Meditation: Learn to Ride Your Horse. You're not getting another one. |
- Learn to Ride Your Horse. You're not getting another one.
- I am isolating myself, potentially falling into a depression, because I feel that everything is simply a distraction from myself
- I just had a realization after meditating 10mins everyday for one week.
- BEETHOVEN - MOONLIGHT SONATA - 1st MVT - on a incredible instrument CRISTAL BASCHET Pure Beauty :)
- "A feeling of aversion or attachment towards something is your clue that there's work to be done." - RAM DASS
- Are there stages/layers during a meditation session?
- Meeting the source - A Google Drive With No Bullshit Or Waste Of Time Books. Gathered over years of search.
- The Unspoken Dark Side of Meditation
- Meditating for more than 1 hour a day? Please i need help
- Metta Clarfication
- 10 years of meditation: ways it has transformed my life
- I remembered my mom used to cut and burn my photos.
- I got a lot of anxiety and I started hallucinating geometric figures during a 10minute headspace session. This is my 5th time doing serious meditation.
- Seeing a creature or being more than one time
- When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by. — Ajahn Chah.
- Small shift which I just realized has the biggest effect.
- RELAXING AMBIENT SOUNDS: Ambient Calm Music Star View Therapy
- RELAX JELLYFISH AQUARIUM: Relaxing Music for Sleep Study Meditation Yoga #2
- Has anyone ever felt as if reality seems “unreal” after meditating?
- How to approach intrinsic impatience and short fuse
- Experienced a little happiness
- A calm surface of a pond and a wind blown surface.
- How to deal with itchiness/tingles when trying to concentrate?
- Will meditation affect my appreciation and love for music?
- "Open to the possibility that this moment may be more complete than our mind might evaluate it to be or even our body might indicate that it is." - Mukti
| Learn to Ride Your Horse. You're not getting another one. Posted: 13 Jun 2020 12:29 AM PDT "This is my mind; it should be up to me to employ it - it should not be allowed to go out following others." -The Cultivation of Realization Hey, everyone. I feel compelled to share some thoughts about meditation that have helped me. My perspective is that of a person who has been profoundly affected by difficultly with directing my attention. I am debilitated by a combination of neurological/mental health issues: ADD/OCD/PTSD/synesthesia (depending on what you know about synesthesia, this might sound cool, but when OCD gets bad, it provides a whole extra layer of stuff to get stuck on). Studying meditation and other philosophical stuff has slowly, but in a real way, brought me back from a series of bouts of psychosis that left me a dysfunctional shell of myself. It's been now six years since my mental health fully shattered. I'm sharing this because my experience is just an extreme version of what everyone is going through. The range of how debilitated one is rendered by difficulty with controlling their attention is wide. But it ultimately creates the same basic issues which, in turn, are attenuated by the same types of solutions. I have spent all of my time in the last six years studying and experimenting. It has been mostly bleak and quite joyless. But it is the only hope I have of not dying the death of an anhedonic shut-in. Whatever that might end up being. I finally feel I might be able to avoid this. There are many mechanics, analogies, and histories surrounding the practice of meditation. We've all read some of them. Then there are very obvious facts that are dangerously easy to overlook. These facts are also seemingly dangerous to see clearly. These aforementioned are, of course, the most fundamental facts of our mortality. The samurai trained their minds by constantly reminding themselves of their impending death. They would 'hold' death in their mind, day and night. In principle, this 'holding' is key in meditation. In fact, I would argue that the basic concept of 'holding' is the key principle of any posture or method of interpreting one's performance within a session. But the truth is, there is nothing to hold. We are actually trapped. The whole of our existence is made by the act of 'stuff' being precariously held together. Most of the big choices have been made for us by forces of nature that even our modern society can still barely conceptualize. Our imaginations make it seem we can alter things more than we actually can. It's really easy to subtly create more ideas that keep us from the core truths of what it means to be a living organism. BUT: This is your horse. This is your mind. Learn to ride it. Learn to use it. You don't get another. Also, even more frightening: You can't get off your horse. It would seem an apt way to further animate this horsey metaphor to say that we are "thrown off" the horse when we descend into cognitive disorder. But to me, this is inaccurate. BECAUSE: We are strapped to our horse. If we cannot figure out how to direct our horse, we go where the horse wants to go. We cannot navigate the world by any other means. Practice with complete sincerity, you will feel yourself move. Practice with half of your heart, you will continue to move in a little sisyphean circle. This is what we have to hold in our minds: We don't get another mind. This