Focal Meditation

[Dazza]

Give them a try. Some people say they work, others say they are a distraction. My only suggestion would be a word of caution against relying on a crutch to meditate. It'd be like a band that got really good while they were high, and then when their big show came up, they couldn't find any drugs so the show sucked. Sure, maybe the drugs inspired their creativity, but without it, they lost everything.

That's probably not the best metaphor, but I think you get the idea.

yes, but you could look at the crutch as a help for a man too weak to walk, so he uses the crutches to support him until he is able to stand on his own.

About hemisync, the gateway experience in particular, I used to practice these a couple of years ago and if you are doing them properly they are seen as training wheels which are to be dropped when you don't need them anymore. In fact when I tried the technique by itself without audio I was surprised to find it worked even better than usual! I guess it was because I had become used to it in some degree and I could also go at my own pace.

But back to topic, I would reccomend it for lucid dreaming and getting into the body asleep/mind awake stage but not focal meditation. Patience and consistency will help you get into deep meditation.

[Epsilon Rose]

Sorry for resurrecting this topic but it seems to be the best place for questions about focal meditation.
I'm just starting and I'm using an ace of spades as a focus because candles don't work for me for various reasons and I've come up with three questions that I was hoping to get some help sorting through:
1. what's the difference between just staring at some thing and not thinking about other things and focusing on something?
2. I get to a point where every thing but the card disappears into a black field with a strobing pattern, but it quickly goes back to what it was directly before(every thing around the card looks like it was rendered by a glitching graphics card) or normal, and blinking extra or breathing deeper make it disappear faster (through out this the card is at least as clear as normal, sometimes the wight parts become slightly luminescent). So this actually results in two questions: a) is this supposed to happen and b) if so why does it keep going away?
3. my eyes tend to get slightly dry and very teary which causes me to blink extra and harder which disrupts my focus, any tips on preventing this?

thank you

[kobok]

1. what's the difference between just staring at some thing and not thinking about other things and focusing on something?

Not thinking simply describes what's not happening.  Focusing is actually DOING something, because one's attention is actually asserted toward the thing.  This is in some sense an active process.

2. I get to a point where every thing but the card disappears into a black field with a strobing pattern, but it quickly goes back to what it was directly before(every thing around the card looks like it was rendered by a glitching graphics card) or normal, and blinking extra or breathing deeper make it disappear faster (through out this the card is at least as clear as normal, sometimes the wight parts become slightly luminescent). So this actually results in two questions: a) is this supposed to happen and b) if so why does it keep going away?

This is quite normal, so you shouldn't be concerned.  You also shouldn't worry about it coming or going too much, because the focal meditation is ultimately not about these transitory visual effects.  They just often happen as a side-effect of the normal process.

3. my eyes tend to get slightly dry and very teary which causes me to blink extra and harder which disrupts my focus, any tips on preventing this?

Yes, relax your eye muscles, and also allow your eyes to blink normally.  You do not focus with your eyes, you focus with your mind.

[harder]

Hello,
         Wow this is really very good information. i really didn't have enough information about this Focal Meditation. but after knowing this i will also try this. thanks for this wonderful information.

thanks!!

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guided meditation