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bad experiences meditating
hi all,
I just want to know if anyone has had bad experiences meditating.recently i was halfway through meditating and an image popped into my mind that I didn't like and also gave me a bit of a fright,the last week or so I have been really stressed and my heads been all over the place this might be a factor,I have been meditating for almost a year now and all experiences have been great so far this just shook me up a bit. do you know how i could deal with this as iv'e not meditated since this happened.
Thanks for you're time
I just want to know if anyone has had bad experiences meditating.recently i was halfway through meditating and an image popped into my mind that I didn't like and also gave me a bit of a fright,the last week or so I have been really stressed and my heads been all over the place this might be a factor,I have been meditating for almost a year now and all experiences have been great so far this just shook me up a bit. do you know how i could deal with this as iv'e not meditated since this happened.
Thanks for you're time
0
Comments
Notice what is happening in your chest, emotion, felling, thinking.
When this image become less disturbing, you can put your Sati (attention) on your heart and try to produce love for this image, take it in your harm like a good friend. this is Metta way,
If this framework is more or less correct, then it may be understandable that meditation might secretly or not so secretly be seen in contrast to or as a solution for all the discomforting stuff. This (meditation) is better than that (uncertainty, sorrow, etc.).
Meditation is the aspirin that aims to cure life's headaches.
The reason that meditation calls for determination is that this point of view is off the mark. If there is an objective in meditation, it is to see things as they really are ... not improve them or block them out in some way.
So, gently but firmly and with determination ... when the good stuff comes, what is that really about? When the bad stuff comes, what is that really about? Painful, joyous, dismal or bright ... what is that really about? Using patience and courage and doubt, pay attention, take responsibility ... and relax.
It is easy to praise Buddhism and be delighted to have made its acquaintance. But after all the hot air, it is probably time for some hot work.
Take your time. Do not give up.
people come to meditation thinking it's going to be this calm peaceful thing.. little do they know! lol. Now I've never in all my years of meditating had any images or the like.. but the advice I've received remains the same now matter what happens... observe that it is phenomenon that arises and passes away, and do not get attached to it, just observe it objectively and let it go.
people have asked me questions about how they saw demons and all sorts of things in their meditation.. and I repeat the above wise words that I learned from all of the monks I consider teacher.
Meditation is observing things as they really are and that is hard work! not just physically but also mentally. even after many years of meditation you will have bodily pains, and days where everything " just goes wrong" with your meditation.. all things are ever changing, strive on with diligence.
The purpose of meditation is to be open & accepting of whatever arises as opposed to our more worldly habitual responses of judging everything through ego based glasses.
Some meditative experiences are great or scary or luminous or dark or boring or just about anything else one can imagine but a meditaters job is to simply bear witness to the unfolding births, life's and eventual deaths of all these experiences.
It's called it a practise because it's a skill that we either endlessly develop and persevere with.......or turn away from.
Why do you meditate?
try setting the tone of your meditation as you prepare to sit
higher texts state to arouse bodhi-chitta [usually written bodhicitta] - to desire to relieve all the stress/pain/suffering of all beings / the whole place.
smile
lightly arch your back
sit firmly on your ass
and when relaxed, your mind will be able to positively and logically de-construct / un-compose the elements of whatever image triggers disquietude
a river runs its course and over millions of years carves a path through hard rock and sediment
yet the water, forever pure, only stirred
I fully appreciate that we may at times only be prepared for clouds of purelands . . . and rainbows . . .
I had a dharma friend who was schizophrenic. Tantric deities and demons would arrive as visible manifestations. How much calm do you think someone has to generate when that happens . . .
:rarr:
You have it easy. Every arising is just so. Just right. A friend of our inner karma. A frightening friend too is a protector. We can learn from them, we do not have to be like them . . .
What type of meditation were you doing? Eyes closed perhaps? Try meditating with the eyes open, resting gently four or five feet ahead. If you are stressed, then this could be a manifestation.
Can you appreciate what you are doing, being effected by an arising?
Nothing has harmed you. What will you do?
I will send you some metta as protection. You will be fine.
These appearances to mind have no self existence they are just appearances.
What meditation is it you practice ?
This kind of thing can happen. Can you say what the image was like? And what kind of meditation are you doing?
Scary movies have NOTHING on some of these meditation experiences. It took me a long time and many of these visions to realize that (1.) I am not crazy (2.) They are not 'evil' (3.) Fear is just the means to teaching certain lessons
Hope this helps, namaste!
My teacher (one of the Dalai Lama's monks) says if something is really frightening you, to start inwardly focusing on the Refuge Chant. It certainly does calm down whatever is going on inside you.
I grew up with a mother who practice yoga (Raja yoga), so I was meditating young. The meditations produced much unwanted phenomena.
I've had very little trouble with Buddhist meditations ... only one thing in particular, and the Refuge Chant works very well for me. I don't know why ... it's possible that singing "I want a hippopotamus for Xmas" would work just as well.
Thoughts and arisings. When will we 'say', 'Hello thought, Hollow thought, bye bye thought . . . '
PS.
no hippopotami were harmed in the sending of this post :wave: