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Poll: Do you meditate?
Do you meditate? If so, how often?
Other questions that would be interesting to have answers to: Why do you meditate? What kind of meditation do you do? How long have you practiced? How long is each meditation session? Do you meditate alone or with others? What effects or benefits have you experienced?
- jrajav 14y agoPersonally, I do not single out any one time for meditating in the way most people think of - passive sitting and breathing - but I often take breaks from my work to go and get decaf coffee, and I will take those times to stop doing anything or thinking and just be mindful of the act of walking. This is usually called active meditation, due to the contrast with the more widely known (in the West) passive meditation. If I'm not with anyone, I will also do this as I take meals or drive. If you are interested in learning about active meditation or are more the type to set aside time for it in your day, I would highly recommend Tai Chi.
- hosh 14y agoCool. Though I say the "passive" "active" distinction isn't all that useful. When you are sitting still and breathing, your are actively observing the sensations. There's lots to see. Lying, sitting, standing, and walking, are all different vehicles for practicing mindfulness. For some people, walking is too stimulating and need to sit. For others, sitting is too restful and one easily falls asleep. I've mentioned this elsethread. Formal practice where you set aside time and make a commitment creates a ritual container for the practice. It creates a timebox from which you can bind your resolution and intent to practice. You can make this more or less elaborate -- and some people need elaborate. The formal practice is to give you a chance to realize insights which you then integrate outside the timebox. As the saying goes, mindfulness doesn't end on the cushion. So if you're able to be mindful in all the things you do, that's awesome. There are lots of people who are like you. And there are lots of people who need a more formal container for their practice.
- unemployed 14y agoDo you personally go for a gnostic type meditation? What's that like? As for myself, I'm trying to sit one minute per year of age. The internet told me this would be enough.
- angkec 14y agoAny one has any tips to form meditation as a habit? I know meditation is good for oneself, and I have personally meditated on and off for 20+ sessions. But the habit never sticks. Somehow after a few days of meditation I feel massively better and then I forgot to do so. It's like stop taking pills after I recover from sickness. Anyone has any tips? Thanks.
- breadnwater 14y agoVow of Now was created for this very purpose, to instill meditation as a daily habit. Slightly controversial perhaps, but it works: http://vowofnow.com http://vowofnow.com P.S. I'm the founder.
- angkec 14y agoI was looking for some long term solution that is not guilt-driven. Still, thanks for the link and I'll probably eat my words someday and try it out.
- breadnwater 14y agoThe guilt part is entirely up to you and not essential to taking the vow. :)
- xk_id 14y agoWell I think meditation is sort of like a minimalistic tool for training yourself. So I reckon it's part of the point to figure out how to get yourself "into a habit", etc. Anyway, I don't think anything substantial can come out of meditation alone. If you use meditation as a "training ground" for learning discipline, etc. then you may argue those understandings are later useful in practical matters. But then, again, why not train yourself while at those practical matters? Granted, the simplicity of the meditative practice might make it easier to deal with things like what somebody else in this thread calls "negative thought patterns", etc. But I think the whole practice of meditation emerged from an interest of making the "world" to gradually "disappear". Somebody in this thread speaks of the "dissolution of the ego", fasting, etc. Meditative practice appears to have been birthed out of a yearning for...... destruction of details, diversity and complexity. But until when? That doesn't sound right to me. On the other hand, some other people equate meditation with going to a park, or riding the bicycle. That's disconnecting from one "world" and connecting to another; I can see the point of that, it's refreshing, relaxing. And I think it's better, because at least it performs a replacement with something mildly interesting and engaging, rather than... an empty wall (?!). Sitting in front of an empty wall just seems morbid to me. As for the "feel good" factor, when you're meditating (in front of a wall) you are not contributing much to anything, so it sounds like meditation is a surrogate for "getting high"; or at least some form of really cheap entertainment. Surely there are preferable alternatives – like listening to good music, or reading a good book.
- summerdown2 14y agoI sit Zazen 20 minutes per day. All you need is a wall, a cushion and a timer. This helps: https://insighttimer.com/ https://insighttimer.com/ I meditate alone, though the app above gives you a virtual community if you want one. I find mediation helps me put things into perspective. It's nothing more than staring at a wall and being bored, but there's a sort of magic in being bored. Every time I return to the present moment I'm seeing what's really there. Most of the rest of the time I'm off daydreaming and I think studies show that the less present you are, the more miserable you are. A lot of stress is caused by my own thoughts. When I stop dwelling on things, even for a little time, my body looks after itself.
- mercuryrising 14y agoBeing 'bored' is the best part - setting a time to do 'nothing' during the day. There's always something to do, something to see, someone to talk to, but there's rarely 'nothing' to do.
- xk_id 14y agoThere is 'nothing' to do when I go to sleep. Isn't that enough, and the best time for it? Edit: Sorry, I do not wish to troll. You may wish to read the other post I made in this thread, where I question more elaborately the practice of meditation. My inquiry is genuine, I wish to have a critical discussion on the margin of the meditative practice.
- summerdown2 14y agoThere's nothing wrong with sleep, but meditation is a little different. Think of it like this: say you're at work and have an important meeting in a few days. If you're anything like me, your mind will constantly return to it. You play out scenarios in your head about how it will go. If you're a natural pessimist, you can imagine all sorts of failure modes. So let's say your normal response is to spend ten seconds of fantasy, in which time your heartbeat rises, stress hormones begin circulating in your blood, muscles clench. You may even mutter to yourself. So then, you meditate. It's a bit like training yourself to spot when your mind wanders. Now you only drift into useless fantasies for five seconds before you catch it and bring yourself back to the present. Only half the hormones enter your blood. Your heart rate is lower. Your stress is less. Anyway, that's one benefit I've found. There are others, too. Many studies have found that the key to creativity lies in taking a break from work and letting the mind relax. Well, I often find I get my best ideas during a meditation session. Like all other ideas, I try to bring my mind back to the present and ignore them, but after the session, they're still there for me to use. I could get into the spiritual side, too. You don't need to believe in a god to see that there's times when you feel more connected to other people and to nature. I don't know why, particularly, but meditation seems to make this happen more often. Speaking for myself only, it's a very pleasant feeling.
- ironchief 14y agoThe biggest key for me was time, place and guidance. The Calm app has helped me make it habit. ### Time: I'm one of those people who says they don't have time. No time to do X, to time to hang out with Y, no time to think about Z. However, I know that this a problem of priority rather than the amount of hours in the day. Calm blocks out short amounts of time (~7 minutes) which is short enough to fit most places in my schedule. Defining hard boundaries on the amount of time I spend meditating helps me relax during meditation. ### Place: Calm has helped me meditate wherever I want to. With headphones in and a seat, I'm able to meditate wherever I have my phone. I usually do it on the L to work (Chicago). It fits conveniently time wise and I'm usually able to find a seat, close my eyes and let go, knowing that the session will end before I reach my destination ### Guidance: Starting meditation seems hard because you don't know if you are doing it right. Calm helped teach me a posture and frame of mind that works for me so I can spend less time worrying about technique and more time focusing on myself. Just my thoughts, hope it helps
- kaa2102 14y agoI recently went to a presentation by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence. He lead the audience in an exercise that he called "mindfulness". He asked us to close our eyes, breathe in and out, and focus our minds only on our breath. When a stray thought entered our minds we were advised to shoo it away and shift focus back to our breathing. I've read about meditation and found the practices to be similar. Dr. Goleman mentioned that the aim of practicing mindfulness was to improve one's self-awareness and self-motivation capabilities. I found that meditation or mindfulness has helped me gain great control of my thoughts and emotions. I have been able to calm myself down, heighten my focus, understand and disrupt negative thought patterns, and much more.
