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I spent a year in a meditation center, and the results vary a lot from person to person, because what somebody needs right now in life is different from everybo
by BiteCode_dev 4y ago
I spent a year in a meditation center, and the results vary a lot from person to person, because what somebody needs right now in life is different from everybody else.
Some people will need to become more discreet, while some people need to take more space, some people need to be less materialistic, while others need to accept to use material for their own comfort, some people need to play more, some need to work more.
Also, what you see is rarely the definitive result: it's usually only part of the ungoing correction, meaning you may be seeing a swing on the other side of the curve, a different kind of unbalance, and it would be easy to judge the meditant is not progressing.
However, progress in meditation is not an absolute, it is always to be understood in the context of each human. Some start from very far away on their path, and what your perceive as failure may be a great success for them.
As usual with things that are practiced inside yourself, there is no objective way of measuring progress. We don't have a wisdom metter. This is also why it's very hard to assess if somebody is practicing correctly, or if some teaching is off. Teachers have tools for this, but even that is fuzzy at best.
My personnal experience is that I used to be minimalist, and after years of meditation, now I buy more things. I used to attend to more social events, and now I'm declining regularly some of them. Now some around me could see that as a regression. But from my perspective, it's a way of taking more care of myself.
Be careful with the way you evaluate people, practicing or not. You are probably not having all the context.
- nprateem 4y agoDid you get enlightened? I'm thinking of spending a few months on retreat soon. I've always wanted to have an awakening.
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoAh, ah :D I don't even know if enlightening exist, to be honest. For me, it doesn't matter. I don't need the promise of something potentially amazing in the future, I'm just interested in something that makes my life better right now. In the center, I only met regular people with ordinary problems, even teachers. Getting a hang on suffering, one step at a time. Sometimes being completly off the mark, because humans are humans. Meditation is also probably the most boring thing I ever encountered. It's unspectacular, tedious, slow and utterly mundane. But it's the only thing that I've tried that brings consistent, increasing benefits in life. I wish for everybody to find something that is as good for them, awakening or not.
- nprateem 4y agoI've spent a few years meditating most mornings and evenings and I'd hoped for more. No fireworks no bliss... feels like I'm not making much progress. But I've read about enough people experiencing much more I wonder where I'm going wrong
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoAll the teachers I practiced with repeated to me: don't look for something special. Don't look for bliss. If bliss comes, don't pay attention to it. Bliss is not the aim of this meditation. I don't know what meditation you are practicing, and there are so many of them I wouldn't be able to give any advice that would work with your own practice. So I can't know if you are doing something wrong. What I know, however, is that in the Vipassana meditation following Sayagyi U Ba Khin tradition, one would advice to focus on practice. There is no expectation. Nothing to achieve. In this tradition, your role is to provide efforts, but one is not responsible for the result. Things are just rising and passing away. Suffering. Bliss. Anything else. Just appearing and disapearing. Meditation is just the tool to help us live through that. Peace is not bliss. Peace means you don't need bliss, nor are you hindered by suffering. Easier said than done, and that's why it's a long path. It's a lifetime practice. You start again every day. One day, you realize you feel a bit more peaceful and happy than you used to. You smile. And you sit once again.
- nprateem 4y agoHave you read MCTB? I feel I'm still in stage 1, maybe 2, but definitely haven't reached the arising and passing away... Still, I find labelling useful. Going to try to find a Mahasi retreat
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoI haven't. Good luck, I hope you'll find something useful for you.
- jackdawed 4y agoI'm on the third stage of enlightenment, if you have any questions about my day to day experience.
- cyberpunk 4y agoClearly not Soto then. Which tradition? :)
- jackdawed 4y agoOriginally Theravada Thai Forest tradition, under Ajahn Dune's lineage, but now I'm more aligned with this https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-v-awakening/37-models-of-the-stages-of-awakening/a-revised-four-path-model/ https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-v-awakenin...
- nprateem 4y agoIs it worth it? Does it live up to the hype of bringing incredible peace and happiness?
- fzzzy 4y agoWhat is the sound of one hand clapping?
- jackdawed 4y agoIt is like living in a video game with the FOV slider turned to max. It has made me very good at "deep work" and I have a much easier time managing day to day stress and emotions. However, it brought out immense periods of suffering (dark night) followed by immense peace in cycles. The biggest inconvenience to me is the sleep disruptions, which is why I'm taking a break from deeper insight practice, and just try to maintain it, the same way a power lifter might just go to the gym for health reasons without trying to set a new PR. If you have any interest in accessing a higher state of consciousness (or more accurately a flatter state of consciousness), it's an interesting hobby to pursue, kinda like being good at mental math.