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Am I meditating?

lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
in Meditation
I don't meditate much compared to years ago . . . probably only about an hour a day of formal practice at present. Any more would be obsessive and a little creepy.
I used to be in a meditative mindfulness most of the time, so rarely bothered with formal sitting, which just seemed like a continuation of a natural flow . . .

Whilst writing this I am not particularly mindful, so not meditative . . . hence the formal sitting, which I will abandon as soon as superfluous to requirements. Buddhas don't meditate, they are meditation. :)

The question might be better phrased, is mindfulness meditation? . . . or perhaps 'are you aware?'
TheEccentric

Comments

  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    Meditation means to medicate the mind. You can use what is known as perfect concentration in daily activities to generate insight. This can be done in all forms of ways, you could simple sit and watch things happen around you, you could be talking in a group of people and be mindful of what is said and how it effects you, the mental process that goes on from that action. These types of observation if used with a deep sense of concentration are fine for practice, as the Buddha said, this type of concentration is known as the mind being fir for work.
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    Meditation means to medicate the mind.
    Like a spiritual Valium perhaps?
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    lobster said:

    Meditation means to medicate the mind.
    Like a spiritual Valium perhaps?

    Funny guy :rolleyes: No valium reduces the mind to being blank and slow. But carry on with your dry and sarcastic sense of humour if it amuses you, Buddha to be :screwy:
  • SabreSabre Veteran
    edited April 2013
    The Buddha advised us to find a quiet solitary space and sit down to meditate - attain the stages of calm. He also did this after his enlightenment. In a way you can meditate in everyday life, but I'd not forget this advice. During the quiet sitting practice of following the breath you can sharpen up the mind so it's easier to be mindful during the day - which then makes sitting practice easier etc.

    It's like sharpening a knife. If you neglect that, your knife will go blunt. It won't cut as well and you might end up cutting yourself.

    But what do you want out of it? Do you just want to cut some bananas? You may not need a sharp knife. If you want to cut through the bonds that really matter and really keep you from being free, better sharpen that mind. You can't cut through delusion with a dull mind.
    blu3reerobot
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    The Tibetan word for meditation is gom, which means familiarization. I think in that context meditation is more than just mindfulness but a type of training and familiarizing ones mind with certain enlightened qualities all the way up to Buddhahood.

    So doing things mindfully is good but its not meditation.
    lobsterMigyur
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    reduces the mind to being blank and slow
    . . . sounds like empty equanimity?

    is it Valium, medication or something else?

    A busy mind does not have clarity, just junk.
    A tranquillised mind has no clarity, just a dumb grin . . .

    It sounds like 'gom'/familiarisation that @person mentions is my sort of meditation . . .

    thanks guys :)
  • taiyakitaiyaki Veteran
    Meditation depends on context.

    Meditation to always be requires an absence of obscuring views. Without duality there is the natural state of sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, thoughts, and colors. Then corelessness and illusory appearance will be recognized.

    This display that everything is can be bondage or liberation.

    About being aware. One can only be aware as the phenomena. The knowing is exactly the appearance.

    What tends to happen is a dualistic mindfulness is developed. I am the watcher here seeing the sights out there. This watching merely clinging to a group of sensations and a previous image of a non conceptual state. This is the thoughtless god realms!!!

    Don't be anything ajahn chah says.
    lobster
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited April 2013
    The watcher is just a layer of thought. You can be waiting for detouring thoughts (to let them go) and then you find that you are just caught in layers of: pounce, pounce, pounce,,,,
  • BhanteLuckyBhanteLucky Alternative lifestyle person in the South Island of New Zealand New Zealand Veteran
    lobster said:

    . . . hence the formal sitting, which I will abandon as soon as superfluous to requirements. Buddhas don't meditate, they are meditation. :)

    I'm sure you're being poetic, and that you're aware the Buddha sat in formal meditation a lot after his enlightenment, all the way to the end of his life.
    I'd just like to clarify that for new people who may believe the Buddha just recommended maintaining mindfulness.
    He also recommended many many times, again and again, sitting in meditation and practising jhana.
    lobster
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    JamestheGiant said:

    I'm sure you're being poetic

    I would not be so certain.

    My teacher never engaged or transmitted in such a technique based modus. That is perhaps what expectation and outer form requires of its realised beings? Maybe if they wore a pointy hat?
    :wave:
    Sabre said:

    You can't cut through delusion with a dull mind.

    Can you through delusion with the mind? Is it a bit like cutting a knife with a sharpened banana?

    It is very easy to find those living from an internal meditative condition once we engage with our innate perceptions. In other words, do we have to engage with the experience of formal sitting in our present presence, independent of how still we are or how crossed our legs? So meditation is perhaps not something we enter into but rather something that has never left . . . ?

    . . . and now back to the poems . . .

    :wave:
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Trungpa Rinpoche cautioned against shunyata poisoning as he called it. He said he didn't trust Buddhists who did not meditate. And I know you say you do it 30 minutes/day which is what I do.
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    lobster said:

    reduces the mind to being blank and slow
    . . . sounds like empty equanimity?

    is it Valium, medication or something else?

    A busy mind does not have clarity, just junk.
    A tranquillised mind has no clarity, just a dumb grin . . .

    It sounds like 'gom'/familiarisation that @person mentions is my sort of meditation . . .

    thanks guys :)

    Take some and find out..

    It does not leave much room for a middle way, it makes you forget things and does not generate any kind of profound concentration or insight, it just slows the mind down for people who have disorders with their mind being overly active naturally. I am sure meditation could do that over a period of time if down correctly, but in this day and age everything is wanted now and quickly and doctors would rather spend a little bit of money and throw pills at people rather than go through the motions of therapy or even meditation.
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