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One of my teachers said that meditation should make you less resilient to stress and make you realize that need to change your life. So if someone credits their

by avtar 9y ago

One of my teachers said that meditation should make you less resilient to stress and make you realize that need to change your life. So if someone credits their material success to meditation it's best to view this as an abuse or misunderstanding of the practice. That doesn't sound accurate. Are you suggesting that one would be less resilient to stresses linked to livelihood or stress in general? Over time meditation and yoga practices should help develop equanimity extensively, a factor that helps deal with stressful situations with more grace and emotional balance.

Boothroid 9y ago
One thing I've never quite understood - if you are teaching yourself to become more equanimous how do you avoid becoming less concerned about the things that really matter also?!
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  Equanimity doesn't have to be numbness. You can be very passionate about something and still being calm.
  - hinkley 9y ago
    I had a boss who didn't understand the difference between panic and urgency. Every 'pep talk' he tried to give us turned into a short day and drinks after work because we were so depressed or freaked out. If your friend falls in the water or is about to be hit by a bus, getting excited about it doesn't help anybody. You have do something, and quickly, but with purpose and reason.
    - maxxxxx 9y ago
      I think a lot of people think it's good to be super excited about everything. You have to be outraged, really angry, deeply offended and whatever. Everything has to be amplified to the extreme.
      - Boothroid 9y ago
        I agree. I should move to Finland, I gather they are more sanguine.
  - Boothroid 9y ago
    I'm not being picky but here's a definition for passion I found quickly: 'strong and barely controllable emotion' Surely this is at least somewhat at odds with being calm?!
- avtar 9y ago
  Language is a funny abstraction to describe these, or any, types of experiences :P But basically what maxxxxx said, one can aim to be equanimous and yet also be committed emotionally. It would be challenging (impossible?) to cultivate equanimity while also not cultivating compassion since one is trying to find peace with whatever they're dealing with. I had an opportunity to attend a talk where a meditation teacher described his experience dealing with cancer. Prior to being diagnosed he said he had a mindfulness practice outside of formal practice where he would set the intention to be aware of mild discomfort throughout the day and try not to react to it immediately. He provided an example of becoming aware of an itch. Instead of reaching for it and scratching he would try to bring heightened attention to the sensations, discern their qualities (if they were manifesting over a large surface area or small, increasing in intensity or fading, etc.), and try to entertain mind states that had a "if this was going to be my experience for the rest of my life would I be able to make peace with it?" quality. After three breath cycles if the sensation persisted and if he wasn't able to let it just be then he would mindfully scratch an itch. He claimed that working this way, with trivial things like itches or mild joint pain, provided a reservoir of equanimity that he was able to draw from when experiencing chemotherapy and the rest.
maxxxxx 9y ago
I think the teacher's point was that meditation should make you more aware of bad influences and create a desire to fix them. Let's say you constantly do harmful things to other people or yourself. You can meditate and maybe get some benefit but the ultimate realization should be that you need to change your ways. That will be the only path to real happiness. Same with the modern lifestyle. This lifestyle is ultimately unhealthy. You can build up some resilience with meditation but if you don't change the lifestyle you can't make real progress. I would compare it people who eat too much junk food. They can switch to organic and gluten free junk food and will do a little better. But in the end real progress can be only made by removing the junk food. Does this make sense? I don't want to pretend having deep insight. This is just my (limited) understanding.
- avtar 9y ago
  Thank you for expanding on your original comment. This makes sense :)

by avtar 9y ago

Boothroid 9y ago

One thing I've never quite understood - if you are teaching yourself to become more equanimous how do you avoid becoming less concerned about the things that really matter also?!

maxxxxx 9y ago
Equanimity doesn't have to be numbness. You can be very passionate about something and still being calm.
- hinkley 9y ago
  I had a boss who didn't understand the difference between panic and urgency. Every 'pep talk' he tried to give us turned into a short day and drinks after work because we were so depressed or freaked out. If your friend falls in the water or is about to be hit by a bus, getting excited about it doesn't help anybody. You have do something, and quickly, but with purpose and reason.
  - maxxxxx 9y ago
    I think a lot of people think it's good to be super excited about everything. You have to be outraged, really angry, deeply offended and whatever. Everything has to be amplified to the extreme.
    - Boothroid 9y ago
      I agree. I should move to Finland, I gather they are more sanguine.
- Boothroid 9y ago
  I'm not being picky but here's a definition for passion I found quickly: 'strong and barely controllable emotion' Surely this is at least somewhat at odds with being calm?!
avtar 9y ago
Language is a funny abstraction to describe these, or any, types of experiences :P But basically what maxxxxx said, one can aim to be equanimous and yet also be committed emotionally. It would be challenging (impossible?) to cultivate equanimity while also not cultivating compassion since one is trying to find peace with whatever they're dealing with. I had an opportunity to attend a talk where a meditation teacher described his experience dealing with cancer. Prior to being diagnosed he said he had a mindfulness practice outside of formal practice where he would set the intention to be aware of mild discomfort throughout the day and try not to react to it immediately. He provided an example of becoming aware of an itch. Instead of reaching for it and scratching he would try to bring heightened attention to the sensations, discern their qualities (if they were manifesting over a large surface area or small, increasing in intensity or fading, etc.), and try to entertain mind states that had a "if this was going to be my experience for the rest of my life would I be able to make peace with it?" quality. After three breath cycles if the sensation persisted and if he wasn't able to let it just be then he would mindfully scratch an itch. He claimed that working this way, with trivial things like itches or mild joint pain, provided a reservoir of equanimity that he was able to draw from when experiencing chemotherapy and the rest.

maxxxxx 9y ago

I think the teacher's point was that meditation should make you more aware of bad influences and create a desire to fix them. Let's say you constantly do harmful things to other people or yourself. You can meditate and maybe get some benefit but the ultimate realization should be that you need to change your ways. That will be the only path to real happiness. Same with the modern lifestyle. This lifestyle is ultimately unhealthy. You can build up some resilience with meditation but if you don't change the lifestyle you can't make real progress. I would compare it people who eat too much junk food. They can switch to organic and gluten free junk food and will do a little better. But in the end real progress can be only made by removing the junk food. Does this make sense? I don't want to pretend having deep insight. This is just my (limited) understanding.

avtar 9y ago
Thank you for expanding on your original comment. This makes sense :)