- drdoooom 14y agoi've been trying to fit this into my schedule as much as possible as well (much like the rest of us). what really set me off into making it a daily habit was the following washington post article. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43006-2005Jan2.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43006-2005Jan... ""What we found is that the longtime practitioners showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before," said Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the university's new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. "Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance." It demonstrates, he said, that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine."
- drostie 14y agoI now have a routine where every Tuesday and Thursday I fast for 24 hours. Breakfast the following days breaks the fast; so on Wednesday and Friday before breakfast I take a thorough shower, chant Tara mantras, and then meditate for a while. Since they're Tara mantras, I find myself a bit in a Tibetan tradition, which is awkward because I'm a naturalist. Nonetheless, I find that my meditations are indeed directed towards the dissolution of ego, abolishing neurotic ways, and gaining access to reservoirs of awareness, compassion, and joy that otherwise seem to be buried inside of me. This means that the best summary is "it's productive, but I can no longer use that as an excuse to do it. Rather, I do it precisely for no other reason. We don't need to justify love; we just love, for its own sake."
- namank 14y agoThat is awesome! I may steal the fasting from you!
- mehulkar 14y agoI practiced Transcendental Meditation[1] for about 8-9 years regularly twice a day as part of the curriculum in school[2], but then I went to college and all went downhill. I'm disappointed there are no options for this in the poll. But in all seriousness, TM and the advanced techniques have been one of the best experiences of my life. [1] http://www.tm.org/ http://www.tm.org/ [2] http://www.maharishischooliowa.org/ http://www.maharishischooliowa.org/
- pkennedy 14y agoHey, another MSAE graduate! (I graduated in 1997, and went to MUM after that.) I've found TM pretty useful in my life, too. I still do it regularly. Nice way to step away from everything and re-center.
- windsurfer 14y agoI don't meditate. I daydream and think and solve problems when I'm not doing anything that requires my attention (walking, resting, driving, etc). Does that count?
- notatoad 14y agoI go skiing in the winter, biking in the summer. I've always found this to be a meditative-like experience - if i'm cruising down a mogul run as fast as i can the only thought in my head is where my skis are going. it's impossible to think about anything that doesn't need to be dealt with in the next few milliseconds. That's much clearer than i can ever get my head by sitting down and trying to meditate.
- ha470 14y agoMeditation is often confused with meditatIVE activities. Sitting and trying to meditate doesn't mean you'll meditate, but meditation almost always requires you to sit still. When you're in meditation, you'll know - your mind will be in a different state (akin to sleep). Keep practicing :) it takes a while, but once you get it, I promise it's worth it.
- up_and_up 14y agoTechnically (within the yogic meditation tradition), 'concentration' is defined as 12 seconds of one-pointed thought, ie the mind is fixed in one place. This is considered 1 unit of concentration. 'Meditation' is considered 12 units of concentration, so 12 * 12 seconds which is 144 seconds. So technically, according to the definition of the old school meditators practicing 1000s of years ago, you are not really 'meditating' until the mind is fixed in one place for at least 144 seconds.
- mtct 14y ago"you should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you're too busy; then you should sit for an hour" Meditation is useless di per se; but let you understand the real value of time. This let you be more efficient in the remaining 23 hours and 40 minutes.
- kafkaesque 14y agoI chose once a month, because I understand people don't generally accept what I call meditation. People, especially those who do not run, ask me what I think about when I go on (long) runs, since I'm a mid-distance runner. My answer is that most of the time it is a form of meditation. I concentrate on my breathing, clear my mind, and sometimes I close my eyes for a few seconds to get "in the zone". It helps release and control stored up energy I may have that I feel causes tension, pressure, and anxiety. Sometimes while running, I have thought up of solutions to problems that have been bothering me. The best way I can describe this "event" is that wakefulness that occurs deep in the night (past midnight) and you feel lucid and are productive in whatever it is you are doing.
- sterlingross 14y agoWhat you described is meditation in its purest sense, as it can take many forms. The true definition of meditation is mindfulness. If you do anything with mindfulness you are meditating. For me I practice sitting meditation, walking meditation, and yoga. Creating art, painting and photography, are also both highly meditative experiences that I enjoy immensely. I've made great effort to meditate while coding, but I have found it to be nearly impossibly as my mind needs to change its pace in order to solve problems. Keeping with mindful breathing while coding is possible and very beneficial. One of the greatest benefits of meditation, as you mentioned, is for problem solving. Solutions come when you 'allow' them to. Walking meditation is very effective for this. I keep a timer and take a 5 minute walk for every 25 minutes of work.
- kafkaesque 14y agoThanks for this. I guess the people who've asked me must not know much about meditating. I admit I only have a superficial knowledge of it, as well. The people I've talked to see meditating more of a 'relaxing' experience, I guess. I will look into it more now, though.
- KingMob 14y agoMeditation is by no means guaranteed to be relaxing. I've been on several retreats, and wile they were always rewarding, they were rarely relaxing. That's just a popular myth.
- 1337biz 14y agoTried it twice. Became so bored, that I just started sleeping.
- jkbyc 14y agonext time, when you realize that you are bored, try repeating for yourself "bored, bored, bored, bored, ...". You can apply it to whatever else that may be bothering you: "sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, ..."
- KingMob 14y agoI find sleepiness the hardest thing to meditate on, since it removes the very faculty you're trying to use. I can't speak for all but getting interested enough in sleepiness to stay awake and watch it is hard. Another suggestion: switch to standing meditation if you're sleepy.
- billyb 14y agoThat (can be) the point. I recently went away on holiday for 3 weeks. No ipad, no laptop, no camera, only took 2 books I'd read before anyway. I wanted to get bored because I wanted to see what's behind boredom. Normally we go from one stimulus to the next, and when the hit of the previous one falls off we "get bored". But what if you take that away? What if you ignore that little voice that tells you "I'm bored"? There's still consciousness there. And this is what it can lead to. What am I? Am I the little voice in my head that I have to placate, the one hooked on getting the little hits of dopamine, adrenaline or whatever other chemicals the body can produce? Or am I the consciousness that experiences everything and to whom the little voice is speaking? In that case, you can watch the little voice, and begin to take greater notice of the "watching". I was in the tropics in the rainy season. So I'd sit in a hammock and watch the rain fall, or I'd go and sit on the beach if the sun came out. I'd just sit and listen and feel how the sounds played upon my consciousness. It is truly wonderful to be able to ignore this little voice, or more correctly, to re-evaluate its relationship to yourself.
- Morphling 14y agoI've tried meditating few times, but I'm too impatient for it. I can sit quietly, focusing only on my breathing for 10-15 minutes and then I just have to do something.
- KingMob 14y ago10-15 minutes? You were doing great!
