (Know anybody like that?)
I think the people at my old Aikido dojo called this "zanshin".
Are you kidding? If you want to see the negative consequences of ignorance, just look at the trajectory of the US over the last decade. All the new problems the US faces today were anticipated by astute Cassandras.
No, the "dismissing" of thoughts goes like this:
1. Recognize you are having a discoursive thought 2. Identify it 3. Release it
It's not repression at all: it's acknowledgment, like saying hello to someone you recognize on the street, but continuing where you are going.
If you can see through the language, repetitiveness and overlook some of the context setting, the best resource is here.
http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/ati_website/canon/sutta/m...
It is supposedly a transcript from the buddha discources.
There is nothing "spiritual" about it and is very systematic (basically lists of what to do) and worded very carefully. Most practaces I have gone to seem to lack the precice details.
Here is the main part, sorry for the length, but I tried to summarise and it would not do.
"Now how is mindfulness of in-&-out breathing developed & pursued so as to be of great fruit, of great benefit?
"There is the case where a monk, having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree, or to an empty building, sits down folding his legs crosswise, holding his body erect, and setting mindfulness to the fore.[1] Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out. "
"[1] Breathing in long, he discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, he discerns that he is breathing out long. [2] Or breathing in short, he discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, he discerns that he is breathing out short. [3] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the entire body,[2] and to breathe out sensitive to the entire body. [4] He trains himself to breathe in calming bodily fabrication (the breath),[3] and to breathe out calming bodily fabrication.
"[5] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to rapture, and to breathe out sensitive to rapture. [6] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to pleasure, and to breathe out sensitive to pleasure. [7] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to mental fabrication (feeling & perception), and to breathe out sensitive to mental fabrication. [8] He trains himself to breathe in calming mental fabrication,[4] and to breathe out calming mental fabrication.
"[9] He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the mind, and to breathe out sensitive to the mind. [10] He trains himself to breathe in satisfying the mind, and to breathe out satisfying the mind. [11] He trains himself to breathe in steadying the mind, and to breathe out steadying the mind. [12] He trains himself to breathe in releasing the mind, and to breathe out releasing the mind.[5]
"[13] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on inconstancy, and to breathe out focusing on inconstancy. [14] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on dispassion [literally, fading], and to breathe out focusing on dispassion. [15] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on cessation, and to breathe out focusing on cessation. [16] He trains himself to breathe in focusing on relinquishment, and to breathe out focusing on relinquishment.
I have not practiced in a long time, but the core idea of mindfulness meditation is to enjoy the "right here right now". If focusing on your breath isn't for you, you can focus on something else that puts you in that state, like closing your eyes and simply listening to the sounds around you.
This should help in quieting your inner monologue. When you find your brain trying to restart that monologue, just acknowledge that it happened and refocus. Remember not to think of these events as somehow being bad or failing since then you are dwelling on the past, just refocus without judging.
Edit: you may find this presentation that Jon Kabat-Zinn gave at Google interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc
I also found his audio book "Mindfulness for Beginners" very enjoyable. The second cd contains 2 guided meditations which may help you get started.
That's the essence of mindfulness meditation (the technique used in the paper). There's a completely different school that requires the use of mantras like "om" etc. Transcendental meditation is an example of a mantra-based technique. For myself, I find the mindfulness approach more useful and grounded than the mantra approach. There are also more active techniques such as tai chi, qi gong and yoga but they only qualify as "meditation" if they're done with a very conscious and meditative mindset.
Qi gong, tai chi, and yoga qualify as themselves only if done with a conscious and meditative mindset.
I have been burning birthday candles in little wooden heart shaped blocks. (drill 1/4" hole) They take about 20 minutes, and provide just enough structure and "accomplishment" to keep up the practice. I usually do this in the morning before dressing.
Initially, I would count breaths and see how long I could go without thinking about anything. Over time (years), the "water got clearer" and I usually spend the time drilling deep down to see how I am "really" feeling. It's like practice so I remember to do that throughout the day, and feels like a natural consequence of quieting your thoughts.
As for reading, I recommend "Three Pillars of Zen" to hear about other people's experiences with enlightenment, and www.101zenstories.com for koans to contemplate.
Other techniques ? There is only one core technique. Some people do yoga as an adjunct activity. I have an hourly chime that keeps me centered in case I stray. Minimum amount of TV. Walking vs driving. If I have to drive, I stay in the right lane and focus on the sensation of driving instead of pedal to the metal. I throw away stuff or sell them on ebay constantly to keep down the clutter.
I listen to binaural beat loops (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats). It works great. I use Holosync (http://www.centerpointe.com/) for meditation and for short power-naps/quasi-meditation, I use Pzizz on my iPhone (http://www.pzizz.com/). I can especially recommend Pzizz.
Do you mean other meditation techniques? Or other techniques, outside of meditation?
I can't speak to the non-Buddhist traditions, but within Buddhism, there are literally hundreds of different meditation techniques beyond the technique described above.
There's a lot of breath-based techniques, but there are also a lot of techniques that use other objects of meditation. Personally, I find walking meditation to be quite effective, for a change of pace.
I highly recommend http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion as a forum for open and fairly nondogmatic discussion of practice. The existing threads have a huge variety of practice techniques and discussions/diagnosis for their results.
The key to proper meditation is a good view and three well made cocktails. For the view your choices run ocean, mountain, or city. In each case, classy hotel rooftop works well.
For the cocktails, the importance of quality vermouth and bitters cannot be overemphasized. A top notch Americano requires both and will aid you greatly in your meditation.
Wow, I've been doing daily meditation all these years and didn't even know it!