is totally up to you and you alone to take responsibility for how well you can control your consciousness. It's easy to compartmentalize different minds. "This is my at-work mind." "This is my meditation mind." They are all the same mind. To get back to the metaphor: Grass, rocks, sand, it's all the same horse. You don't get to create another mind. The task is to be sincere in the practice of meditation and forget about doing it well. Good and bad is a luxury. Meditation is not a craft. It is not an art. We are not creating the "perfect" mind. We are fully realizing the responsibility of what it is to be alive. To understand this, or, to feel this, is to ultimately realize that logical/reasonable thinking plays no part in it. No one can ride your horse for you. You can only follow other people's horses for as long as they still have somewhere to go. Trust yourself and fully invest in your meditation beyond all the rules you allow to govern you in your daily life. This is where you are allowed to be radically alive i.e. authentic. There is no set of cognitive procedures, ideas or images or movements that will allow you to be you. And no one else can tell you how to be honest with yourself. This is something you simply must feel your way through. That being said, the methods are obviously helpful. But they are ultimately useless if they are being performed in a sterile, dishonest way. You should be using them so you can stop using them. I hope this doesn't come off as extreme or over-serious (or crazy). But I feel it is so important and, for me, something I didn't fully understand until I suddenly did. There are so many things to do in the world. So many people who need help. And, as the saying goes, if we can't help ourselves, not only can we not help others, but we can also not be helped. And what I find most fearful is that a controlling fist can so easily transform into an upturned palm in the panicked mind's eye in our most desperate state. Why are we expecting to make a better world if we aren't making ourselves better humans?
Evening message of sesshin [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2020 05:49 PM PDT I lived my life for the past many years distracting myself with drugs, friends, parties, you name it. I also have been meditating for the past two years daily. Since this quarantine, I have upped my meditation sessions. I also quit all substances, games, etc. Recently however, I have dug myself into a depressive state and I am looking for advice. I have stopped hanging out with friends--I believe I am reevaluating my whole life. The friends I have are just not good for me anymore, I feel. So I am isolating myself; this doesn't make me happy, but when I think of my old friends, I don't get happy either. I still exercise, but cannot attach to "building muscle" as happy either, it simply is. I am still fully productive, I just have entered a state where I have approached a void, and I feel depression now. I do not think this is necessarily a "new" depression. I have simply always distracted myself from it through school, work, friends, drugs, etc. One of the most confusing things to me is: must I simply try to "forget" this and go back to old habits to distract myself? Sure, I'm sure if I smoke weed again and start watching movies while high I will regain comfort and pleasure, but I just can't fathom that being good for my growth. Anyways, I would love some advice. My mind is depressed and I am experiencing some neurosis as well. I just can not attach and in my life reevaluation everything I have created for myself is no good. Then I think, what if this is all depression speaking? Don't know. There's just no magic at the moment. Advice appreciated. [link] [comments] |
| I just had a realization after meditating 10mins everyday for one week. Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:38 AM PDT The reason why I can spend hours and hours watching tv shows and browsing stuff on the phone instead of carving out a few minutes for silence, is that I'm afraid of my own thoughts. I'm hesitating to face the thoughts that come into my head when I'm doing nothing. Meditation has helped me realize this. [link] [comments] |
| BEETHOVEN - MOONLIGHT SONATA - 1st MVT - on a incredible instrument CRISTAL BASCHET Pure Beauty :) Posted: 13 Jun 2020 01:51 AM PDT BEETHOVEN - MOONLIGHT SONATA - 1st MVT - on a incredible instrument CRISTAL BASCHET Pure Beauty :) [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:03 AM PDT |
| Are there stages/layers during a meditation session? Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:30 AM PDT I've been meditating daily for a month now. Initially started out with 2mins and worked my way up to 15mins per session. Sometimes I'll meditate twice in day. I started out with what I believe to be my first stage/layer of meditation - where I'm aware of my thoughts and learning how to slow my thoughts and focus being present and mindful. After awhile, I'm able to progress into the next stage (imo) of mindfulness - hearing the sounds of birds chipping, fan blowing, vehicles passing by.. all of it while I'm being present without Ego and thoughts. With time and with longer sessions, I'm able to get into a third stage of tingling sensation where I can feel the sensations running through my body (during body scan) and it's especially strong and intense at my head.. It's pretty asmr-ish and honestly quite a sensation and I'm able to guide the tingling sensation during the body scan to parts of my body beside my mind. Alright so today, I had this new awareness or stage.. sounds a little funny but pls bear with me. During the third stage (tingling sensation around my head), it disappeared and I felt this magnetic repulsion force (the kind you feel when you put opposite poles of a magnet together) in my mind. After awhile, poof and I entered this stage of total emptiness. It was so deep that I've never felt this before.. there wasn't any noise, no thoughts or anything just emptiness. And thats when I threaded between the lines of being aware and falling asleep. When the session ended, I "woke up" feeling like I had a nap or some sort.. Felt like I was in a daze and groggy.. Could someone explain to me what's going on? Many thanks in advance! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:34 PM PDT If you are the real deal and are tired of wasting your time i put all these books together in the google drive. There is nothing like this in the world. The folder named Sweating horses is just for straight up practice. drive google com/drive/folders/14rqf7kcRNJELTg-RQSW2hTjGG6qA8Hnp [link] [comments] |
| The Unspoken Dark Side of Meditation Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:44 AM PDT I read a lot in this sub that meditation don't have a bad side, that isn't harmful, but it is. Meditation is just like physical exercise; you can get hurt. I'm not denying the power and the benefits that meditation can provide, but the more you meditate, the more you learn that is not all rainbows and butterflies. I don't want to scare the beginners thinking that meditation is bad, but it's good to know that in few cases, this can happen for more intermediate and advanced meditators. In Buddhism, it's called "Falling Into the Pit of the Void" or "Enlightenment's Evil Twin", Psychiatrists call it Depersonalization and De-realization Disorder, or DP/DR. By acquiring experience meditating every day for a few years, you start to recognize the impermanence, the no-self, no-mind, the emptiness and formless of all experience, including "you". The actual experience of no-self and/or the non-reality can be very destabilizing for someone not well grounded, who is not prepared for the enormity of such a profound shift. This is what has happened and is still happening to me. I've got quite a few glimpses of the selflessness nature of consciousness and the emptiness, and it's scary. The more I meditate, the weirder and confused I got. I used to consider myself as a rational person, I wouldn't let emotions take over me and always think first before taking any action. Now I feel like I'm losing my personality, every day I know less who I am or what I am. In social situation with my friends, I'm WAY more aware of my social anxiety, to the point that I prefer not to talk (avoiding embarrassment). It's like my ego is freaking the f*uck out by knowing that it's no longer running the show, that there isn't an "I" controlling. So its reacting with fear and anxiety trying to protect itself. Idk maybe I'm saying nonsense but it's what I'm feeling right now. Anyone here has gone through a similar experience? [link] [comments] |
| Meditating for more than 1 hour a day? Please i need help Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:48 AM PDT I was doing meditation and trying my best to make daily habit since the start of this year. I struggled a lot and now i came to the point where i can meditate comfortably between 25 min and 1 hour easy, sometimes even more. I struggle with OCD and some other mental illnesses, and meditation really increase my concentration throughout the day which is amazing for someone with OCD. I really hope that you guys tell me what to do now? I have a lot of free time? Is there any point doing more than 1 hour a day? Should i start to aim for 2 hours daily and will i see more results? Every answer is highly appreciated :) [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:30 AM PDT So I want to clarify the purpose/outcome of Metta. To explain, I am not a spiritual person and I approached meditation from a purely experimental point of view eg follow the instructions and see what happens. I was very skeptical about the benefits of mediation, but after a burnout my options were being medicated or give mediation a serious attempt. I am pleased to say that meditation absolutely helped me. So I have come to point of view that the three mediation types are almost prescriptive in nature. Each developed for an outcome/realisation which helps an individual lead a significantly more rounded happier life. Almost like an early form of internal psychotherapy. In that respect Buddha as a historical figure was a genius. Identifying the basic flaws in human perception, formulating an accessable form mental reconditioning, testing it on himself and then rolling it out to the greater populace. Which brings me to my question. Due to my lack of spirituality and my skeptical mind I had instantly discounted Metta...as it read too much like "love thy neighbour" or praying. However, my recent thoughts about the prescriptive nature has made me revisit the concept. After all if