- resbaloso 14y agomeditation during the day helps me sleep at night. sahaj samadhi, learned through http://www.artofliving.org/us-en http://www.artofliving.org/us-en. 20 min sessions. i go in and out of habit.
- fakeer 14y agoI just couldn't concentrate. Lots of things would come to mind. Revenge, sex, regret, frustrations, hope, plans and a lot just used to happen in mind at that time. More than usual. More than it would usually come to my mind. It's not that they are always on mind, it's not a problem. But at least for meditation you are supposed to be free of such thoughts and even if there's a thought it ought to be only just that thought(not two or more), so that maybe you can meditate just concentrating on that thought and sort of meditate if at all. Actually I had started that to fight a loss I had suffered. I gave up. Went to usual life again. Realised it is a loss and no use fighting it. Just accept it. Drink, travel, play, run(I love running and walking) and have fun in whatever way I could. I did that. It's good now. At least I am not worried now that I need to meditate.
- KingMob 14y ago"for meditation you are supposed to be free of such thoughts" This a pernicious falsehood. It's possible to achieve, but even most advanced meditators aren't spending long stretches of time thought-free. Wrestling with your concentration and being aware of what you're experiencing is meditation. It's pernicious because it leads people to believe that they're not any good at meditating, since they look at their mind and are aghast at how cluttered and chaotic it is. The fact that you now start to see it, IS meditation. You were doing just fine.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- gnosis 14y agoA lot depends on how you define "thought". If you define "thought" as any kind of mental experience (including "sensory" experiences such as simply experiencing the external world), then I would agree that our minds are "cluttered and chaotic", as they are filled with this experience whenever we are conscious. On the other hand, if you define "thought" as a sort of verbal "inner dialogue", then I think it is possible to go through long periods of time without it (both in meditation and in more ordinary states of consciousness). I am only a begginer at meditation, so I can not speak from personal experience regarding what deep, committed practice in meditation could achieve, but I have read many accounts of people in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions claiming to get beyond any kind of conceptualization or "thinking". Certainly, there are also traditions which claim something like "nirvana is samsara" (that the "true" world or reality is the same as the "illusory" world or reality, in some profound sense that only the enlightened individual can grasp), that even in the enlightened state, what one does is "chop wood, carry water", same as in the non-enlightened state. So, some could argue, even deep meditative states could be just as "cluttered and chaotic" as ordinary states of consciousness. But this is not the only or necessarily even the most dominant view.
- notJim 14y agoI try to meditate about twice a week, but I haven't been keeping it up lately, so I put once a month. I started because there was a thread here where people described the benefits. I was (and still am) very skeptical of the self-reported effects, since there's a strong possibility of placebo, but at the same time, I figured if all these people like it, it's worth a try. Maybe it's just a placebo, but it sounds like a pleasant one, and the downside is essentially non-existent. To get started, I read Mindfullness in Plain English [1], which is a pretty practical, no-nonsense guide with minimal New Age woo. It addresses a lot of the problems and questions a beginner will have getting started. I can't really claim any long-lived effects or benefits of it. As I said, I'm very skeptical by nature, so I tend to be wary of attributing anything to it. One thing that's very clear and noticeable though is that I feel very mentally different during and afterward. My mind is quiet in a way that it otherwise never is, and I feel like I perceive the world differently somehow (maybe more clearly or more at face value.) It reminds a lot of a hyper-focused flow state, except it's non-directional. It's like I'm focused on everything and nothing all at once. After I started, I did some reading on wikipedia and found that meditation has been found in scientific studies to have certain benefits and neurological effects. It's apparently even a treatment doctors recommend for handling stress and anxiety. That has helped me stick with it, because the meditation community is full of New Age bullshit. It's nice to know that there's more to it than that. 1: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
- JohnBooty 14y agoThank you, I'm going to check that book out. Like you, I'd like to learn more but the religious aspects are a turnoff. When I think about it, it's hard to believe that improving one's state of mind and mood wouldn't have a number of benefits.
- cooop 14y ago> I'd like to learn more but the religious aspects are a turnoff. This is a shame. Within the frivolous details we debate so much religion holds a wealth of wisdom and value that anyone can apply to their lives and benefit from. I took a similar stance when getting into meditation. I was looking for a way to deal with stress and I was certainly not "religious". I quickly found that modern/western Buddhism is stripped free of a lot of the Asian cultural traditions that I perceived as religion.
- 3327 14y agoif vim counts as meditation then Yes, I do meditate.
- SagelyGuru 14y agoI used to meditate to relax, to clear my mind, to be more healthy. Nowadays I do it just for the joy to be free of the ego.
- daenney 14y agoDo you meditate: yes What kind: zen How long is each sessions: at least 15 minutes, twice a day Alone or with others: usually alone Why / Benefits: About a year and a half back I noticed I was very agitated on a daily basis. I found it hard to focus on work, get rid of the distractions and deal with all the daily stimuli around me, it also made me more difficult to work with. Meditating allows me to deal with the daily stimuli and find some calm, order and structure. I can more easily take on challenges, I sleep better yet need less of it and I'm a more pleasant person for it.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Mycroft65536 14y agoI try and meditate daily.
- gesman 14y agoI just came back from QiGong practice that included meditation :)
- andrewcooke 14y agoin case this helps anyone else. at first i wasn't that keen on doing this, but my doctor recommended it. so i bought myself a box of very nice chocolates. the deal is that i can have a chocolate once a day, but only if i meditate (immediately) afterwards. after one and a half boxes (a couple of months) i now miss the meditation if i don't do it. so i no longer need the chocolates, but hey... ;o)
- javert 14y agoMissing an option: I've never tried it, but would be open to it. If someone could give a rational (non-mystical) explanation of how and why to do it. Or point me to an existing one.
- andrewtbham 14y agoI can't find the one I watched but there is good stuff on this site about the science and neurology behind meditation. http://www.buddhistgeeks.com http://www.buddhistgeeks.com
- andrewcooke 14y agothe kind that is fashionable in "western medicine" at the moment is called "mindful meditation". if you google that phrase you can find more info. it's basically practicing not giving a fuck (whatever you are thinking about you try to give up thinking about - you are aiming for a kind of "not caring about anything" state). so if you think that would be a good thing to practice, give it a go. i do it because it was recommended by my doctor for coping with the stress of having ms. which makes sense - that's the kind of thing it's easy to obsess over, but where you have little control, so being able to stop worrying is helpful. and i think it has helped. but i only do it for a few mins a day - i'm kind of surprised people are discussing doing it for hours as it's actually pretty hard work at times (also, i have better things to do!). ps it's easy to understand. you just sit somewhere and you'll notice that you're thinking about something. so you say to yourself something like "ok, i was thinking about X, so let's just drop that" and then start thinking about your breathing. at some point you start worrying about something else. and then you realise you are thinking about it. so you talk to yourself again and get back to thinking about breathing. that's it. at first you can spend a fair amount of time going round in circles thinking about not thinking about thinking, but eventually "putting it to one side" becomes easier and you more quickly get into a kind of calmness, just listening to your breathing, for a short while (but you're not supposed to go to sleep - you're still kind of focussed).
