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.
What Meditation Is About
IdleChater
USA Veteran
Meditation is not about trying to become non-conceptual or to rid ourselves of negative emotions and thoughts; it's about trying to recognize that our thoughts and emotions arise from, and dissipate back into, the natural state.
Lonchenpa's Three Cycles of Natural Freedom: Oral Translation and Commentary - Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche (IX)
3
Comments
Often when trying to see the wisdom in a piece of writing it is about understanding the boundary where wise text strays into the unwise. You may see a piece of text and feel intuitively that it is wise, and you may see another piece of text and feel nothing towards it. This is the understanding of the heart, and does not bring clarity about the boundaries of wisdom. That requires a deeper seeing, and only then can you untangle what is wise about a certain text.
I would describe my meditation as that which allows phenomena to freely arrive, live, and depart, unmolested by the storylines of my own ego/identity.
....But I suspect that the variations in describing "what Meditation is about" might be as diverse as there are people experiencing it.
WTH are you talking about?
What is meditation for?
There are many types of meditations with different purposes and outcomes but from the point of view of the Buddha, the most important is this.
In other words, it is the outcome of the practice that is important.
Does it lead to a reduction in stress, anxiety, and fear of being attacked?
Just got an error message @Linc
"Body is required." in RED/read
The Buddha was right!
... and now back to the jokers who think meditation is something!
Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.
I guess my interpretation will be no better than anyone else's. But, here goes, .... haha. Read somewhere that the true self is like a mirror. It holds the object that is in front of it and then lets it go. It does not break if the object breaks. It only reflects the object. When thoughts and emotions appear, the mirror becomes cloudy and difficult to see. Meditation is about clearing out those things that keeps one from seeing "one is the mirror". For me, analogy is nice if one wants more perception of what one can not have. It is like saying this is what it is like but never having experienced the truth of the statement. Then, the ones, who have found their true nature, come back to say there is no mirror and dust can not alit on it. Well, that just drives me crazy as I did not really comprehend the first idea then to say it isn't real ... WTH. So, I just trod along and hope things change. Wait, what is the definite of crazy? Doing the same thing over and over again in the hopes that something will change? Haha.
Making friends with monkey mind....so it doesn't run amuck ...
Back in ye olde days I was a monkey studying at Samye Ling, until excommunicated or banned for being too apish. I was very grateful for this lucky break. I was able to develop my heretical ideas unmolested by the near shore waverings ...
Have a great day everyone. Be kind to the Bon, Bonobos and wandering Hunaman ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman
They kicked you out of Samye Ling? If true, I can't imagine why. LOLzzzzz
Most of us are protected by our beginners mind, aspirational naivety or in my case crazed normality which is a bit like crazy wisdom but more down to earth on heaven …
In other words everything is true at different stages, phases and ages. Like a fine whine that is up for auction and tastes like vinegar. Only nobody knows because it is best kept in a vault of valuable vinegars/wines …
… or a quantum state of non bottle opening the jin.
Which is kinda of fantastical and mundane at the same time …
PHEW! Just nearly lost all my ranting, luckily it was saved as a draft … which of course is a perfect example of lost and foundling eg. Baby Yoda.
“this is the way” ❤️🩹
I have some experience of old wines, and most modern wines don’t stay good past thirty years. They become really fragile when exposed to the air and decompose after just a few minutes… so what’s old is not necessarily valuable. Like the difference between antique and junk.
Wow, that sure isn't about Buddhism -
Just a bit of fun...
...I'm in the mood to correct the corrector
Neither is your comment 
Nor mine...
But @lobster's video is just what I needed right now
Well, I wasn't trying to correct anyone - just making an observation.
It's fairly typical of the board, though. When I got 86'd 8–10 years ago, the discussions here were almost entirely about Buddhist topics. Now it seems like all but a couple Buddhists remain, and there's even less discussions of Buddhism. Shit-all-Friday, folks, it's like people are more interested in posting what movies they're watching.
That's fine, knock yourself out! But let's call it what it is: "Not Buddhism".
Maybe Linc should re-name the board? Just kidding, Linc, don't change a thing.
In a certain way, all of our lives, even that which seems not to be Buddhism, actually becomes involved with Buddhist practice. Maybe that is too Zen a standpoint for the normal Buddhist but to me it seems true. Gardening becomes a meditation, the food we eat becomes spiritual in obtaining and preparing, even reading becomes soaked in evaluating and taking in concepts using a spiritual thought process.
WTAF, Jer! Too Zen? Normal Buddhist?
Geez .....
Nutshell answer.. it's about Minding your own business
Probably the best answer so far. As a Mahayana devotee, I have an expanded idea of what my business entails.
It may just equate to “Everything”. Ah well …