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.
Does anyone else forget how good meditation is and deny its effectiveness when you're not doing it?
dooksta123
Explorer
I have a tendency to meditate and be like 'Wow that was awesome' but the next morning or the same evening I completely forget how effective it was and I tell myself it's pointless and I'm not making any progress. I do this almost every time. I'm sure I'm not the only one going through this.
1
Comments
It sounds like you're not carrying your practice off the cushion. Have you tried practising mindfulness?
Never had that feeling....
Be very mindful of @SpinyNorman good advice.
Formal meditation with practice and feedback from a director, seasoned practitioner and preferably not the 'My Little Pony' school of New Agey Dharma can be a number of things.
The most important is consistent and persistent. I know that, you know that, many here know that.
I tend to identify meditation as 'formal practice'. It gives me insight into the state of what I laughingly call 'my mind'.
My mind is not awesome. I prefer to think of it as a garbage bin. However it is an effective bin. Especially when I keep it emptied ...
Iz plan.
My teacher told that if your compassion is increasing towards others then it might be due to effect of meditation.
You may have not realised but doing well , it can be the case.
@dooksta123 -- Others may be more well-rounded and determined and focused, but I am on your team ... full of praise and meaning and wonder at one moment and not at all sure what the fuss was all about in the next. It seems that in order to get back to a focused meditation, I have to run the entire history of how I got there in the first place.
OK, I'm a lousy student, but I'm the only student I've got. Sure wish I could be as full of assured praise and determined lifestyle as others ... but I'm not. Well, shit!
Still, when I look at it all with less of an attempt to 'succeed,' I sometimes think about using a hammer. I practice and practice and bang my fingers and miss the target and do it over and over when I want to hang a picture. Eventually, I get pretty good at it ... but I don't waste time when I'm not using the hammer thinking about how wonderful hammer-use might be. I just use the hammer when it's appropriate... and then with complete concentration (I hate hitting my fingers).
Don't worry too much about not being as serene and kool as some of the people or 'teachers' you see around you. Do what you can as well as you can and don't forget to take out the garbage. If you're worried that spiritual life will somehow forsake you, well, don't do that: All it takes is the smallest possible taste and spiritual life will come and get you wherever you are. It's not as if you could escape. Do what you can when you can and have faith that your good effort will come and get you wherever you are.
No ... you can't be some serene rock star like all those other 'good students ' but you can make some pretty kool music. Spiritual discipline may not be the smartest thing you ever did but it is also not the dumbest.
Might as well keep on keepin' on.
Just mumbling.
Whether or not you're alone in this, it still I suppose begs the question, what do you intend to do about it?
Also I suppose, whether and how effective can it be when it's almost immediately forgotten? or is it?