6 ms·

One should meditate always, also also during their sleep. let alone while doing chores, walking and talking. Formal sitting meditation is just a minor part.

mangamadaiyan 5y ago
Says who? (Citation needed)
- justmedep 5y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Nhất_Hạnh https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Nhất_Hạnh
  - beebmam 5y ago
    Sounds like cultish behavior to me.
mensetmanus1861 5y ago
this is taking the advice literally IMHO. Most of the time you end up being in a calm and attentive state of mind where you are focusing on the present.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  Good for you. Most of the time I don't. Being particularly prone to daydreaming (or deep unconscious though productive hyperfocused flow state at best) and having attention problems is what got me interested with the subject in the first place.
nix23 5y ago
Not sure about during sleep, but meditation is nothing else then to life and think in the present, give your brain a task and focus just on that, then the next one. If you go into the future or past do it intended.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  > give your brain a task and focus just on that Not really. It is important to maintain conscious. When you simply "focus on just that" you may then just wake up once the task is complete and find out you've went through it automatically like if it was a [non-lucid] dream. As about meditating while sleeping - I have not explored this part enough. Renowned Dzogchen teachers Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche have books on this subject. A Zen teacher quoted by Alan Watts also said "when you are hungry - eat, when you are tired - sleep" and explained that ordinary people don't actually follow this as they think about countless things while eating and see countless dreams while sleeping. If we go slightly farther than secular mindfulness dares to go and consider the Buddhist religious goal of after-death liberation, they say "dream yoga is not an essential part of practice, but how do you expect to stay conscious in death if you can't even stay conscious in sleeping"? As for me, I consider unmindfullness a voluntary death, throwing parts of the life time you have been given (by the G-d, or figuratively - whatever you prefer to believe, this doesn't change the matter) away. You only live and actually own/use your time when mindful. When you are not it just disappears. AFAIK even Immanuel Kant believed something like this.
  - Nursie 5y ago
    > You only live and actually own/use your time when mindful. When you are not it just disappears. This sounds both judgemental and obsessive, just so you know.
    - qwerty456127 5y ago
      Why? Now I'm here and enjoy the moment. Now I'm not and the body just lives on its own doing it's job like a robot could when I could be dead and not mindful of anything. A minute is gone. To me this seems rather simple. Perhaps my verbal abilities are not enough to explain. Once, as a schoolboy, I've heard about Buddhists who train to always stay consciousness while living, talking and whatever, I considered this amazing and have then progresses from 80% daydreaming an 19% struggling life to some way more (although still very far from 100%) present, more mine and more happy.
Nursie 5y ago
And if one does, one may end up with mental health problems.
- qwerty456127 5y ago
  If one does not, they end up with [often undiagnosed] mental health problems anyway. Everything is dangerous, you just should try your best to do it the right way under supervision of a qualified person and stop if it goes wrong.
  - Nursie 5y ago
    > Everything is dangerous This is not what is being promoted by the mindfulness/buddhism-lite industry that the article is talking about. > you just should try your best to do it the right way under supervision of a qualified person and stop if it goes wrong. This appears to contradict "One should meditate always"
    - qwerty456127 5y ago
      > This is not what is being promoted by the mindfulness/buddhism-lite industry Every industry is corrupt. But if you are lucky and smart enough you can actually get away with something good for you. Out of curiosity, I have even attended a course in extrasensory abilities once. Paradoxically, besides some useful self-regulation and some trance-based techniques they also taught observing your thoughts and feelings detachedly and taking them critically which has boosted my rationality and helped me so many times. And good for them, they were pretty serious about making sure people with mental issues are not allowed to participate. Sadly most of the industry don't care. > This appears to contradict "One should meditate always" Almost nobody can meditate intensely for long periods of time in the beginning. You just do your best to awaken from unconscious daydreaming and stay conscious as often and for as long as you comfortably can. If you try and immediately find out you actually can (although not necessarily comfortably) maintain undisturbed conscious concentration for long periods of time you should go to a doctor or a Buddhist teacher experienced in meditation techniques and things which happen to people on this way. Choosing the latter absolutely doesn't imply you have to take the religion and believe in their saints - you only really need the psychotechnical (and the philosophical maybe) guidance.

