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Meditation questions
I have some questions regarding meditation in general.
1st question: How long do you normally sit for meditation ? (eg: 15 mins. 30 mins, one hour, no time limit ?)
2nd question: Have you encountered sleepiness while meditating ? And what is your secret technique to dispel it ?
3rd question: Cramps. How do you deal with it if you sat for too long ?
Questions regarding postures:
1st: Do you sit on a mat and elevate your sitting position ? Or do you sit on a chair ?
1st.5: If you meditate sitting on a chair won't it make it feel sleepy ? (those soft fluffy chairs etc)
2rd: Sitting meditation while hunching my back. After 20 mins my back starts to hurt. Have you experienced this before ?
I've also some questions regarding emotions/feelings and actions that affect meditation.
1st: Does breaking the precepts made meditation hard for you ? (because it did for me or it could be my ineptitude in meditation...)
2nd: If you're angry/jealous/envious/impatient does that affect you too ?
If you could answer this few questions I will be greatly appreciative and grateful:)
1st question: How long do you normally sit for meditation ? (eg: 15 mins. 30 mins, one hour, no time limit ?)
2nd question: Have you encountered sleepiness while meditating ? And what is your secret technique to dispel it ?
3rd question: Cramps. How do you deal with it if you sat for too long ?
Questions regarding postures:
1st: Do you sit on a mat and elevate your sitting position ? Or do you sit on a chair ?
1st.5: If you meditate sitting on a chair won't it make it feel sleepy ? (those soft fluffy chairs etc)
2rd: Sitting meditation while hunching my back. After 20 mins my back starts to hurt. Have you experienced this before ?
I've also some questions regarding emotions/feelings and actions that affect meditation.
1st: Does breaking the precepts made meditation hard for you ? (because it did for me or it could be my ineptitude in meditation...)
2nd: If you're angry/jealous/envious/impatient does that affect you too ?
If you could answer this few questions I will be greatly appreciative and grateful:)
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Comments
It's not so much the quantity that's important, but the quality. A deep 15 minute meditation is better than a 45 minute nap, right?
2. Sure, that's where posture and breath comes in. Keep an 'alert' posture, don't slouch and that should help a little. When breathing in, feel the uplifting sort of energy you get from breathing in. If that doesn't help, try to alter the time of day that you meditate during.
3. Make the distinction between destructive pain and non-destructive pain. If you know that the pain doesn't harm you and is simply there, then you can use it as something to meditate on. The great thing about that is that it's much easier to focus on something like pain that something like breath. Chances are if your mind starts wondering you'll be reminded of the pain pretty quickly. You can study the relationship between the pain and your thoughts. Does it increase when you focus on it? Does it increase when you focus on the breath? What does it feel like? You can get to a stage where it doesn't really hurt... where it's just another sensation. If the pain is destructive however, you may need to adjust your sitting style.
Regarding postures:
1. I sit on a chair, if I had a meditating cushion, I'd try to use that.
1.5. The trick is not to lean and keep an alert posture.
2. Don't hunch your back. You may need some lower back support. Get someone, maybe a teacher to help you find a posture that works for you. You could also do some back strengthening exercises.
Regarding the emotions...
1. No, I meditated before I studied Buddhism. Sure, I can see how being dishonest with others can make it difficult to be honest with yourself. You need to convince yourself that what you're saying is true, or it will be obvious you're lying. Being honest with yourself is important while meditating. I don't need to talk about intoxication, that one is pretty obvious. So yeah, some precepts may affect your meditation... or they might not.
2. I get very impatient when meditating for more than 25 minutes. When I get angry I tend to meditate, and feeling the anger go away is actually helpful for my meditation. Being mindful of your emotions is an important aspect of meditation. If you study where your emotions come from and what they lead to, you get closer to understanding dependant arising.
If I had any questions I would ask
With metta
My teacher says to sit for short periods at first (as short as 5 or 10 minutes). Better to learn how to train the mind to focus, than to train how to let the mind wander all over.
Sleepiness ... oh yes. Get up, move around, go into sunshine, splash water on your face. Then back to the meditation cushion.
With time, your legs will get used to sitting in that position. Cramps go away. However, until that time, when you first start to cramp up, move to a chair.
I sit on the floor, with a buckwheat-filled cushion under my butt ... the cushion, unsat on, is about 5" high.
Sitting hunched? Sit against the wall to maintain your straight back.
Meditation is hard for me, whether or not I've kept the Precepts. Apparently it stays hard for a long time, too.
Emotions affect me, but as I start to focus, they drift off. Then I have other mental distractions, but not the emotions.
I try to do at least 15 mins, I have not gone over 30 mins though.
I have not, I try to not meditate if I feel sleepy.
I try to find the "sweet spot" for sitting before I actually start timing.
I sit on a mat.
That's why if you use a chair, it's supposed to be a firm, straight-backed one, not a recliner
Yeah, I get tension in my upper back. I have to mindfully adjust my posture. Imagine there's a celestial rope pulling your head upwards slightly
Not sure what you mean here, sorry.
Yeah. I tend to be irritated/angry quite often (short temper), so if I meditate when I feel that way, my mind will be racing everywhere at first.
Actually, I try to make a point of meditating when I feel these emotions come up in order to increase mindfulness of them.
I'm fortunate in that this has never been an issue for me. I tend to do it in the afternoon, so I suppose that could be my secret.
I haven't had cramps from sitting. I've had my feet or legs fall asleep or have had pain from putting pressure on my ankles or something like that. I just deal with it and make sure that once the meditation is over that I get normal feeling back where it's supposed to be before I stand.
At home I use a cushion or pillow. At the group I used to sit in a chair, but we're meeting in a different room that has desks instead of chairs, so I've been sitting on the floor and using my coat or whatever is handy as a cushion. I did try seiza once when nothing was available, but that killed my ankles after about half an hour.
I always pretty far forward on the chair, so the fluffiness didn't really factor into it except that the edge of the chair made my legs fall asleep.
Haven't experienced any back pain. As others have recommended, try using some sort of support if you are unable to keep your spine straight.
Can't say that I've noticed that particular distraction, but that may just be because I have plenty of other ones.
I'm always impatient, and it does have an effect (it's the reason I can only do 15 minutes on my own). Any emotions, especially negative ones, are distracting to me and make it difficult for me to focus on my breathing.