It's not the aim of the teaching, but expereinces along the way can feel beyond words.

Early in my practice I faced many obstacles affecting meditation.

Not only from trying too hard (you should never try but simply present and wait for the gift to come), but also from having expectations.

Also going from one teacher to another, from one technique to another, but failing the most important part, regular practice.

Maybe due to my Western lifestyle, I could never hold the lotus position.

I found sitting in a comfortable chair, or on the edge of a zaffu cushion best suited me.

Buddhist teachers would tell me that lying on the floor was incorrect.

In the early days I found lying on a carpeted floor, or on a yoga mat yielded periods of quality silence.

After a period of observation of the body to release tension I would focus on the breath I could establish periods of being without thought.

On several of these (I can't call them sittings), it felt like there was nothing beneath me.

There would be no thought, and no consciousness of time nor place.

As I began coming out of these periods my initial feeling was that I was floating above the floor.

I still might do lying meditation during periods when my back is playing up, but prefer sitting when I can.

Partly because you can sit anywhere in public but lying might not appropriate or practical in public.

But because some teachers have indicated that progress would plateau. Something to do with the alignment of the chakras.

As indicated in another topic I used to smoke many years ago.

Now that c is legal the mind visualizes temptation.

I fear the deterioration of my passport to good practice, my lungs, but also don't want to experience inspiration rolled up with a vegetative lack of motivation.

What are your techniques?