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.
In a rut
betaboy
Veteran
Namaste,
Doesn't meditation become a routine after a while? For instance, you watch the breath - you become distracted, return to watching the breath, become distracted, return, distracted, return - you get the idea.
It's like moving in a rut, experiencing the same thing almost every day - nothing new, the same random thoughts followed by a return to watching the breath, and so on.
What is one to do?
Peace,
Beta
Doesn't meditation become a routine after a while? For instance, you watch the breath - you become distracted, return to watching the breath, become distracted, return, distracted, return - you get the idea.
It's like moving in a rut, experiencing the same thing almost every day - nothing new, the same random thoughts followed by a return to watching the breath, and so on.
What is one to do?
Peace,
Beta
0
Comments
The process you describe is how we move out of the rut. Its not like snapping our fingers once per second for the whole of the meditation. It is more like wiping your nose every time you sneeze. With time and continued returning to the meditation object, the mind settles. Then there is no need to return, you'll be there already. Said differently, the mind stops sneezing so there is nothing to wipe.
With warmth,
Matt
metta
A lot of people who practice meditation of the breath practice in the following way: when they notice their mind is distracted, they let go of the thought, then they return to the object of meditation, which is watching the breath as it comes in, and watching it as it comes out. This is a good meditation because it develops concentration, the eighth factor in the eightfold path, however it is missing one crucial step that differentiates Buddha's meditation from the meditation of others, and it contains one step that is erroneous in that it does not conduce to the cultivation of the cessation of suffering.
The step that this meditation is missing is that after the meditator has let go of the thoughts, and before he returns to the object of meditation, he needs to relax. The reason for this is that craving (tension and tightness in the mind and body regarding a feeling) causes clinging (thinking about the feeling). Buddha asserts that if we want to experience the cessation of suffering, we need to remove craving from our minds, and how do we do that? We relax. This is why it is so important to relax the tension in your mind and body after you let go of the thinking, because this is what makes the meditation productive. It's what makes you experience the cessation of suffering - Nibbana. It's the reason we meditate.
Now that you have relaxed the tension and tightness that caused your mind to begin thinking, you are returning to your object of meditation. Now, what is your object of meditation? Many people simply apply their minds to watching the rise and fall of the breath. Using this as your object of meditation does not conduce to the mind that Buddha taught us to cultivate, which is tranquil insight. We need to maintain the letting go of craving, the cause of suffering, and how did Buddha advise us to do this? In his instructions of mindfulness of breathing, we are told to do four things. They are:
1) Know that you are breathing in a long breath. Know that you are breathing out a long breath.
2) Know that you are breathing in a short breath. Know that you are breathing out a short breath.
Now these are the really important steps:
3) Feel your entire body when you breath in. Feel your entire body when you breath out.
4) Tranquilize your bodily formations when you breath in. Tranquilize your bodily formations when you breath out.
Your bodily formations are the components that your body's functioning depends upon. They are the in breath and out breath, the heart rate, your muscles, ligaments, joints, bones, organs, everything. Just tranquilize them on the in breath, and tranquilize them on the out breath.
After you've caught your mind straying enough times, relaxed the tension that caused your mind to stray, then returned to your wholesome object of meditation (relaxing on the in breath, and relaxing on the out breath), you will begin to enter into the Jhanas. You will begin seeing more and more clearly, for yourself, the links that make up this impersonal (anatta) process. You will begin to see for yourself the subtle mechanisms in your mind that propel and proliferate this process of suffering, and you will begin to let them go. You are now experiencing the knowledge and understanding of the four noble truths as they arise and pass away - Nibbana. Practice, practice, practice, and don't forget to smile and have fun.
-Tikal
I had the same question and my teacher responded to my question:
"In Tibetan they refer to this condition in terms of prana or energy flow……subtle mind energy or even heart or life energy….life itself…..our life force and it does get blocked which implies its natural mode is to flow….and it flows along channels which are equally mysterious and subtle……….and the mind and the body is enlivened and functions by this energy flow. Sometimes the blockage is so strongly held in the body that actual body movement helps to get the flow going again better than trying to push your mind to do something. Even changes in our body chemistry brought on by anti-depression drugs can help.
Distractions can help if it’s a mild blockage - somehow they let the mind relax enough for something to unfreeze, but sometimes it just makes things worse because you don’t really get to the root of the blockage. In a way the whole of samsara is like blockages in the flow of the life energy - you could think of it like that! Depression is just a very intense experience of just how bad that kind of blockage can get. I am not sure there is a lot one can do in terms of meditation when the blockage is very strong, but in general it is very important what kind of thoughts you cultivate and believe in, both when depressed and when out of it – I think everyone who has had to suffer a lot of depression knows this much better than I do, and I guess that is what you are saying basically. I don’t really have a lot to add to that. All aspects of Dharma practice can help and sometimes nothing helps, but as you say even if thinking of impermanence doesn’t help, in fact all mental states are impermanent and so all we can do is hang on in there and learn how to navigate our way through them. At least you can remember to be kind to yourself and not make things worse by telling yourself you are a failure. You can tell yourself that even after spending a long time in such a state it is possible to suddenly pop out of it and become enlightened!"
-Tikal
Its simple, if u dont feel gratification, u will get bored.
One doesnt feel gratification because of wrong practice
In so many ways I have found Buddhist practice to be wrestling with my own resistance,..only to find it is not my enemy , it is like a small willing child that can be coaxed to do most everything with enthusiasm
It has to do with seeing a reward in what u do:
"So it is, Ananda. So it is. Even I myself, before my Awakening, when I was still an unawakened Bodhisatta, thought: 'Renunciation is good. Seclusion is good.' But my heart didn't leap up at renunciation, didn't grow confident, steadfast, or firm, seeing it as peace. The thought occurred to me: 'What is the cause, what is the reason, why my heart doesn't leap up at renunciation, doesn't grow confident, steadfast, or firm, seeing it as peace?' Then the thought occurred to me: 'I haven't seen the drawback of sensual pleasures; I haven't pursued [that theme]. I haven't understood the reward of renunciation; I haven't familiarized myself with it. That's why my heart doesn't leap up at renunciation, doesn't grow confident, steadfast, or firm, seeing it as peace.'
Be a brave one... throw the hope for a reward in the toilet and flush. Then your mind might do what's right.
In the beginning, nothing comes
In the middle, nothing stays
In the end, nothing leaves