Is it more important to develop one's own meditation skills or follow a prescribed method of a teacher? After all I think the Buddha worked it out for himself. And I have noticed in my own practice that following someone else's method can be confusing, if I don't understand properly what they teach. Is discovering it for yourself, such as meditation, the best way? N.B. I don't have any technique, I just sit there and try not to hang onto my thoughts. I think if we make out meditation to be difficult we set up obstacles to it in our minds. When I think its easy I find easy to do.

I recently heard from an Indian Guru that Lord Buddha taught a meditation technique called Shoonya to his closest disciples. Is there any technique like that or resembling it which is mentioned in the Buddhist scripture? Related question ---------------------------- Edit: What was meant by close disciples was not that there was some kind of secrecy, but as Lord Buddha was a travelling monk, and this meditation technique takes time to teach, he could only teach it to the close disciples who were travelling with him.

In Mahasi Sayadaw's meditation instructions, he says "you will find the abdomen rising when you breathe in, and falling when you breathe out. *The rising should be noted mentally as 'rising', and the falling as `falling'* " but in Practice Insight Meditation it says "*never verbally repeat the words, rising, falling, and do not think of rising and falling as words*". This seems to imply that we shouldn't label rising and falling at all, either out loud, or mentally. But when we note distraction we are instructed to give them a one-word label. So this seems to me to be suggesting that we know rising and falling with direct awareness only, but we label distractions. But, equally, how does one note 'rising' and 'falling' without using the word, at least mentally? So my question is. What should we label (if anything) rising, falling, and distractions? Or just distractions? Or maybe everything should just be noted with direct awareness?

When I first started meditating, the body scan phase confused me. For a long time, I imagined the shape of a body in front of me in the distance, and scanned down through it. More recently I’ve realised that you get much more out of it by scanning through the feeling of my own body “in place” — but I still sometimes get muddled about which perspective I am “seeing” or “experiencing” parts of the body *from*. I’ve had the same challenge with the visualisation of the white pinprick at the solar plexus. Sometimes I wonder whether I should be looking “down” from my eyes, through my neck and into my chest… or if my “eyes” should themselves move to the chest … or… something else? At the moment I am practicing with the visualisation of the red pearl / red lotus at the throat chakra, as recommended in the book *Dream Yoga* by Andrew Holocek. The same puzzle keeps coming up! Where should this shape be relative to my mind’s eye? What angle relative to my spine in three dimensions should it be in, where should the “camera” of my mind be in relation to it, and what should the resulting image actually look like? How should the feelings of my body relate spatially to this shape? Here’s another example, a simple description of a visualisation from this blog entry that puzzles me: > Picture the energy of your root chakra as a ball of ruby light centered on the base of your spine. With each breath, see this ball becoming larger. In this example, should I be “seeing” my body in front of me, like watching a mirror, so that I can look at the base of my spine? Or should I be feeling the base of “my” spine where I know it to be? In which case, “where” is the “ruby light”? My eyes can’t see the base of my spine when they are looking roughly ahead with eyelids closed. I feel *very* confused, especially as I have managed to feel very “in” the breath and body at this point in my practice, but visualisation always humbles me. I’d welcome any guidance about this, including simple steps and theoretical underpinnings. Am I somehow too attached to the position and perspective of the eyes in my head and, if so, how would you loosen that and what replaces it? Is this a known challenge of body visualisation? Nobody seems to talk about “where” in experience a visualisation should emerge. It’s a bit disheartening.

My name is Prakash Karki. I am from Nepal. . I have just read 1 book on buddhisam and that is biography and philosophy of buddha. I became very serious about this spiritual stuff. I have been researching about spirituality for 2 years now. I want to know about the journey. how to be more serious about it and what should I do at first step as a beginner ?

I have often noticed buddhist monk make deep sound, something that feels might be coming from the naval or sometimes the throat. I want to know more details about the sound. What is the origin and if there is a specific name to it. Is it same as the "om" of Hinduism?

From [What is the Buddhist view in Socratic questioning?](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/31241/13525) , I get that it is important to ask questions to get out of sufferings. However, when we are getting stuck it is very difficult to realize that we are stuck. With concepts such as sunyata, nirvana, papanca, dharma, [detachment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detachment_(philosophy)) , does Buddhism have any guideline to ask questions in such situation? Or is the answer simply "when you are aware that you are in papanca, then try to get to nirvana and the questions will come"?

I had heard in the yoga class there's something like prenatal elaboration and it's benefits. Then if a pregnant woman will practice meditation or techniques so baby will born wise, calm, intelligent, kind and curiosity of Dhamma ? Will it born heartily and spiritually Buddhist?

As I research I am hearing people say pick a single point and focus on that. Then I hear other say you should just focus on the sensation that arise in your body. Personal one point focusing is much easier and I often get distract on if I should focusing only on the breath or move it to the inch on my leg or the numbness from sitting. Most people from the east that I hear say single point focusing more western meditator that hear say focusing on different sensation. Which is it?

I am looking for some legal, online Tibetan Buddhist texts. I have been studying Buddhism for a long time (although mostly Theravada) and so I am not looking for something at the beginner level. Something that involves specific, meditative techniques/instructions and/or deals with emotional development would especially relevant to me. A list of major texts would also be appreciated.

Occasionally some buddhists monks will take up the practice of only sleeping in a sitting posture for an extended duration of time - sometimes up to 3 months. - What are the meditational (preferably insight-meditational) benefits of such practice? - How would one undertake such practice regarding posture and technique? I read that one could start sleeping 1-2 hours in sitting posture and then move to a lying posture. Then slowly increase the time sleeping in sitting posture while reducing the time spent sleeping in lying posture. Thank you for your time.

If one practices Goenka style Vipassana or Anapana meditation then the main object of contemplation is the nose area. If one has a cold and the nose is blocked then is it o.k. to breath through the mouth, chest or abdomen(in the Goenka, Anapana or any Buddhist meditation that uses the nose area)? If, in that situation, it is proper to breath through the mouth, then are there any special instructions for breathing through the mouth in Anapana, Goenka or any other Buddhist meditation practice that uses the nose area? What if one has always found it difficult to breath through the nose because of a partial blockage or some unknown condition that might be psychological?