- icebraining 14y agoPeople have to try not giving a fuck? It comes rather easily to me ;) Maybe I just don't have much to worry about.
- the_economist 14y agoYoga is essentially a 90 minute meditation. If you breath properly, anyway. So I guess I meditate 5 days/week.
- timr 14y agoI was thinking the same thing. I've done "formal" meditation, and since I've been doing Yoga, I find that it serves the same basic purpose. Plus, there's something both liberating and enhancing about using the physical challenge to focus the mind (and the mind to deal with the physical challenge).
- jonathanjaeger 14y agoI liked calm.com's landing page back before they launched. I bought their iPhone app for $4 or $5 and it has different settings (raining, ocean, open field, etc.). It's nice and calming. I used to do the whole 10 minutes with my eyes closed thing at night, but sometimes the app or an equivalent YouTube meditation video can be soothing at work even when you're doing something else.
- rvijapurapu 14y agoI start my day with meditation - It helps clarify the day for me. I started initially with 1 min of mediation then gradually increased it to 5mins. I usually set the timer for 5 mins and once it goes off - it's a different me.
- jkonowitch 14y agoThe best way I've found to describe meditation is of giving yourself an opportunity to have no agenda; for 20 minutes a day you ignore the impulse to process every thought, memory, emotion or to plan or worry and just let it be. It's extremely liberating when you first experience the sense of control that comes with being able to let go, and you realize you've been spinning your mental wheels pretty much non-stop with no awareness. It's challenging at first - it's uncomfortable and anxiety provoking - and the benefits don't come for a few months, but I have noticed a marked improvement in my ability to regulate my mood and state of mind as I'm way more aware of the train of thoughts going through my head. Start with just 2 minutes per day and work up to 20 from there - it's worth it.
- krmmalik 14y agoI used to do 10mins of meditation a day when i got my internship. I used to look forward to it everyday and remember that time of my life as really great. Things were going well. At some point, for some reason i stopped. Recently I made a new friend who i've now known for about 6 months. He told me a little bit about his past, and a particular part of his life where he started doing visualising exercises each day and made around $80k in about 4 months or so. He's now a successful financial consultant. True story. He had been reading "The Master Key System" by Charles F Hannel that prompted him to visualise each day. I just started reading it recently, and try to meditate a few times a week. Nothing to report as yet.
- pjscott 14y agoThis may be a little off topic, but I just wanted to commend you for saying "Nothing to report as yet." Lifestyle changes often have a honeymoon period where everything seems to be going great, whether or not it's actually sustainable. After the honeymoon is over, then you can get a clearer picture of what worked and what didn't.
- krmmalik 14y agoThanks! I appreciate it ;-)
- rileytg 14y agoAverage once a day, shooting for twice. Grew up in disciplined martial arts. Easy trick to get started is count from 100 to 0 then back to 100, if you screw up, start over. Your goal is to go 100-0-100 without getting distracted or messing up the counting. This will discipline your mind to focus on "nothing"– your eventual goal is to be able to think of nothing hear nothing feel nothing. Someday you'll just stop counting and you'll be thinking of nothing. I can't speak to what its good for if anything but I still do it. Good luck!
- icebraining 14y agoBut do you find that counting prevents you from having other thoughts? Because I can count just fine and still be thinking (usually about the fact that I'm counting ;) In fact, the fact that I'm actively doing something to avoid thinking just brings self-awareness of that and therefore more thinking. In many other activities I can concentrate and think of nothing else just fine.
- seanccox 14y agoI use Ashtanga yoga as a means of getting into a meditative state, and I find that maybe 10% of the time I actually achieve some extended meditation while performing the movements and breathing. I trust that with more practice that will improve, but the immediate benefit I have felt is improved flexibility and reduced pain in my joints (I'm 31 with above average mileage). On the other hand, I took up slack-lining a couple summers ago. When the weather is nice, I can hang a line and spend about 15-30 minutes walking it, but it always feels like hours have passed when I finish. The concentration required to balance is the best means I know of for leaving the world behind.
- tombh 14y agoIntrigued to see this on HN. Could someone explain the context? Why do you meditate? For its therapeutic benefits. It helps me see things with fresh eyes. What kind of meditation do you do? Mostly watching my breath. But most of the effort is actually in getting to my cushion! I love a lot of the sentiment in Zen, eg; "What is known as 'realising the mystery' is nothing but breaking through to grab an ordinary person's life". How long have you practiced? Over 10 years. How long is each meditation session? 30-45 minutes. Do you meditate alone or with others? Mostly on my own, though I go on week-long, silent meditations twice a year to a place in Devon, UK called Gaia House. What effects or benefits have you experienced? It has effected the most profound and radical change possible. It has given me access to a freedom and peace that I could never have imagined in my wildest fantasies.
- gnosis 14y agoI recently started meditating, using the method in "Mindfulness in Plain English". So far, I've been able to meditate for between 1 to 3 hours at a time, every day. I do feel quite a bit of calm afterwards and during the deep parts of the meditation, and have also experienced some occasional hallucinations (like a feeling of intense bliss, like my arms are floating, like my chest is a hundred feet from my head) when I am deep in meditation. Also, I've found that when I need to do some chore in my daily life, if I start focusing on my breath, it helps me to not feel so bored or resentful. I am looking forward to hopefully being able to enter deep states of calm more readily and spontaneously as my meditation practice deepens. However, the effects I describe above are somehow not enough for me. I am a seeker, and naturally curious. I want to find out what (if anything) lies beyond our ordinary perception of the world. Is what we normally take to be the "real world" (or "objective reality", "external reality", etc) actually an illusion like Buddhism and Hinduism claim? If so, can the techniques of Buddhist or Hindu meditation really reveal the "true reality" beyond the illusion of the ordinary world? I would like to find out. Today, I found an interesting article[1], which argues that the kind of meditation taught in "Mindfulness in Plain English" (which is the kind most people today think of when they think of the word "meditation"), while "it has obvious benefits [such as health and calm]... does not lead to liberation from suffering".[2] This is because, the author argues, this type of meditation practice tries to avoid painful experiences (by focusing back on the breath), and therefore leads to "the attachment to aversion to suffering". The type of meditation the author advocates is quite different. I encourage you to read the article for details, but essentially it seems to consist in observing whatever happens in your mind without trying to control it, without trying to avoid it, curiously and observantly following wherever it leads. This method of meditating sounds interesting, and I look forward to trying it in the future. I am also interested in finding and trying other methods of meditation. I know there are lots of them, from focusing on the breath, to focusing between the eyebrows (the so-called "third eye"), to focusing on various external objects such as candle flames, mandalas[5], or even corpses. Some forms of meditations utilize mantras[6] or other techniques for maintaining focus. One other type of meditation that I did try briefly was kinhin[7], or walking meditation, which is described in some detail in "The Three Pillars of Zen" (a book I highly recommend, though with a grain of salt, as it seems to have a bit of a bias towards a particular tradition of Zen). It was quite interesting, and may be a good way to start and end a sitting or zazen[8] form of meditation. [1] - http://ronsharrin.com/writings/mindfulness.pdf http://ronsharrin.com/writings/mindfulness.pdf [2] - The author uses the term "suffering", probably referring to the Buddhist concept of dukkha[3], which is often translated as "suffering" (and is the first of the so-called Four Noble Truths[4], as in "life is suffering"), but may be better translated as "dissatisfaction" or the "problematic" aspects of life. [3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha [4] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths [5] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala [6] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra [7] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinhin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinhin [8] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen
- eniolopes 14y agoIf you really are a programmer you do meditation whenever you are working, the process of meditation is to contemplate on some subject, object or whatever. So yes I do meditate, at work and daily on Lord's holy name.
