What is your schedule for practicing meditation/ritual?
-
I'm curious what times/schedules people use to actually practice their meditation/ritual etc?
I really only find time in the evening. As a beginner of sorts, I find it very tough to drop everything, get in "the zone" and actually practice. I would like to do it right after work, but I'm usually too wound-up, hungry or in need of a nap first.
I am trying to do about 20-30 mins meditation per day. I tend to do it before I go to sleep but the draw-back is I'm often too sleepy for best results. At least I have realized that now. Any suggestions? -
93, Escarabajo -
I have only been practicing ritual and meditation for a little under two years, so I am by no means an expert. But, for what it is worth, I have learned that I do best by practicing my meditation (asana, etc) in the mornings just after I get up and my ritual work (daily banishings, etc) in the evenings shortly after work.
I have also noted that I have to watch my diet during the day (no junk food, including soft drinks!) in order to feel right during the ritual. Also, I have added a short but fairly intense kettlebell workout shortly after the ritual work to help keep my body in shape and help ensure that I feel my best.
Ultimately, breaking up the yoga and the ritual helped me out. I was originally trying to do them both together in the evenings, and found myself getting stressed out.
Hope this helps.
-
I've practiced meditation for about 2 years. For the first year and a half or so I would meditate whenever I could. Everyday would be a different place or time.
@Hazrat Inayat Khan said
"15 minutes a day regularly will help one much more than 2 hours a day at one's convenience."
In the last few months I've established a consistent time and place. As a result the time spent meditating has been noticeably more efficient/productive.
One of my hangups was how busy I was. I wasn't getting enough sleep at night. The only way I could find extra time was by getting up earlier -which meant less sleep. I didn't know that by meditating your body becomes more efficient and requires less sleep. What I found was that 20-30 minutes of meditation a day was equivalent to 1 hour of sleep. At the other extreme, Puran Bair did a 28 day retreat where he meditated 20 hours/day and only slept for 2.
As far as time of day, early morning and early evening seem to naturally work well. Vivekananda discusses this on page 24 of Raja Yoga and is worth the read.
-
DWTWSBTWOTL
I meditate twice daily, usually once in the morning (if a scheduling conflict prevents it, I move it to mid-day or early afternoon), and once at night, before bed, either before or after sex (which usually involves Tantra/sex magick, but not always) and other pre-bed activities.
As for rituals, I do a basic Chaos/Ceremonial protection ritual for myself, my girlfriend and my adopted son every day, and other rituals when they are needed, such as my "simple banishing ritual" described in the Magick section, or astral travel, tarot, LBRP etc.
I should really get into the habit of more regular ritual.
Oh, and I also do a basic witchcraft-based protection/consecration of my home at least twice a week.
I attempt shamanic ritual, usually of a healing nature, with or without the assistance of "teacher plants" or "god's flesh" (mescaline or mushrooms) when i feel that healing is needed, and to "check in" with that plane of existence. -
As a beginner myself, I have found the most workable times are:
-
in the morning, after exercise but before getting ready to go to work.
-
right after work, perhaps after having a quick snack if I am ravenous.
-
-
Returning to my thread after some time...
One of my challenges is learning when it is merely ego resistance versus legit reasons to postpone.
For example, I might be tired, and could force myself to meditate, but I know that it will be a subpar performance. This leads usually to me getting frustrated with myself. But is this frustration worth the "pride of accomplishment" to say I practiced anyway? I'm not sure.
Also, I'm just too picky. I need to feel good, I can't have noises going on outside my apartment, etc. I'm trying to discriminate between my own laziness and valid excuses.
-
Crowley didn't do his ritual work when he had withdrawal, he used ether and took long baths, and worked on his memoirs and other books, via dictation to his secretaries.
But mostly he did not have withdrawal he just took larger doses of heroin. Crowley's policy on drug use is really his weakness, ideally it correct in some ways, but he did not have the science we have today. Yes some drugs may be used safely if one keeps close record of ones reactions mental and physical and a reasonable respect for the drugs effects to keep out of addiction. However strong opiates are a different story, they may be used, if one has very detailed understanding of their pharmacology and proper doses, for particular reasons, ie relief of sever pain. However generally without an external control of supply, such drugs are too addictive for personal use.
Anesthesia for example is even more dangerous, one can't monitor ones vital signs while unconscious to adjust the dose levels of the various drugs, and thus skate the edge of death without falling over. No amount of WILL power can do this, you need a trained other person to assist you. The same with Heroin, it can be done safely, but you need a second party to control the supply and prevent drug hysteria from clouding your judgment.
-
@RifRaf said
"I, now, know a ton about Opiates/Opioids (I was actually invited to be a counselor at a local Methadone clinic before I fell back into it). I did know quite a lot when I was first getting into them, and knew about the toxicity and addiction but I didn't think withdrawals were going to be this bad, and now I've been struggling for 4 years. I was just reading The Urn and Skinners 1923 Diaries and noticed that you're right, Crowley didn't do much at all while in withdrawal and it seems like the times he did truly "kick" his habit he only did it to see if he could then jumped right back on the nod."
Don't let Crowley's life influence yours. I know you do not need to know that as you already do, just sayin. Namaste.
-
@RifRaf said
"I was popping Opiates long before I heard the name Crowley, let alone who he was. Heroin was more of a lead into Crowley, not really the other way around. Someone said this just the other day actually, asking why I would do Heroin just because Crowley did, but I was introduced to Heroin when I was living on the streets as a dumb, young "punk rock" idiot. However, the major twist to this story is that I found out about Thelema while I was in rehab. Weird.
My thoughts on opiates is that it's absolutely a cultural thing. Most of us are pampered, namely here in the states, and don't have to deal with most of the miseries and horrors most of the world does. We become kind of "soft", we feel good most of the time, kind of like babies and then life hits us a little harder, and we want relief from it. Of course it is hard to get relief from these things so a percentage of us feels slightly "less than happy" and we begin doing things that do make us happy: like eating, or drinking alcohol, or falling in love and having children, or going to church, or Magick...or drugs. Anything to not face the mundane or even painful existence most of us are stuck with.
[Maybe I should start a new thread in General discussion? I couldn't see anyone else talking about Opiates, or even having as deep an interest as I do.]"
Your candor is commendable. I know what you are saying empathically, real well... It's like if you are hungry for food, you want to eat. It exists at a preter-conscious level.... well, more like a sub-conscious level. But most can get what we are trying to say.
[edit]
I just wanted to apologize to Escarabajo, RifRaf, Mr. Eshelman, and anyone else for my causing the deviation from the original post here. Peace.