Awareness, 9 seconds and meditation techniques

From: The blackness, 2008, July 27

Gaya Ethaniel: Clearing up my mind with meditation, 9 sec and sincere advices from SL friends makes me to be more aware of what and how others are feeling and consequently I'm able to emphasise more with RL people I care rather than being so caught up with myself feeing my doubts
Moon Fargis: Yes awareness is a big thing, it lets you guess better how people feel and could think about things
Gaya Ethaniel: I do wonder though why I don't see anything when I'm in the 'zone'
Moon Fargis: Gaya, because there is nothing to be seen
Moon Fargis: Do you see the water when you are underwater or the air?
Gaya Ethaniel: No... I just know it's there?
Moon Fargis: Exactly :)
Rajah Yalin thinks he sees the water, but isn't sure.
Gaya Ethaniel: Ah... so you think I'm not heading back to my previous 'blankness'?
Moon Fargis: Your blackness was caused because you closed your inner eye
Gaya Ethaniel: That's true Moon - I have began to see how much beauty as well as sorrow there are in this world. When I was in that darkness, I was feeling blank not able to appreciate anything
Moon Fargis: Yes that happened to me too, but this time you see that there is noting and everything, with meditation you rise your awareness of that, of yourself, this nothingness you described it just the awareness that there is nothing but just brain and mind who tells you that there might be something and labels it with names
Moon Fargis: Keep aware of your feelings and thoughts, you don’t need to suppress them, just try not to be affected of them
Gaya Ethaniel: Yes, not sure whether I'm doing this right but I listen to my 'heart'
Gaya Ethaniel: If I feel uncomfortable because of feelings or thoughts, I go into the 'zone' and wait for an answer from 'heart'
Moon Fargis: What do you think your heart would answer? (besides "bum bum, bum bum")
Gaya Ethaniel: Yes first I recognise my physical heart thumping, triggering me to 'meditate'. After a while in that mode, I begin to see clearly and an answer that feels right comes to me
Gaya Ethaniel: This often happens when I hear 15 min bells too
Moon Fargis: hmm ok this is a way I didn’t practised so far "heart listening" so I can’t give you some hints for this, try to go that path and see if it works:)
Gaya Ethaniel: That would be great and it's helpful to compare notes :) How did you start doing it then Moon?
Moon Fargis: "Just sit" listened do my thoughts, until the volume lowered and lowered and lowered. Saw many thought layers in mind, loud ones and quiet ones, confusing ones and some layers which wasn’t really controllable (dream-layers)
Gaya Ethaniel: I'd say that's what I do once I notice that feelings and thoughts are troubling me. Listening to my bodily signals is just a way for me to recognise when I'm not doing a formal meditation. Often at work, I'd go to the toilet for a meditation break when I see my physical heart beating for whatever reasons
Gaya Ethaniel: Just to contemplate what made me feel that uneasiness
Moon Fargis: That’s good too yes. You analyse yourself
Gaya Ethaniel: Would be helpful Moon to know you lower the 'volume'. Do you see it first and drop it as I do in my meditation and the toilet breaks?
Moon Fargis: Well see it and let them glide out of my hands like a stone and another stone and another one until you stand on a big mountain :) This was how I began and it became natural so I didn’t even have to visualise that i drop this thought like a stone. They just dropped or didn’t even come up. But that was at the beginning, there was no mountain later and no stone
Gaya Ethaniel: wow... the mountain is a strong visual. Think it'd be really helpful for me to use, thanks Moon
Moon Fargis: Visuals are thoughts so they had to be dropped too
Gaya Ethaniel nods 'just stones for Gaya at the moments and she will move onto the mountain next'