VOM and Center of Stillness Meditation?

["Martin Cosgrove" <martincosgrove@...>]

Hi,

It's been a while (about a month I think), since I have posted in this forum. 
I've been working at trying to achieve vacancy of mind and felt that I had 
asked all the necessary questions and the rest is up to me to just practice 
until I achieve it. I must say that I still have only had rather limited 
success, but I'm still plugging away. I've been reading the posts with interest 
and followed some suggestions made by people in response to other people's 
questions. I've tried the wilful approach to emptying my mind, I've tried 
various breathing exercises in the hopes that they would lead up to VOM, I've 
tried focussing on the inside of my body, the Universe, a candle flame, the 
sound of running water and lots more....

Rawn, I hope you had a relaxing break and that you achieved what you set out to 
achieve; it's great to have you back. I recently came across your Centre of 
Stillness meditation file on your website and have been practicing the first 
section of that. I was wondering if that is beneficial at this stage for me, 
i.e. if it will help me to achieve VOM, or if at this point it is 
counterproductive. To my mind, it seems to bring together mental and astral 
exercises of step one (and beyond?) of IIH, so my gut feeling is that 
practicing it may help me, but I thought I'd ask the author!

Thanks a lot,

Martin

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