Is meditation a failure we repeat over and over to get our lives right?

weighted

I suppose the title says it all.

If we keep returning to our meditation practice, it surely will have an impact on our lives and on being more mindful. But isn't each meditation session a failure of sorts? We sit and thoughts arise; we can never be rid of our monkey minds - perhaps only if we reach pure enlightenment. With all of the inundations in our lives today, I think it's almost impossible to sit in meditation and not have thoughts and then let them pass, or is the goal of meditation to have no thoughts? Is the practice of meditation one that we undertake in order to adjust our daily mindset and have us be more mindful? Is that the sole purpose of often forcing ourselves to sit down and meditate? Or is it to try to find the meditation when we reach clarity and have insight or some sort of breakthrough?

From a humble beginner, grappling with monkey mind and then some (minor) states of insight in meditation.

Why I continue to meditate at this point? Because I feel better in my daily life when I do. And for the few moments of insight, mixed in amongst the many monkey thoughts that swirl around during any given session.

Jeffrey

Slow down and look at your experience... I think you are on the right track that it can help daily mindfulness. It's like a bag of pebbles and with each breath you hold up the pebble and look at it carefully. The surface and color and then you put it on the table. At the end of the session there is a stack of pebbles and that is the merit punya you have created. This establish connections and it comes from seeing each pebble, as a cause.

Spaceless

Slow down and look at your experience... I think you are on the right track that it can help daily mindfulness. It's like a bag of pebbles and with each breath you hold up the pebble and look at it carefully. The surface and color and then you put it on the table. At the end of the session there is a stack of pebbles and that is the merit punya you have created. This establish connections and it comes from seeing each pebble, as a cause.

SpinyNorman2

Why I continue to meditate at this point? Because I feel better in my daily life when I do. And for the few moments of insight, mixed in amongst the many monkey thoughts that swirl around during any given session.

I think it's probably like that for most of us. And the more meditation you do, the quieter the mind becomes and the more likely it is that clarity will arise.

Spiny

poptart

I wouldn't say failure. Success or failure don't come into it. Your mind will throw up lots of negative thoughts to put you off, like it's a waste of time and you should be doing something more productive. The truth is you can meditate all the time, whatever you happen to be doing. It's about letting thoughts come up and noticing them, then letting them pass. Like standing on a busy street watching the traffic flow past.

Meditation takes time to learn and gets easier with practice. You say it makes you feel better in your normal life which suggests you are already feeling the benefit. Think of it as getting back to yourself, your true nature. So much of our lives is spent rushing around doing things, we can lose touch with that still silent core from where all our happiness comes.

Zero

the meditation you describe maybe akin to kata in martial arts - you dont have to do it, you could just spontaneously perform the move but it may help to understand your practice better if you do kata...

Reconciling your concerns as to the purpose of meditation is just one of the many things that you will face along the way.

patbb

There is a bit more then this.

perhaps read a bit about mindfulness meditation. (which is the first 3 stages of vipassana meditation).
- To look inside and first realize what are the thoughts and what are the sensations/feelings/emotions in the body.
- Then to realize cause and effects (i had a thought, then this feeling arose as a result of that thought)
- Then to realize the three characteristics (non-self, impermanent, unsatisfactory) in all of the experiences and objects.

The benefits only from this are great. The whole mindfulness movement is based on only this.
To realize, observe directly and be mindful of this stuff allow you to begin to detach yourself from things that aren't you, begin to see what is happening inside, begin to create space between you and what is happening to you, begin to be far less reactive and eventually soften the attachments and let go of a bunch of stuff.

The implications of all of this stuff is enormous.

I assume from your post that you are doing samadhi (concentration) meditation.
access concentration and jhanas are not unreasonable goals for laypeople.
I suggest you buy yourself a book by ajahn brahm "Mindfulness, Bliss & Beyond", if you don't already own it.

zen_world

no, the purpose of your meditation is NOT not to have thoughts...
You do no intervene with the mind during the meditation, you just analyze the content that arises.
'No thought or thougthless' state will come naturally. It is the byproduct of meditation after you build sufficient concentration.
If you feel better in your life as a result of meditation, that is good. But this is not the goal of Buddhist meditation. It is not about relaxation. It is about mastering the mind.

taiyaki

if your mind is jumping around and fast, do relaxation meditation. breathe in and as you breathe out let go, relax. what also helps is to tense everything up and relax. this creates a nice contrast.

if your mind is tired then do walking meditation and bring your attention to just your feet. foot touching the ground. develop the mindfulness of just being with that contact.
in sitting meditation it is just bringing your attention one pointedly on one thing.

if your mind is neither jumping around, nor tired then just rest in awareness or just be. watch thoughts, sensations, etc come and go. like waves they appear and disappear. just rest in pure mindfulness.

and when that is stable do insight meditation. what is this awareness? look for it.
where are all these phenomena appearing? look for them.
who am i? where am i? what is this? look for it.

then if the mind is racing, relax.
if the mind is tired, practice concentration.

if the mind is back to stability do insight meditation.

insight meditation should make relaxation and concentration stable and relaxation and concentration should make insight stable.

its a delicate balance. know your mind and know the antidote.

if all else fails just be with whatever is there.

fakebuddha

I trained my attention to my body so much that I don't have thoughts arise. You have to push little by little and you will make progress. I think whatever level you reach at meditation practice will be available to you during moments of daily life. But you have to remember that it is available throughout the day and won't be an automatic result of spending time practicing.

Denkatsu

When everything is racing at you like lightning. I find just sitting a good idea.