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Stopping on a high note... for a beginner
I just had what I would consider my best breathing meditation this morning. I noticed when I stopped in the back of my mind it was because I felt it would be good to stop while the going was good so to speak. It was about 25 minutes... Is this a good thought to want to just feel good about your progress and not want to push it?
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It's not the length of time, it's the quality. you might achiebe the same sense of fulfilment in 5 minutes, you could sit senselessly with no personally perceived progress, for an hour.
Do it while it feels good. When it doesn't - stop.,
be it five minutes or five days.
bummer, isn't it?
You may find it comforting to know that some of the most advanced, elevated and experienced Buddhists sometimes still do this.
I for one find it very frustrating....
I find that sitting more than 30 minutes is next to impossible for me, since my body starts to cramp up and get tense. For me 30 minutes is the magic number. Not too long, not too short.
Sometimes I wish I had more time and sometimes I wish it ended quicker, it all depends on what kind of session I'm having. But I have never stopped myself while having a good one.
That's just how I do it. Results may vary and everyone is different.
My teacher of Tibetan Buddhism tells us that it is far better to spend 5 minute meditating with good focus than 10 minutes with an undisciplined mind. In the first instance, you are cultivating meditative focus, while in the second instance you are strengthening your undisciplined mind.
Extrapolating from that, I don't see how it can hurt to quit meditating when you're ahead!
A couple of tips on ending your meditation session which have helped me, both of which come from Ajahn Brahm:
1) When you are sitting down and your eyes are still closed, after you have finished with the meditation object (e.g. the breath) take a couple of minutes to just enjoy the peace and happiness you have generated. Compare it to how your mind was before you started the session. Ask yourself, "what are the causes that led to this peace and happiness?". That way you will remember much more clearly what works (and also what doesn't work) for next time.
2) After you have done that, don't just open your eyes, get up and start doing other things. Make sure you go sloowwwly at first, this way you can bring the mindfulness and peaceful energy you have generated with you into so-called "daily life".
With Metta,
Guy
I don't think "you are strengthening your undisciplined mind" at all.
For example, Ajahn Brahm make a point of underlining the importance of "bad" or difficult meditation.
In fact, he mention that there are no bad meditation. All difficult meditations are like the hard work you put on without getting paid, monday to thursday you work hard but you don't get a penny. the good meditation is like the pay day, friday. But you would not get your pay day without spending all of those days working hard not getting a penny.
I believe that avoiding the "bad" meditations can only strenghten your ego.
That actually makes a lot of sense. I agree.
The point of meditation as I practice it (zen sitting meditation), is to keep coming back to here and now, over and over, every single time your mind gets distracted, you bring it back to mind, body and breath.
So I'd say there is the chance for a "bad session" to become a great session, in a matter of minutes. Quitting before the session is through, would mean to relinquish that chance and to give up on the effort of mindfulness for that particular time frame.
I believe it's easy to sail on a sunny day, but you will meet strong storms on your path and you need to learn to deal with them to...
On the other hand, it is often taught that when starting to practice meditation, shorter and possibly more frequent sessions may be better. Not any specific time period, but point being that it may be more useful if one leaves a shorter practice with the urge to want to practice again. Otherwise, it is possible for frustration to ensue and one not being as motivated to practice, or even affecting the practice itself.
Either way though, it is best not to look in an overly negative or positive way about practice, but having a good motivation to continue practicing is important! Keep going Swanny! :thumbsup:
What if it never feels good?
Honest question, I've just never had an experience of anything feeling good while meditating.
Mindfulness is just what is. It doesn't mean that you never trip or drop the pan of lasagna. It just means that when it falls (or you) then you are mindful of that experience. And you are aligning with seeing experience as it is.
In fact in my meditation I felt the most relief at realizing that my meditation wasn't a magic elixir for my painful feeling including a lot of my mental illness (it is severe to that point). In affect it was nice to know that I didn't have to do anything that I could just have the courage to be there with tension or embarassment or whatever.
Pema Chodron calls the belief that we should get it all together and feel good once and for all to be the yama mara. The delusion of death. We are dead when we think we have it all together. Sooner or later our house is going to burn down and we are going to get a diagnosis of cancer. By abiding with the arrow of mara we can turn it into a flower and let go of the need to defend 'a perfect life'.
Which is why I always say that meditation is like waiting in the dentists office. Only instead of getting your teeth looked at you get to hear a timer or bell go off.
Can't say I understand this though.
all of the suffering in life come from reacting to things.
once you can observe things, whitout reacting to them, they will still be there, but you will not suffer because of them anymore.
This really hit home with me because that is just my situation as well. I have to deal with mental illness myself and meditation is made infinitely harder for people like us, because we have to sit and deal with what's inside, which sometimes can be next to impossible, given the circumstances. If it's hard to sit in meditation for the regular, every day person, imagine how hard it is for someone in a special situation like this.
This is something I should internalize myself. Sometimes, I end up seeing meditation in the way you just described. A magic elixir that will make my issues go away or become less severe. But this is not the best way of looking at it and, like you said, just having the courage to sit there and meditate in spite of the turmoil going on in our heads, is commendable and something we should feel proud of.
I am constantly burdened by the notion that I should somehow just get my shite together and behave properly, live better, do better, BE better, normal, proper, and other impossible dreams. But this is a delusion in itself, specially for people with serious mental illness.
All in all, your post was very insightful and insipiring. It's sad to feel a bond with others over a common illness, but whatever inspires us to be kind with one another and realize we are all brothers, vying for the same goals in this life, is helpful and joyous.
It does not take any effort to not react.
If it require efforts, it mean that you did not let go of your want to control.
You are enduring the pain, or ignoring the pain... which takes lots of effort.
It may take much efforts to realize this, but once you did, it take no effort not to react.
I know it may be very difficult to conceive, just know that if it requires effort for you, you did not really let go, so keep trying different ways. The first experience of truly letting go is very liberating.
please follow this link, scroll down the page and read the "fear of pain" story by Ajahn Brahm to better understand this concept.
http://lola-jameson.com/painrelief.html