4 ms·

Is the feeling you get from meditation the same feeling as you would get from doing the same amount of sport per day?

• hosh 14y ago
  Kinda. It depends on how mindful you are when you are doing or practicing the same amount of sports a day. If you're spacing out while training or playing, then you're not being mindful. This is also true of people who formally sit: a lot of people will spend years "spacing out" thinking they are emptying their minds and "meditating." On the other hand, when you train and you get that feeling like... you're relaxed yet focused, your mind is engaged and aware, then yeah, you're likely in at least the first concentration state called Access Concentration. It also implies something about "motivation". We tend to want to be "motivated" to do something. The feeling is often approaching flow or zone -- access concentration. The thing is, gaining access concentration is skill you can train by itself. Or at the very least, you can figure out how to slip into access concentration when you engage in the sport. I know that many traditional martial arts are considered "enlightenment vehicles". In modern times, sports can be used for that vehicle. If you want to know more about this, I recommend reading Dan Millman's _The Way of the Peaceful Warrior_. From there, Millman has a separate book specifically about using sports as a meditative practice. This one provides more of the context.