Restlessness and Impatience

revolutionary14

So I found Buddhism through meditation, like I've said before on these forums, as a way to overcome social anxiety disorder & generalized.
It makes a lot of sense to me and is pretty exciting. I'm happy with the awareness and insight I've gained so far.
However, I like the ideas so much, (like anatta) that I spend almost every waking hour trying to progress and get greater insight as to further overcome anxiety and ultimately suffering.

This is the problem, I try so hard to remind myself of illusions and logical fallacies that I get really restless and upset..
Buddhist teachings are great and helpfull, but thinking about the concepts all the time and trying to grasp them brings more suffering.

It's a paradox I've run into, I don't want to stop thinking and trying to progress because I don't want to be ignorant.
But if I try and think of things the way they really are I just get annoyed at myself and feel overworked, and actually depressed.

What are some ways for people who are new to buddhism to have experience instead of trying to understand concepts?

What are some ways to cope with the world and suffering while following the middle way? How can you build patience for the world?

unsui

I'm new to Buddhism, too, so take this for what it's worth.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're trying to grasp everything at once. I would consider trying to focus on just one thing at a time, at least until it becomes familiar enough that it doesn't require much effort anymore. Than add one more thing, and so on, only adding a new topic or idea when the previous ones are familiar. Eventually it'll become second nature.

Do you practice breath counting meditation? While meditating you count your breaths. Whenever a distracting thought occurs, you acknowledge it, let it go, and start back at one. Apply the same concept to your topic of choice. If you start adding on topics/concepts, just acknowledge it, and go back to your topic of choice.

Again, this is just a newbie's advice, so take it for what it's worth.

Dazzle

Hi revolutionary14,

Sounds like you're wanting too much all at once and I think you need to relax a little, because otherwise you're just creating a source of more anxiety for yourself.

Have a look at this Buddhist meditation series of short video instructions. The first one is the introduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7a9Ur2x0o


I also recommend listening to talks from Ajahn Sumedho listed here - or other teachers on the same website:

http://www.dhammatalks.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=34:dhammatalks&Itemid=61


Ajahn Sumedho's talks are easy to understand and don't focus on any complex concepts.

He also has a section on the Four Noble Truths which would be worth looking at here:

http://www.buddhanet.net/4noble.htm




Hope that helps ....try not to worry too much. Take things slowly.

Kind wishes,

Dazzle


.

Rob3rt

I am also a newby here so please forgive my lack clarity (or total misunderstanding should that be the case)

Something that strikes me is that rather than try to grasp at concepts, we must remember that people are not 100% intellectual, and for the teachings to effect us most profoundly and totally we must engage our emotions (this is mirrored so very strongly in my experiences). You should be wary about having a merely intellectual understanding of the teachings. I say this because you say "I don't want to stop thinking and trying to progress because I don't want to be ignorant." Maybe you do to much thinking with your head and dont engage your emotions enough! Give things time to settle and begin to resonate with you.

If you are trying to take in so many concepts at once, how are you testing so many at once against your experience? How do you know which ones are the ones having a beneficial effect? As far as I know the buddha himself expounded that one shouldnt take the teaching at face value and should verify it against their experience. This is very hard if we try too much at once, its like taking a load of different medicines for an illness at once, we wont know which one is working and which one is not. In actual fact, singularly all may be beneficial, but mixed up in a hectic hodgpodge the result may be undersirable, as you may well be experiencing.

There are many ways to engage your emotions. If you refer back to the noble eightfold path for example and study in some detail the limbs of right vision and right emotion this will (hopefully) become clear.

Maybe what you are trying to do is use the force of will to put these things into practice, for some people it might work, for many it wont. You may very well likely not be experiencing right emotion with your feelings but instead experiencing extreme mental clutter.

being

The best way to channel that energy is not to think and create more illusions for yourself through the constant thinking, but meditate and let go of all that is conceptual. From this letting go comes real wisdom.

It's a very 'westernish' thing to do - trying to solve everything with your thinking mind, but it can often do more harm than good. Talking from my own experience here. -__-
Experiencing truth is much more helpful, than thinking about it.

A nice little quote from this fascinating movie:
if you see through this world and let go of it... that is wisdom
if you see through it, but don't let it go... that's just "talking Zen"