I have been meditating for about a year and a half now.

The best experience I have been able to replicate over and over again is the ability to clear the mind for a few moments (sometimes lasting a couple minutes) and just observe without any thought. It feels like my mind and body are just a empty mass of awareness. I can only seem to obtain this for a few moments to minutes at a time.

I want to push further and be able to hold onto this state for extended periods of time to develop further insight into the workings of my mind.

I do not have any religious idea's, I use the Vipassana meditation technique because I have found it to be the most useful for examining my mind in a non-judgmental way.

I am completely open to any and all suggestions to help expand my practice. On average I do one 40 minute meditation session a day, but lately I have been trying to increase it to two (one in the morning, and one before bed)

The point of meditation isn't to have any particular kind of experience during the meditation itself. An unpleasant experience is just as useful as a pleasant one. The effects of meditation are cumulative and long-term, provided that one is practicing an effective form of meditation. During meditation, one shouldn't "try" to do or duplicate anything.

Then find it in activity as well as in meditation. If it is really the Self in a state of expanded awareness then it exists regardless of the conditions you put on the body to experience it.
Consciousness is not dependent on anything physical to exist, but it is usually when we still the mind and rise above the conditioning of the body that we notice that it is there.

A dark room retreat may be what you're looking for

http://www.universal-tao.com/dark_room/index.html

Or a Vipassana meditation retreat -

http://www.dhamma.org/


If you do not already know this, it is most effective to meditate in the morning the moment you wake up. This is because we are not as attached to our thought process as we are later on in the day. The more we go into the day the more we become attached so it becomes harder to enter meditative states of being. But if we meditate the moment we wake up awareness of this attachment can be expanded easily and brought into the day.

Exactly. From my experience, meditaion is not about getting what I--the ego me--want. It is about getting my ego--that is, that which often splits us from the true Self (Pneuma), others and the universe--out of the way.

In my opinion, I need to stop resisting; I need to allow the Infinite and the Eternal--that is, what I call GØD--to do in and through me what needs to be done, as part of the eternal journey called life.
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That is such an important thing to understand about meditation. So many people overlook this step and it poses as a definite hindrance.

When something is expected through meditation the mind is only in a way projecting itself into the future which only adds to one's attachment to it. Expecting a result prevents spontaneous self-realization from occurring.

It seems as though there is a lot of congruency going on here. While I certainly allow that there is always room to disagree, it is certainly nice to have consensus now and then.
Dianah, you write: "Meditation is simply altering ones level of consciousness in which to perceive differently."
Expand on this a little. It could be helpful if you tell us how you go about doing this.

I think (and hope) that what she is talking about has to do with being in a state of meditation or contemplation; being present instead of being attached to thought and emotion.

When we observe what is going on within our mind and body we perceive differently, we enter states of heightened awareness and realization - the opposite of laziness, attachment and unawareness.

Not if the mind steps out from its platform of experience in laziness, attachment and awareness.

Self observation of thoughts is not an automatic step into higher states of consciousness. Svadhaya or study of the self is not an automatic process but an expansion of awareness that has no end or finite experience.

It is not helpful to tell someone that while meditating they will experience Inner Lights, as well as possible images of space teachers, deities, colours, and shapes. It only sets the mind up to project what it believes is the result of inner exploration, stressing the mind rather than leaving it innocent. Such practices only corrupt the mind and create arrogance in the form of an enlightened ego.

If one is truly aware then what is said is not personal.
The resulting flood of thoughts by those who would make a box for what enlightenment is or what enlightened action is according to the reaction to external process, would be the personal reflection of the absolute or the ego.
One either experiences the absolute at all times, or they design it for their personal folder to fulfill a personal convenience. This would be the enlightened ego, the ego that insists according to what they have learned and merged into experience is reality.
Consciousness itself is not dependent on experience nor any deriviative of experience. and as such cannot be contained in an experience or law of reason.
There are natural laws of creation that support levels of experience and comprehension, but that is not a force that binds awareness or consciousness.

Embrace, accept, allow.

"Consciousness itself is not dependent on experience nor any deriviative of experience."

As far as I know, no one actually knows how consciousness really works--this seems like a very bold statement.

I guess that means what you think you know, only goes so far. But what is it that lives inside you that you ignore and really know?
Where does Joe begin and end so that I would listen to myself on certain terms?


Jn 8:18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.
Jn 10:30 I and my Father are one.

By what you are telling me from your standpoint, what is revealed is only what you see in yourself.
What is it in yourself that I represent to you?

So in the reflection of yourself that is me, what is it that you see so clearly, or as you put it
"what you say and how you say it is very revealing."
What has been revealed to you about yourself in the reflection that is me, or what is the outer (joe) revealing that is the inner Dianah?

To further add to what you said above:
"If you did, you would be able to see that what you say is only your reality and applies only to you."
Are you coming to grips with yourself and how you are beginning to see what you say applies to yourself, in the discovery that you haven't been aware of this and putting it into practice in your daily experience?
Do you need to remind yourself of this in order for it to be true and do you systematically create situations such as this to repeat this idea to yourself so that it becomes a constant?
How many more times will you need to say this to the outer before it becomes unified with the inner?

When Breath is in Sushumna, or changing, do nothing but meditate on Sacred Hansa -- this is the only time for meditation. Breath is the Key. The science of Swara is the crown jewel of all knowledge.

Absolutely


"Wretched is the body which depends on a body, and wretched is the soul which depends on these two. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."

" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."