mangamadaiyan 5y ago

Says who? (Citation needed)

justmedep 5y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Nhất_Hạnh https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Nhất_Hạnh
- beebmam 5y ago
  Sounds like cultish behavior to me.

mensetmanus1861 5y ago

this is taking the advice literally IMHO. Most of the time you end up being in a calm and attentive state of mind where you are focusing on the present.

qwerty456127 5y ago
Good for you. Most of the time I don't. Being particularly prone to daydreaming (or deep unconscious though productive hyperfocused flow state at best) and having attention problems is what got me interested with the subject in the first place.

nix23 5y ago

Not sure about during sleep, but meditation is nothing else then to life and think in the present, give your brain a task and focus just on that, then the next one. If you go into the future or past do it intended.

qwerty456127 5y ago
> give your brain a task and focus just on that Not really. It is important to maintain conscious. When you simply "focus on just that" you may then just wake up once the task is complete and find out you've went through it automatically like if it was a [non-lucid] dream. As about meditating while sleeping - I have not explored this part enough. Renowned Dzogchen teachers Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche have books on this subject. A Zen teacher quoted by Alan Watts also said "when you are hungry - eat, when you are tired - sleep" and explained that ordinary people don't actually follow this as they think about countless things while eating and see countless dreams while sleeping. If we go slightly farther than secular mindfulness dares to go and consider the Buddhist religious goal of after-death liberation, they say "dream yoga is not an essential part of practice, but how do you expect to stay conscious in death if you can't even stay conscious in sleeping"? As for me, I consider unmindfullness a voluntary death, throwing parts of the life time you have been given (by the G-d, or figuratively - whatever you prefer to believe, this doesn't change the matter) away. You only live and actually own/use your time when mindful. When you are not it just disappears. AFAIK even Immanuel Kant believed something like this.
- Nursie 5y ago
  > You only live and actually own/use your time when mindful. When you are not it just disappears. This sounds both judgemental and obsessive, just so you know.
  - qwerty456127 5y ago
    Why? Now I'm here and enjoy the moment. Now I'm not and the body just lives on its own doing it's job like a robot could when I could be dead and not mindful of anything. A minute is gone. To me this seems rather simple. Perhaps my verbal abilities are not enough to explain. Once, as a schoolboy, I've heard about Buddhists who train to always stay consciousness while living, talking and whatever, I considered this amazing and have then progresses from 80% daydreaming an 19% struggling life to some way more (although still very far from 100%) present, more mine and more happy.

Nursie 5y ago

And if one does, one may end up with mental health problems.

qwerty456127 5y ago
If one does not, they end up with [often undiagnosed] mental health problems anyway. Everything is dangerous, you just should try your best to do it the right way under supervision of a qualified person and stop if it goes wrong.
- Nursie 5y ago
  > Everything is dangerous This is not what is being promoted by the mindfulness/buddhism-lite industry that the article is talking about. > you just should try your best to do it the right way under supervision of a qualified person and stop if it goes wrong. This appears to contradict "One should meditate always"
  - qwerty456127 5y ago
    > This is not what is being promoted by the mindfulness/buddhism-lite industry Every industry is corrupt. But if you are lucky and smart enough you can actually get away with something good for you. Out of curiosity, I have even attended a course in extrasensory abilities once. Paradoxically, besides some useful self-regulation and some trance-based techniques they also taught observing your thoughts and feelings detachedly and taking them critically which has boosted my rationality and helped me so many times. And good for them, they were pretty serious about making sure people with mental issues are not allowed to participate. Sadly most of the industry don't care. > This appears to contradict "One should meditate always" Almost nobody can meditate intensely for long periods of time in the beginning. You just do your best to awaken from unconscious daydreaming and stay conscious as often and for as long as you comfortably can. If you try and immediately find out you actually can (although not necessarily comfortably) maintain undisturbed conscious concentration for long periods of time you should go to a doctor or a Buddhist teacher experienced in meditation techniques and things which happen to people on this way. Choosing the latter absolutely doesn't imply you have to take the religion and believe in their saints - you only really need the psychotechnical (and the philosophical maybe) guidance.