"I have been trying to meditate for a long time and during that time I have strange states. I lie down, close my eyes, trying to focus on the point between my eyes. Then my body starts to tingle, especially my head. Sometimes as I focus on a point, my forehead hurts. Then I get to the point where I no longer feel my legs and it's as if I have fallen into black. Thoughts gone. I can't feel the body. I hear nothing. Just empty. I just am. Is this meditation? ”
One could simply answer, "Yes, this is meditation." Specifically, if you deepen and strengthen the phase of the body's tingling, you can also achieve astral travel. The state you describe below is already a full-fledged meditation. Let's discuss meditation in a little more detail. Meditation is a state of our being where we:
For example, if we enjoy a cup of green tea and our mind focuses only on the details of the cup, the smell and color of the tea, we watch the ripples on the surface of the greenish liquid, slowly lift the cup to our mouths and enjoy every subtle shade of taste… then this is full-fledged meditation. We know one thing in full detail, which we admire, and we are excited as a small child to observe the material world. We have mastered our mind, which does not run away from the television to talk to a partner, back to tea, to work, the dog wants to go for a walk, do homework with the children, do laundry, go shopping… Really ... "Is the tea already drunk? I didn't even notice. "
If you are burdened by an idea that you can't handle, you have a complex task or a big project in front of you, just sit in a comfortable position, perceive your breath for a while and then imagine that this big idea has materialized in front of you. Look at it from all sides, let it engulf you for a while, then play with it like a model. Analyze, innovate, streamline. Everything you need. Your full concentration on this one thought and ignoring the surrounding thoughts and the material world will bring you unexpected results.
Here we can focus, for example, only on our breath, white or black space, body tingling, a purple point between the eyes. It is experiencing different states of our consciousness and being in its various spheres. In these states of being, we begin to become acquainted with our essence - we do not have to have millions of thoughts in our heads, we do not have to perceive our physical body, and yet we still exist. So what are we? From this step, it is only a short distance to abandon even this one idea. And then happens…
You describe it beautifully in the query. Usually with our consciousness we fall somewhere, or on the contrary we ascend higher, we stop perceiving our physical body and we just are. At the beginning we can perceive "I am happy." Then we go to "I am calm", followed by "I am", later "just me", until we reach nothingness, where we gradually leave our consciousness. What is beautiful is then the conscious path back down (or up) to the body, where we gain all force and identity and can go to form our conscious life.
If you want to meditate, there is no need to look for complexities. All you have to do is sit down and be - thoughts from the beginning will go crazy, try not to let them control you and just let them go on and on, observing them with interest… You can wrap each thought in a balloon and release it far to the sky and wait for the next idea to come. Over time, the frequency of thoughts will thin out and you will get deeper into yourself. If your mind is still defending itself, take a look at simple instructions on how to control it and not be controlled. Instructions for the development of your Mind HERE.