Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Meditation Insight

normalnamenormalname
edited November 2010 in Meditation
I had an interesting insight today while meditating.

I had a pretty "good session" - was able to still me mind for certain periods, felt calm, centered, all that. No idea exactly how long, but it felt like a while.

Then towards the "end" when I was ready to stop, I realized I was looking forward to stopping. I was looking forward to reentering my body, the world, to stop meditating.

And then I realized this is analogous to desiring to re-enter a body after we die. I realized that all the torments the Buddha is said to have undergone in his meditation are analogous to just that - the desire to stop meditating, to "live" again, to rejoin one's body. And these are the temptations the Buddha pushed through in that meditation, not needing to re-enter the stream until he was fully ready.

I dunno, it seemed meaningful so I felt I'd share.

Comments

  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    edited October 2010
    this desire is the cause of samsara. Why are we reborn? Because we desire. Desiring leads to becoming, which means another birth. We must rid ourselves of all such desires, if we wish to end the cycle.
  • DaltheJigsawDaltheJigsaw Mountain View Veteran
    edited November 2010
    Would love to hear others add upon this thread.
    Thank you,
    Leon
  • JerseyJackJerseyJack
    edited November 2010
    A cool insight, but one that raises a potential conflict (or, if you prefer, an interesting question) about the merits of the body. The idea of liberation from the body is in some sense an ultimate goal of Buddhism--nirvana, escape from karma, leaving the cycle of rebirth--yet we often are warned about the temptation to take short cuts, to escape from suffering into a spirit realm too soon.

    In other words, Buddhism both promises an escape from the body and warns us not to take it.

    But is this a critique or an insight? :confused:
  • ValekhaiValekhai
    edited November 2010
    normalname wrote: »
    Then towards the "end" when I was ready to stop, I realized I was looking forward to stopping. I was looking forward to reentering my body, the world, to stop meditating.
    Maybe I don't have the right understanding since I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm not understanding what you mean by "looking forward to reentering my body, the word..." Do you think leave those things when you meditate?
  • v3ngev3nge
    edited November 2010
    Valekhai wrote: »
    Maybe I don't have the right understanding since I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm not understanding what you mean by "looking forward to reentering my body, the word..." Do you think leave those things when you meditate?

    I think your taking him too literally. When meditating (presumably) you are concentrating on the truths of the sensations that make up your reality, thus you aren't in the constant state of clinging to permanence that your ego is use to. The ego is always desiring, in these moments of meditation there is only one thing for it to desire and that is the end of the meditation. At least this is how I see it.
  • ValekhaiValekhai
    edited November 2010
    v3nge wrote: »
    I think your taking him too literally. When meditating (presumably) you are concentrating on the truths of the sensations that make up your reality, thus you aren't in the constant state of clinging to permanence that your ego is use to. The ego is always desiring, in these moments of meditation there is only one thing for it to desire and that is the end of the meditation. At least this is how I see it.
    Thanks.
Sign In or Register to comment.