they are prescriptive then all three must be practiced to get to the planned outcome? So from my point of view, these are simplified Outcomes/realisations. I know the realisations are often much more multifaceted. Shamatha - helps quieten the mind. Letting go of thoughts until you reach a calm stillness. Other lessons are patience, if you fight the thoughts they will become more regular and if you get frustrated they will become more regular. For a person like me where my mind is perpetually analysing everything, this is nothing short of liberating. Vipissana - almost like exposure therapy. Sitting with thoughts, just allowing them to be, without judgement. This gives a sort of separation from having a thought and reacting to a thought. Also helps to dampen instant judgement of situations. Metta - So this is my guess. Reading the Metta approach there is an obvious proven psychological effect. That giving makes you feel better. However, are there deeper lessons? I suspect it has something to do with emotions? As if you are wishing well to your enemies, then I would guess your are also forgiving them? So in turn that might help with anger and negative thoughts? as with practice you are more likely to go for meditation conditioning of forgive and forget? Also, could this condition greater tolerance in emotionally charged situations? And finally a conditioned form of psychological generosity? In which case this meditation which I had skipped is actually going to be one of the most useful for today's world? Because it had occurred to me that the other two meditations could cause an individual to become insular where other people are unimportant to the individuals contentment. Sorry for the long "brain download" post and I would greatly appreciate the input. [link] [comments] |
| 10 years of meditation: ways it has transformed my life Posted: 13 Jun 2020 03:13 AM PDT hi everyone! I've watched my mom meditate for as long as I can remember and I've watched it transform her life and perspective. I recently convinced her to document her journey, learning and experiences and I hope you will find it useful 🕊 happy meditating ❤️ why you should meditate everyday [link] [comments] |
| I remembered my mom used to cut and burn my photos. Posted: 12 Jun 2020 03:29 PM PDT During meditation, I remembered something I forgot for 16 years. I remembered that my mom used to get in my room, take out the photo album, and cut and burn the photos that I was in. She used knife or scissor to cut off my head. She did that everytime I failed to listen to her. Like getting low grades, sulking, bullying my sister, etc. I was like 11-13 ish. And I realized that I don't really like my Mom. I suddenly started hating her because her aggressive behaviors had affected who I am now. I understand she went through difficulties in her life but I couldn't take it. She is the reason why I don't want to have kids or get married. I don't know. I just wanted to share and maybe wanted to hear some advice how to deal with it as someone who seeks inner peace. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2020 02:45 AM PDT I didn't meditate yesterday so I decided to do it tonight, right before I went to sleep. I started a 10 minute headspace session and relaxed, my mind was blank.. I hadn't been thinking of anything in particular at that moment in time. During the session I got This wave of anxiety and I felt kinda scared. My vision got blurry and there was like a ball of light moving when I had my eyes closed I tried not to think about it, but i think that made the anxiety worse and I saw very light geometric shapes in the distance within the ball of light? I don't really know. I've done psychedelics in the past. Although I have no clue if that matters at all. [link] [comments] |
| Seeing a creature or being more than one time Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:36 PM PDT Hi everyone, Hope everyone is well, I've been meditating for 4 or 5 months now and for about 20 mins a day on average, and for the last month I've been seeing a certain image or scene in my mind every time I'm meditating, it's a giant creature in humanoid form, wearing a robe and it's floating while seated with it's legs crossed as if it's meditating, and we're on a beach, it's head has a round-egg shape, like in the movie alien, but with no teeth or eyes of anything, just a flat surface, and it has tentacles coming out of the center of it's back and branching to the sides, and every time I'm in that scene, it turns it's head slowly and looks back at me, as I'm always behind it, watching from a few meters away, I've never noticed it had any colors, yet i could see it, and every time I'm in that place with it, i just feel comfort and as if i want nothing else in the world, I'm happy. I'm sorry if this was a bit long, as I've never experienced anything like this before, and wanted to see if anyone else has, thank you and have a lovely weekend! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:59 AM PDT |