- latifnanji27 14y agoIts possibly the most important daily task I have. If you go for weeks meditating, and then take a week off, you'll know what just hit you. The first week is the hardest. Stick it out. The benefits will come. I use Jon Kabat's tapes and they're perfect. I meditate for 20 minutes in the morning with one simple rule. DO NOT check email or any input that gives you information (ie. news / social media) before your meditation. It will only make it more difficult. Last year I went on my first meditation retreat and it was rather insightful. An entire weekend can clear the noise completely from my mind without any urge to dive back into technology.
- Musaab 14y agoI'm a Muslim. We pray five times a day. It's a whole lot better than meditation.
- Volpe 14y agoWhy?
- joelthelion 14y agoI haven't yet been able to decide whether meditation is legit or not. I keep reading about how awesome it is, how much "scientifically proven benefits" it has. But as soon as you try to learn a little more, everything is mingled with bullshit religious mumbo jumpo. It's difficult to find nice rational sources about the subject.
- tedks 14y agoI've pre-emptively excluded meditation from my set of legitimate things, because it pattern-matches to white people taking something non-white people do and finding "deep wisdom" in it. It's the same reason why various fruits and berries that are common and worthless in south africa sell like hotcakes in the US, and the same reason why anime has so much Christian imagery.
- gnosis 14y agoIt's true that part of the attraction of meditation for a lot of Westerners is that it seems "exotic" and "different". However, I would strongly disagree with you that such an attraction to exoticism is a reason for completely disregarding meditation. After all, many things that are common in Western societies (some of which you might actually value quite highly) are considered exotic in non-Western societies, and might be valued for their exoticism. Usually, these are material goods such as cars, houses, clothes, food -- but not always -- Western music is also quite a hot cultural commodity. Do you avoid listening to Western music because it might be considered exotic in some other culture? Something else to take in to consideration is that meditation is highly valued in many non-Western cultures. Even in non-Western cultures, meditation is rarely considered "worthless" to the same extent as common fruits and berries would be in South Africa. Common, maybe. Worthless? It would really depend on the person, but many in non-Western cultures value meditation quite highly (more so than most Westerners would value it, I'd wager). Finally, I think that many strongly negative views of practices that are strongly valued in other cultures usually are rooted in xenophobia and deep ignorance. Some people don't know and don't want to know about such practices simply because they seem strange or different. I find that really sad.
- the1 14y agomasturbation > meditation
- swohns 14y agoI spent some time in Japan studying different forms of meditation, mostly Rinzai zazen on Koya-san, and find it to be quite beneficiary for high pressure jobs. I also find meditative activities to be a nice supplement or more social form of meditation. I especially like the long walks (I'm a big fan of the walk and talk meetings) and various athletic actives (like surfing or climbing) that force you to empty your mind and focus.
- codyZ 14y agoI've meditated weekly for about 2 to 3 years on and off, but these past three years, I've meditated almost daily averaging an hour every session, sitting zazen and breathing. For me, there's two types of meditation. One that clears my mind from the day and one that relaxes my mind. a) Clearing my mind - I usually do this when something existential consumes me i.e. I get a bad phone call, someone pisses me off, anxious and unfocused, hyper, etc. and I simply can't stop thinking about it during the day. I do very controlled breathing exercises for 20-30 minutes. Inhale for 5 secs, exhale for 5 secs;then 7 secs;then 10. In almost all situations this frees my mind from being consumed. In the most drastic cases I've had to do this for nearly 2 hours. I'm almost always drenched in sweat and feel revived afterwards. b)Relaxing my mind - I do this when I've had a very long day tired, but unable to fall asleep for various reasons. Again, controlled breathing for the first 15 minutes. The first few weeks were extremely tough. My mind would start racing in all sorts of directions and was unable to be mindful of the breath, especially since I was not consciously counting. After the first 4 weeks, though I was able to 'push' thoughts out of my head and start relaxing certain muscles in my body. I really can't explain this process/feeling without sounding like a crazyman, so I won't. But I'm at a point now where I can almost feel as though my mind is a shell and I can consciously shed layers off with each layer giving me a new sense of calmness. This type of meditation is vastly different that the one before because I'm here I'm not fixated on one certain thought, my mind is just kind of loosey-goose. Disclaimer: I was taught meditation by a Daoist monk, so if there are any religious undertones, I apologize. Its unintentional.
- gnosis 14y agoCould you elaborate a bit more on the details of your breathing exercise? Do you do: 5 second inhale, 5 second exhale 7 second inhale, 7 second exhale 10 second inhale, 10 second exhale 5 second inhale, 5 second exhale 7 second inhale, 7 second exhale 10 second inhale, 10 second exhale etc.. or do you do: 5 second inhale, 5 second exhale repeat 5 second inhale/exhale X times or for Y minutes 7 second inhale, 7 second exhale repeat 7 second inhale/exhale X times or for Y minutes 10 second inhale, 10 second exhale repeat 10 second inhale/exhale X times or for Y minutes
- 14y ago
- baby 14y agoI guess it's a good thing for people who are under a lot of stress. But I'm not. And I tend to find sport more "productive" in terms of kicking out the stress.
- adkatrit 14y agoAfter experimenting with meditation in my teens, I've found bio-feedback techniques have helped maintain focus, breed creativity, and given a general feeling of happiness. I'm not claiming anecdotes are evidence, but here is the technique that works for me: When I find myself stuck on a problem or burned out I will put the idea of a problem in my head and really only just be aware of it. Then, I will shift my focus onto enhancing my perception of each of the senses, starting at sight, then smell(feeling the positive being inhaled and the negative exhaled), then recalling good flavors for taste, then just hear my surroundings, preventing the noise from causing extraneous thoughts. Finally I will feel with my skin, all at the same time all throughout my body. I'll continue this until I feel the need to stop (usually about 5 minutes). I feel like a million bucks after this. Every time. More often then not, when returning my attention to work, the answers seem obvious and I am more tolerant of distraction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_cognition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_cognition
- justplay 14y agoCan i medicate while sleep ? i am serious .
- billyb 14y agoApparently. There are Taoist practices and a yogic one called Yoga Nidra. I never had much luck with them though.
- richforrester 14y agoI used to. Not anymore. Too busy doing random stuff to sit around and do nothing, clearing my mind. I do other stuff to clear my mind. I run out to a basketball court and get some shots up, perhaps play some computer games, maybe have a drink, read some comics for half a day, etc. To me, these work just as well as meditating. However, to control my asthma I do watch/manage my breathing a lot, which used to be a vital part of my meditation technique.
- richforrester 14y agoBy the way, I used to meditate a lot during my late teens/early twenties, if that matters.
