What does meditation do for you?

shays860

It almost seems like a taboo question but I thought I'd ask anyway. So far when I meditate it feels kind of pointless. Should I assume that this seemingly wasted time is actually ultimately helping me? I would love to hear the evolution of your practice. Especially if you have been practicing for a long time. Thanks.

Cloud

Makes the world of thought less important than what's going on right in this moment, and the next, and the next. It's gathering evidence, even if you don't know how that evidence will catch the killer. The mind knows! See enough, and the mind changes its direction, starts looking at things in a new way. Ah, there's the killer, and it's just a phantom after all... just stop giving it power, stop feeding it with desire, and it will blow away like mist!

What meditation has really helped me with is seeing that everything happening is due to conditions, including everything going on inside the mind. There's nothing separate that's acting on its own, everything is an interplay of conditionality. This in turn makes Not-Self more clear, because the illusion of a self begins to evaporate with evidence that no one's really home. Impermanence isn't very difficult to see, add in Not-Self and there's no problem. What problem could there be? It's all empty. Take out the trash, cut the grass, pay the bills. (or in Zen, chop wood, carry water)

"To seek happiness is to find suffering.
 To release happiness is to find peace."

ddrishi

I had heard a number of times that Meditation opens up an inner fountain of joy. I did not really believe it for years. Five years ago, I decided that I must give it a try because I lose nothing if this statement proves to be untrue. It was only gradually that I started realizing that I was getting happier and more contented day by day. Today I only wish that I had started this experimentation a few dacades ago. Give it a fair try and you will see the results before long. But do remember that when you sow a seed in the soil, it will take some time before it germinates.

betaboy

I always thought Buddhism was about liberation, and not some self-improvement course where you see gradual changes.

Cloud

This may be relevant to the OP:

Why the Buddha Taught Meditation

The Buddha praised the practice of meditation as a way of paying homage to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha that was better than offering material objects. The practice of training the heart to reach purity pleased the Buddha because it is the way by which a person can gain release from all suffering and stress. The Buddha taught us to meditate so that we can free our hearts from their slavery to the defilements of the world.

Full link: http://www.tricycle.com/insights/sowing-seeds-freedom

zenff

I always thought Buddhism was about liberation, and not some self-improvement course where you see gradual changes.

The heart of meditation - I think – is; not adding words, concepts and preferences.
We just sit with whatever there is. We allow, acknowledge and embrace thoughts and emotions to come up ant to go away. We don’t judge.

This is both sudden and gradual.
When we stop adding judgment immediately we are free. Immediately everything is accepted as it is. There’s no way to go. It can’t get any better from this point; right where we are.
In addition there’s a gradual effect of this practice on the way our minds operate. Regular meditation changes some of our conditioned psychological patterns.
Usually it is hard to see that for ourselves but people around us notice it.

Imho

Tosh

There's lots of scientific evidence that meditation has real, tangible, and even measurable benefits. I've got to go now, but if you google, you will find that many serious studies have been done into the effects of meditation; even brain scanning monks.

Have a google; it may help give you that faith that is good for practise?

driedleaf

As Mr. Miyagi would say.."Find the balance..balance good...life good...everything good". There is something worth striving for in meditation, and once we find it then we can start applying it to our daily lives. It's not just about sitting, it's about balancing life. We do not meditate to see how long we can sit, we meditate as a practice to keep everything still and less stressful, and if we practice enough, we might even gain something extra from meditation such as heightened senses, and even better...everlasting peace. If one finds meditation, than life will be balanced, peaceful and pure, just like meditation.

vixthenomad

As Mr. Miyagi would say.."Find the balance..balance good...life good...everything good".

Mr Miyagi...the ultimate Zen Buddhist (in spite of his actual religion seeming to be Shinto).

From a Zen perspective, meditation IS pointless, and that's the whole point. For me, it's good to just sit and 'be' instead of always 'doing'. I'm not looking to achieve some amazing breakthrough, mentally speaking. I meditate because it feels like the way my kind is supposed to operate. All the thinking and stressing and stuff that I do when I'm not meditating appears to me a bit like the foamy, choppy waves concealing the still, deep ocean. Ideally, I will gradually increase the time my mind spends in the deep place, both on and off the cushion.

MrsWigs

I find meditation to be like a "reset" button . It's like sticking two fingers up to the stresses and demands of daily life. When i'm meditating, it doesn't matter what's going on outside that window, when I'm just sitting, just breathing, it's like I've taken control again. It's my chance to go back to default settings it's especially satisfying because when I'm not meditating I'm either working, looking after my daughter or housekeeping blah blah.... So for me, it's my protected time out


Bx