| Small shift which I just realized has the biggest effect. Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:39 AM PDT In my mind I no longer talk to myself like "i will go do this" or "I like how this is playing out" for example. The inner perspective has shifted so that it's "you can do this" "you're enjoying this" Just that subtle shift from "I" to "you" which reminds me that I am not my mind and makes my mind into an ally or enemy working with or against me rather than just being completely absorbed in itself and it's stories. It's a guide not an absolute. Hope that helps, anyone have any perspectives or opinions on this matter? [link] [comments] |
| RELAXING AMBIENT SOUNDS: Ambient Calm Music Star View Therapy Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:51 PM PDT |
| RELAX JELLYFISH AQUARIUM: Relaxing Music for Sleep Study Meditation Yoga #2 Posted: 12 Jun 2020 11:48 PM PDT |
| Has anyone ever felt as if reality seems “unreal” after meditating? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 09:51 AM PDT So I've never experienced this ever apart from last night. I finished meditating and opened my eyes, looked around and had this sense that everything around me was fake. Yes I could see the walls and stuff around me but I had this feeling as if I were in a video game and it was all just an illusion and that something intangible and bigger was the real thing. I'm mind boggled now and the way I perceive everything around is different even if they appear the same... Also, how do you go about living your life after this? If it's all unreal, then what is the point of being here? [link] [comments] |
| How to approach intrinsic impatience and short fuse Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:04 PM PDT Note: I posted this on the Mindfulness subreddit as well but I'm open to all advice and thoughts. Thank you in advance for reading! Hi friends! I'm relatively new to meditation and mindfulness—I started meditating last summer but have really integrated it into my mornings recently (25 days strong!) I have also been doing yoga for about two and a half years—it's becoming a true passion for me and I'm grateful for that. There have been extraordinary benefits to mindfulness for me—I feel calmer and my anxiety has improved enormously. There is this space between my thoughts and feelings that is characterised by neutrality, non-judgment, and peace. However, as of recently, I've started getting very impatient. I think this quality has always been there but it's been even more noticeable because of the effect mindfulness has had on me as well. I almost get ANGRY at small things—little interruptions, small things that don't go my way, being misunderstood or ignored or dismissed, etc. I don't know what to do about it. In the moment, I can feel the impatience slowly bubble up into annoyance and then anger but I don't express it, I just feel it intensely and even focusing on the breath feels like a waste of time (this thought isn't what I think normally, it's fuelled by the impatience.) Does anyone have advice or thoughts on this? Anything at all is welcome and appreciated. Namaste(: [link] [comments] |
| Experienced a little happiness Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:13 AM PDT Yesterday before going to bed, I meditated. When I was laying down, I felt happy for no reason and tears started to come out. But now the happy feeling is gone. [link] [comments] |
| A calm surface of a pond and a wind blown surface. Posted: 12 Jun 2020 10:40 PM PDT An image that has always stuck with me is the clarity and accuracy that is reflected i by a perfectly still body of water and the fractured and distorted view of the world that is reflected in a disturbed body of water. In trying to share this imagery as an analogy for our minds chattering, I find that it comes up short with my own child who maybe has not internalized this imagery accurately. Until we can visit a mountain lake, does anyone know of a video to illustrate this or of other mental models that can represent the value of causing the mind to be still? [link] [comments] |
| How to deal with itchiness/tingles when trying to concentrate? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 04:35 PM PDT Whenever I try to meditate and am in sitting position I always get distracted by itchy sensations, like it feels like a bug is crawling on me even though it's probably not.... it's annoying having to ruin my peaceful moment because I can't ignore it. How do you deal with this, does it go away with practice? [link] [comments] |
| Will meditation affect my appreciation and love for music? Posted: 12 Jun 2020 02:59 PM PDT Hey guys, so I've started breathing meditating 1 month ago 20min a day, it's been really amazing for my anxiety and stability. I heard about people here on this subreddit saying they stopped listening to music completely and just prefer silence all the time, being music a distraction. I don't really want to get to that point, music is the most profound and amazing thing in life, I love many genres like psychedelic rock, psytrance etc and I've a deep sense of spirituality connected to it. Will meditation end my enjoyment of these things? I feel like it makes me have less the need to be hearing music many hours per day and that's ok, but I don't want it to make me stop hearing music completely or stopping to enjoy those genres, will that happen like to those people? I'm not looking for enlightenment. Should I perhaps lower my time to 10-15min a day? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 12 Jun 2020 12:45 PM PDT |
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