- lignuist 14y agoSome of the best meditation tutorials I know of: http://yuttadhammo.sirimangalo.org/video/ http://yuttadhammo.sirimangalo.org/video/ http://m.youtube.com/#/yuttadhammo?uid=QJ6ESCWQotBwtJm0Ff_gyQ&desktop_uri=%2Fyuttadhammo http://m.youtube.com/#/yuttadhammo?uid=QJ6ESCWQotBwtJm0Ff_gy... He is a true hackermonk.
- goloxc 14y agoFor a couple years I practiced Bikram Yoga regularly, a practice I gradually found to overlap with mediation and led to my current involvement with a meditation group and development of my own practice. A Dharma master spoke at my school and said we should strive to meditate for an hour twice a day. I'm up to roughly a half hour twice-a-day on my own, and 2 or 3 times a week I sit for an hour thirty with a group (three session of ~25min with walking/kin-kin in between, which really helps stretch out the legs). I've only stepped up my practice regularly, but after the group sessions generally end up feeling amazing, both exhausted and refreshed. The sleep, oh my god my sleep. I'm a pretty busy thinker with a degree of anxiety as I've always been somewhat of a perfectionist with high-expectations of myself. Lots of internal pressure with a high caffeine intake. The benefits of a practice cannot be overestimated.
- antirez 14y agoMy meditation is going to the gym. Would try other ways to mediate too but I'm sure I'm not able to find more time than the few hours I need to go to the gym three times every week.
- riklomas 14y agoI've been using Headspace to help me mediate every evening for the last month. I never really saw the point of mediation until I tried it out but it's been really useful, especially if you're working on a stressful startup! http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/ http://www.getsomeheadspace.com/
- Dewie 14y agoI haven't meditated somewhat regularly for years, though I want to pick up the habit. Meditation might be a good practice for many of us modern critters because it is the exact opposite of what we usually do - get a lot of stimuli from all kinds of sources. Some get addicted to all that stimuli - I know I do.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- JMKedge 14y agoI try to, once or two a week
- tehwalrus 14y agoI was practising meditation quite a lot, and I fell out of the habit. I'm now using it as a precursor to trying to sleep, and it helps a lot (I presume by unwinding excitement and/or depression at the thoughts I was having just before coming to bed). The last couple of days I've fallen asleep and woken up in the same position (this never happens) and I attribute this to deeper sleep from calming myself beforehand. This many be nonsense of course.
- hosh 14y agoI meditate about twice a day, once in the morning and once before bed. Sometimes I get lazy and just meditate in the morning. My typical amount of time is 30 - 40 minutes. I typically use my breath as a concentration object and go into vipassana, though I have done others. I supplement with the teaching from Tsultrim Allione's _Feeding Your Demons_. If I don't meditate, I can feel my mind subtly destabilizing. It may not be apparent to other people, but it is apparent to me. But beyond that, I've had realized some insights to know that mindfulness is the base reality of which everything else is a play, a story. As far as benefits that others can see: I am less crankier. I am more empathic and occasionally intuit other people's motivations. I can see into other people's shadows and assuming I don't start resonating with my own, they don't upset me as much as it used to. With more space or more need, I can listen mindfully to someone else thrashing out their rejected shadow. It's still a work in progress. I'm still working on being fully mindful while coding. I know the theory. As always, the practice is harder.
- swayvil 14y agoyou are me
- balaa 14y agoand I am you
- bleechack 14y agoThat's a great way to describe it. If I don't meditate, my mind gets all screwy too. I missed a few days while on vacation and found myself wondering: "How do people live like this?"
- hosh 14y agoYeah. "Crazy wisdom" :-D The writer who introduced me to that idea had this story. He was able to rest upon stillness even while standing or moving. He's a martial artist, so that means that he doesn't telegraph his intentions. He once taught a workshop. Some dude, a police officer I think, came up to him later to tell him something. The officer said, "You know, I noticed that you are completely still. Then when you move, there is movement. I don't see any telegraphing. Then you stop. It is really freaky." The teacher commented, he thought everyone else looks freaky. I'm not there yet, where I can stay in that state of stillness when standing, much less moving. I've had a taste of it though. Enough that when I'm there, I see people moving. Their body language! So much twitching, and jerking, whether they are martial artists or not. It's like these weird influences in them that they don't know about, animating them. They look like they are possessed. I'm actually going to adapt a paper-and-pencil RPG system based on this observation. That the way people normally are, is insane. That is, modern adults are insane in socially-acceptable ways. So starting characters would start with a wisdom of 1, maybe 2 if they are lucky. And any actions they take that they do not fully experience (modelled by rolling the wisdom dice pool), they gain a derangement. It's just that characters also start with derangements. Derangements are awesome sources of drama -- like, say, the TV show, Once Upon A Time. I think this is where the Buddhist teaching of compassion comes in. You know, "how do people live like this?" They can't, you can see the suffering. It's not even their fault, though it is also their choice. I'm glad that gnosis occasionally pops into Y(HN) to post stuff like this. It has always generated a lot of interest and discussion, and a great chance for people to thrash out what they think meditation is. And who knows? Maybe a few people will give it a try and find that they are more sane.
- gregfjohnson 14y agoDo you meditate? Yes. If so, how often? 20 minutes in the morning every day. Why do you meditate? To predispose myself to receive the gift of inner transformation. What kind of meditation do you do? Centering prayer, a practice derived from the Benedictine (Catholic) contemplative tradition, oriented specifically to the needs of lay people. Thomas Merton, Thomas Keating, Catholic tradition of mysticism, etc. Key book: "Open mind, open heart" by Keating. Some people like "New seeds of contemplation" by Merton, but I find Keating more accessible. How long have you practiced? More than 10 years. How long is each meditation session? 20 minutes. Do you meditate alone or with others? Alone every morning, with a group twice per month. What effects or benefits have you experienced? - Better (but still not great) at keeping my mouth shut and listening to others - Used to engage in a range of behaviors such as procrastination to keep a whole catalog of anxiety-producing thoughts tamped down and below the conscious mental radar screen. By now, the anxiety-producing thoughts have by and large come to the surface and evaporated, rendering those avoidance behaviors unnecessary. - Bouts of depression, while just as intense and severe when the come, now last a day or two as opposed to many weeks. - Artistic and aesthetic sensibilities are more acute. - Willingness to accept the humdrum rhythms of life with more equanimity. - Left defense industry and now write software for a medical device company. - Grew out of a romantic fantasy about what "enlightenment" might mean, and am now content with the the "meat and potatoes" of living life in the present moment. This was something that I found to be of value in reading "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind".
- goloxc 14y ago- Used to engage in a range of behaviors such as procrastination to keep a whole catalog of anxiety-producing thoughts tamped down and below the conscious mental radar screen. By now, the anxiety-producing thoughts have by and large come to the surface and evaporated, rendering those avoidance behaviors unnecessary. yes.
- mumrah 14y agoWhere is the option "I would like to, but I have a toddler"
- salvadornav 14y agoFor those who want to give it a try I'd highly recommend this (short) book http://amzn.to/11zPRcJ http://amzn.to/11zPRcJ (Deep Meditation - Yogani), of all I've read on the subject this was the best by far -no religion, common sense, and simple method.
