How meditation can change your life and mind

Shoshin1

Some newbies (and I guess some oldies) may find this interesting...

The short guided meditation by Damian Echols 22.52 minutes in is interesting...

Be well be mindful...

Metta

Kotishka

"Moments when you get out of your own way" to become freer

Thanks to meditation and a loving social sphere I've been able to:

• Drop the ganja
• Drop the tobacco
• Become more positive
• Started waking up early, going to sleep at a good time (22ish)
• Better memory (not sure if the meditation or the no more ganja ... or both )
• Reduced my fear of death
• Embraced baldness (Yes, my beautiful lion's mane is thinning!)

Negative:

• Became a mini-hermit (I love it )

I've only practiced for 2 years by the way!

Bunks

@Kotishka said:
"Moments when you get out of your own way" to become freer

Thanks to meditation and a loving social sphere I've been able to:

• Drop the ganja
• Drop the tobacco
• Become more positive
• Started waking up early, going to sleep at a good time (22ish)
• Better memory (not sure if the meditation or the no more ganja ... or both )
• Reduced my fear of death
• Embraced baldness (Yes, my beautiful lion's mane is thinning!)

Negative:

• Became a mini-hermit (I love it )

I've only practiced for 2 years by the way!

That's awesome progress!

I found when I stopped smoking weed that I started dreaming again. Have you noticed that too?

Keep up the good work mate

Jeroen

I dunno if it has all been positive. I have:

• Stopped going on holidays
• Spent a lot of time on my own
• Untangled a lot of my mind
• Tackled many fears

Shoshin1

It would seem that after a while there are subtle changes in the way we experience things that we may not notice until it's been pointed out to us...Seeing things we might normally have missed...
For example ...
The attentional blink test...

:

lobster

Put yourself in the hands of the Buddha …
Iz plan …

… ah yes prostration meditation …

Eventually:

• wonders never cease
• meditation has no reason
• playtime arrives

Kotishka

That's awesome progress!

I found when I stopped smoking weed that I started dreaming again. Have you noticed that too?

Keep up the good work mate

Yes! I even had extremely unpleasant nightmare at the beginning. Apparently this phenomenon is called REM rebound and during the first month or two it was terrifying. I had extremely intense dreams and I could barely sleep because I would wake up in the middle of the night. Now I can dream normal, but mang, what a ride!!!!

Also, it makes kind of sense why the meditation didn't work so well before (when I tried to keep smoking and meditation at the same time) !

how

Existence is a maelstrom of kaleidoscopic fluidity.
The ego/ selfish self/ identity is just the human condition's dream that this is not so.

One description of Meditation is that its a process where more effort is put into an awakening from that dream than is put into a continuing slumber within it.

Is there anything in a life or a mind, in meditation, that does not change.... except that everything changes?

Shoshin1

Change is inevitable ...Suffering (once on the Path will gradually become) optional ...

With growing awareness through meditation I've found life is gradually becoming lighter in every sense of the term...The length of times in the dark are becoming shorter and shorter..as the once strong sense of self weaken

It's like a weight being gradually lifted off the mind, this weight being the persistent feeling of self entitlement-the grasping what about me...what's in it for me self...

Thus have I heard ...and through meditation am now beginning to understand..."Ehipassiko"

"One is simply one's experience. One's ego is the abstraction from these experiences. One's ego should be viewed as a convenient analytic device"

lobster

Reduced my fear of death
Embraced baldness (Yes, my beautiful lion's mane is thinning!)
Became a mini-hermit (I love it )

Tiday for the first time in two years, went for a walk outside my hermit bubble. We were out on a London common 3am. It was dark but there are lit paths we kept to. Nobody but foxes about. Normally I like to walk through dark places to notice and breath away any fear of the dark.

Might need to take b vitamin supplements, more difficult to utilise as we get older or veganise. I take them and it calms and improves hair.

Being a hermit makes us appreciate nature and people.

… and now back to the benefits …

Jeroen

@lobster said:
Tiday for the first time in two years, went for a walk outside my hermit bubble. We were out on a London common 3am. It was dark but there are lit paths we kept to. Nobody but foxes about. Normally I like to walk through dark places to notice and breath away any fear of the dark.

At 3 am I am usually asleep, although not today. I just had a milky drink and will shortly be heading back under the covers, I just wanted to see what you lovely people had been up to.

Maybe I will watch a little football first.

Bunks

Hey @Jeroen - about to go pick kids up from school. Hope you get back to sleep

lobster

One description of Meditation is that its a process where more effort is put into an awakening from that dream than is put into a continuing slumber within it.

Ah ha! I knew there was a plan!

As we know, the need for sleep goes down as we are refreshed more effectively by meditation. Be interested if insomnia is effected?

In a sense we have to separate meditation slumber partying from an increasing stream entering and swimming mentality.

For example:

Meditation partying:

• the sleeping perpetual seeker syndrome
• new age fad following,
• asleep 'teachers', personality cultists, pretend practice

Awakening capacity:

• Commitment
• Integrity
• Practice
• Separating the wheat from the chavs chaff

Existence is a maelstrom of kaleidoscopic fluidity.

Jeroen

@lobster said:
As we know, the need for sleep goes down as we are refreshed more effectively by meditation. Be interested if insomnia is effected?

In a sense we have to separate meditation slumber partying from an increasing stream entering and swimming mentality.

I never noticed it so much, I’m never more refreshed from meditation than from a good nights sleep with dreams. I did dream during the few hours sleep leading up to this morning, it was something about zombies I think, but in a playful way. It tends to make me think all my goals in life have been exercised.

I came across a description of meditation the other day — it was looking within and realising that you’re not the body, not the mind, not the senses. That last was interesting, because the senses are those portals through which we observe the world. If those are not what we are, where does the attention go while meditating?

how

@Jeroen
That last was interesting, because the senses are those portals through which we observe the world. If those are not what we are, where does the attention go while meditating?

Often simply beyond the yoke of deliberate thought.
I like the prajnaparamita as a description of what we are not.
Usually it's just much ado about nothing.

how

edited

Jeroen

@how said:
I like the prajnaparamita as a description of what we are not.

I have read a little bit into it… think I will read the full Diamond Sutra first.