- Kaivo 14y agoI don't know if it is related, as I've never read on the subject, but when I was in highschool, before falling asleep, I often spend over an hour with soft music playing at a very low level while focusing on any body parts. For instance, on my knees, or arms, feet, etc. I'd feel them loose, like they were floating, not even touching anything. I'd reach a point where I couldn't move even though I'd try, and it actually felt great. I sometimes miss taking the time to reach that point before falling asleep as I'm usually too tired to stay awake longer than five minutes once in bed (even with a book open). I'm not sure if that counts as meditation, but I'm sure willing to read more on the subject, as I want to fell that calmness again.
- riazrizvi 14y agoThough not the obvious way of sitting and chanting, I meditate by just bringing mindfulness to an activity I am doing anyway. A run, a stretch, hanging out with my kids, a conversation, a breath. I summon complete attention, at first it feels weird to notice every little sensation, then I try to adapt the experience until it feels better.
- blndcat 14y agoThis is exactly what I would like to achieve. Being present. Could you share how you learnt and practiced it? I am trying but failing.
- riazrizvi 14y agoI didn't find a good book, I cobbled this together between a few different books and personal experience. Not sure if it is what you are looking for exactly: I find the benefit in meditating comes from trying to fix how my conscious mind and unconscious behavior are misaligned. The practice starts with switching attention from inner dialogue and visualizations, and moving it to the physical sensations in the body. So you are reading your code, then you silently search around within for feelings. You feel the pressure of the chair on your butt, the air as it moves over the rim of your nostrils, physical feelings like that. Regarding self-regulation, I might notice a scrunched up forehead that I've held for hours, that is tiring me out and completely unnecessary. So I relax it. The more I do it, the more perceptive I become.
- jaxn 14y agoI used to do it frequently and no longer do it at all. Maybe I should, but my life it a lot different now.
- pacomerh 14y agoI've seen that meditation comes in lots forms, so I'm guessing some of the people who chose "I have never tried it" might think that it gets done kind of like the movies promote it, where you sit down and chant or hum. Would be nice to get a good starting point resource from someone that has experience on it. One thing that seemed interesting to me is that meditation doesn't have to be on a silent place, and the actual noise around you could also be part of it, so I'd be very interested in knowing more.
- archarios 14y agoI've found this series of talks to be very good for enhancing my practice: http://www.audiodharma.org/ http://www.audiodharma.org/. Thought I'd share :).
- cre8ed 14y agoHey Yes. I basically "kill" the ego and surf around in the absolved state of all-knowing, looking for clues on what to do next in the real world.
- drdeadringer 14y agoMy wife did for most of her life, but then stopped as she realized that it more "harming" her than "helping". I learned per her custom as were dating and so tried "her" method myself, and I'm not sure I got much out of it myself -- granted that I was doing it for somewhat selfish reasons. We both don't now-a-days. I may or may not return to it in the future, depending; I doubt my wife will, given her bad and prolonged experience with it.
- dwc 14y agoI frequent some online meditation communities, and I've seen people reporting adverse effects, ranging from extreme detachment in everyday life to odd physical reactions. If it's not too personal... What's the harmfulness your wife has experienced?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mitya777 14y agoI meditate 2-3 times a week for about 20 minutes. My experience level is that of an advanced beginner. I sometimes struggle to reconcile meditation's message of "just observe" with my discomfort at my level of achievement in life. I realize that being too judgmental can be a sign of an unhealthy perpective on life. But I worry that being too content can dampen my desire to succeed. That being said, I think meditation is one of my most important practices.
- linvin 14y agoThese practices and the philosophies (i.e. the presumed world models) go together. It helps if you read J. Krishnamurti or UG Krishnamurti.
- erinfrey 14y agoWe just published habit data & insights from successful meditators on Lift, our goal-tracking app (http://lift.do/ http://lift.do/). The research includes answers to your questions (and really cool graphs). http://bit.ly/meditationhabits http://bit.ly/meditationhabits - time of day, position, styles & session length http://bit.ly/marchmeditationtips http://bit.ly/marchmeditationtips - likelihood of continuing meditation, frequency, session length, apps What we learned: There doesn't seem to be a correlation between time of day & whether you see benefits. 48% of people on Lift meditate upon waking or in the morning. 2/3 of all survey respondents started feeling benefits within a week regardless of when they meditated. 45% sit on the floor, 30% a chair, one person said they meditate while swimming. Mediation gets easier after 11 days of daily practice. 90% of people with an 11 day streak went on to have a 12 day streak & that trend continued for 60 days (we didn't look after that). To compare, it takes 14 days to see that trend in the Eat Breakfast habit. Most people started with 3-5 minutes per session. Average session length we see on Lift is 16.8 minutes. 62% of people who meditated more than 3 days a week used an app compared to 50% of people who meditated 3 days a week or less. Data comes from Lift data + surveys to Lifters in the Meditate habit. We're running a Meditation Challenge this month & we're learning a lot about this habit a lot of people say is their most important one. You can ping me at @liftapp with more questions.
- debraj_de1 14y agoI try to do it every day for just 20 minutes. I have learned from some meditation teachers about practising 3 different speeds of breathing and then to go to deep rest meditative state. All it takes is just 20 minutes. It give me more endurance and patience when doing tough projects developments and research works, and creative out-of-box thinking.
- jdkanani 14y agoI always do. Here is my technique - Feel your breathing. Say OM in mind while inhaling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om). While exhaling, increment your breath count `x` [x <- range(1, depends on you)] Advantages of this technique: Track of counting breath - keeps me awake :). It is simple. No need of specific place, you can try on office chair.
- sankarss 14y agoI used to do the 5 chakra meditation as per the yoga. It brings the calmess and pleasant feeling.
- arunabh 14y agoI was meditating daily for like 3 months, and then it altogether stopped once I started gyming
- jasonm23 14y agoI practice wu wei - or "no action" / wei wu wei "action without action" - This is a Taoist method similar to meditation, however rather than sitting in lotus, you apply it to now, the singular moment. Having practiced meditation for about 5 years (which was about 15 years ago) I found that I didn't fully integrate the states with one another (meditation / action) I'm sure it's not for everyone, and perhaps it requires the prologue of a few years of meditation first, but I find wu wei a more helpful and whole method of spiritual living. Don't assume I'm at complete bliss 100% of the time, and I've certainly had more powerful realisations within the confines of yogic meditation, but I find the balance is much stronger and in tune with both material and spiritual reality.
- mbrock 14y agoI've been meditating about twice daily (15-30 minutes) for about two years, and more sporadically for a year before that. I started because I was feeling really confused and anxious and desperate about stuff in general, and needed some kind of anchor or Regular Good Thing in my life. I could go on and on about the various benefits and so on, but I've rarely found that type of thing very interesting to read about myself, so... Here's a thought. There's a bias in the current "secular" discourse about meditation, probably inherited from the psychiatric perspective of the "mindfulness" movement. Let's call it the emotional bias. The whole discussion seems to revolve around "emotional benefits." This might seem like a natural given, but let's question it. Just to shake things up a bit, let's compare meditation to some other activity. Say, reading. It would be weird to talk about reading only in terms of "emotional benefits." Like, "I read twice a day and I have found that it gives me a noticable increase in feelings of joy and wellbeing." You would say, "okay, but what are you reading? Is it interesting? What have you learned?" Of course meditation and reading are not the same thing, but I just want to point out that it's not immediately obvious that everything people do intentionally is for "emotional benefits." For me, while I do appreciate emotional benefits, the fascination of meditation for me is more cognitive. It's almost like a puzzle. I can't really explain it. It's not clear what the puzzle is about, but if I had to say something, I'd say it has a lot to do with the relationship between myself and "phenomena." Maybe between my mind as such and its specific manifestations -- I'm aware this might sound pretty crazy. It has to do with figuring out (or penetrating or unravelling or getting to the bottom of) some kind of fundamental confusion. So, I'm not very impressed by the dogmatic version of secular meditation. I caricaturize this dogma as saying "meditation is purely a technique for improving your emotional life and your career performance, anything else is religious woo-woo bullshit nonsense." It's such a cocky attitude. "Alright religious people, you've been messing around with this stuff for thousands of years, now we'll take over, throw out the weird stuff and do it properly."
- javajosh 14y agoThe mind is a little like an elastic cloud of computers, that are coming online with increased demand, and going offline as demand recedes. Compute nodes (thoughts) only go offline as your demand (meta-cognitive emphasis of thoughts) reduces. You will find that, a daily meditation practice resets the cluster. During the day, only the necessary thoughts arise to help you deal with real, current load. The capacity of your brain to load necessary thoughts is no longer impaired by the running of thoughts that were useful yesterday. Ergo, meditation ideally allows your mental cluster to be stateless, at least day-to-day (it is going to be stateful during any given day).
- billyb 14y agoYes, daily for 1-2 hours. I feel happier, more energetic and enjoy life more. Search for "Kundalini awakening process" if you want to learn something amazing (I'm not related to them, I just took their KAP1 and loved it).
- billyb 14y agoI should add that what I really like about this method is that chi kung (awareness of energy) really supercharges the practice. If you can learn to feel, use and channel your energy you can enter different states much more easily - such as the state of having a very quiet mind. A quiet mind - or the state Zen practictioners call 'no-mind' - can be experienced by energising an area in the centre of the head. Many different techniques will do this as a by-product, but cutting out the middle man and charging it directly (along with several other places) can lead to a much more consistent and beneficial practice. There are many different methods and techniques regarding meditation, but a lot of them are secret and not taught openly. These techniques are however found even in the major religions, and once you know what you're looking for you see parallels everywhere. The major failing of the main religions to my mind is that I believe they know practices that could help ordinary people experience transcendental states, but they keep them hidden and only share them with high ranking clergy, etc. I find this despicable, maintaining and enhancing the wedge we feel between ourselves and the "something greater" we can experience.
- kersten 14y agoI practive Diamondway Buddhism www.diamondway-buddhism.org with 650 centers worldwide there's a place in almost every city. Check it out if you would like to know something about your mind..
- squid_ca 14y agoA fantastic site for those interested in meditation is http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/ http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/ I would recommend the talks by Gil Fronsdal in particular. The site has MANY talks on different topics including several courses on beginning insight meditation. As a non-religious person (atheist, actually), I found their approach and presentation to be very easy to accept (eg, a focus on practice rather than faith).
- jeena 14y agoI meditated for 10 days 11 hours a day while on a Vipassana meditation course, but it is not really for me.
- gnosis 14y agoWow. That sounds like a very intense experience. Could you elaborate on what that was like and why you found it wasn't for you?
- JNox64 14y agoWhoa, I thought that read 'medicate'... LOL
- leot 14y ago20-30 minutes every morning, as part of a daily routine. If I don't do it I notice less composure that day.
- ShinyObject 14y agoPerspective from a stone-cold atheist/philosophical-materialist that started daily meditation in recent months: there's nothing magical to it, but there is something to it. There are many different explanations as to "how it works". These range from greater connections with supernatural beings to just giving your brain some quiet time to perform various housekeeping activities that it doesn't get a chance to do when constantly stimulated with computer/phone/tv. If you want to know "what can meditation do for me besides waste my time?", here is my attempt at describing what it feels like and how it's beneficial. This is just my subjective experience. The first benefit of meditation for me has been to make me aware of the near-constant mental chatter going on in my mind, and presumably the minds of many other people in society. I knew it was bad but I had no idea how bad until I tried to shut it off for a few minutes. It's like when someone points out every time you say "umm" in a conversation and you suddenly become aware you are doing it constantly. As for the second benefit, imagine how you feel when you are in a pleasurable and carefree mental state. For example you are at a bar or a party talking to someone you just met who has similar interests and after 20min you have sort of a full body buzz going even if you haven't been drinking, the rest of the world falls away, and time flies by. Or if you go to the gym or do martial arts and you enter the gym stressed about work, then two hours later you walk out and are driving home, feeling great and the things that were bothering you earlier seem insignificant. Meditation builds a mental muscle that allows you to more easily slip into that groove. I'm still a newbie but there are times that I can slip into that state at will, walking down a crowded street surrounded by people. "Arrgg! stop wasting my time and tell me how this is this going to get me money/sex/stock options!" If you are still looking for the immediately tangible benefit of meditation in terms of (input x) -> (output y) that will depend on your situation. I can however give you an example. If there is a room full of of stressed out uptight people and someone walks in who is more relaxed and "present" than everyone else in the room, other people in the room will notice this, they will subconsciously assume there is a reason, they will be more inclined to listen to that person. They are walking around with empty cups and that person acts like their cup is overflowing. The joke is the first time this happens you will have the thought "omg it's working, the 'trick' is working!" and instantly your new found charisma will evaporate. If you chase it you cannot have it, there are many things in life like this :] As for method, I don't use candles, music, darkness, unusual sitting poses, or any other props. They obviously help some people but I have not tried them. I simply put my phone on silent, set my phone alarm to vibrate in 20min and put it on a table behind me. Sit in a chair and look at a point on the wall, be sure there aren't any screens or clocks in your field of vision to distract you. Once you are sitting looking at the point on the wall let yourself be present and not thinking about anything in the past or the future. The first two or three times you try this it will feel like the longest 20 minutes of your life and you will find yourself constantly thinking of chores, imagining interactions, and berating yourself for thinking. Don't judge yourself and don't "try" to not think. Newbies are often told that if they really need to focus on something, to focus on their breathing. Normally when you have a thought your mind seizes on the thought like a shark seizes on its dinner. Rather, be like the stone at the bottom of the sea and the thought is like a jellyfish. The thought appears, you are aware of the thought, but you don't engage it, you just let it drift by.
- DanteVertigo 14y agoI meditate 3 times a day
- vespassassina 14y agoI meditate once a day, usually just 10 minutes, alone. I usually focus on breathing and every time i spot a thought i say (in my mind): "thought", then i let go of the thought and go back to meditation. Apart from this kind of meditation i sometime practice mindlessness during the day, to be more aware of what's around me or to better taste life in general. Apart from making me feel more calm and centered, it is a powerful exercise to train your mind not to wander aimlessly and be more focused when you need to. I found it extremely useful to stop wining or suppressing not funcional thoughts during hard times, to ignore annoying stimuli from outside (and inside) and to better manage feelings/thoughts. i would express this exercise like this: core training : physical = meditation : mental