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Mindfulness - losing it
lobster
Crusty Veteran
in Mindfulness
As a wer-lobster it is necessary for me to take fish oils. However in a moment of mindless abandon I took the capsules twice today. Tsk, tsk. I was not being mindful but attention-less. 😶
Have you lost it? Never had it? Examples?
Here are mine:
- Looking for something I am wearing, holding or looking at
- Coming back without what I went to fetch
- Drinking or eating without any awareness - completely mindless
Is it a lack of tea or coffee?
1
Comments
It doesn’t happen to me often, perhaps once every six months, but those things do happen to me, and it often aggravates me when it does happen. I kind of beat myself up for it mentally.
Forgetting to take medication
Losing track of time while browsing the internet
Sleeping, completely mindless for 8 hrs a day
Going to get something, thinking of other things I could grab while I'm on my way, getting those other things and forgetting the thing I went for originally.
More than that though I am starting to feel the effects of ageing and among those is a greater degree of forgetfulness.
I remember a time long ago when I was meditating and my mind was running so vivid and fast that I actually realized I had gotten up and was upstairs doing something. I asked on a forum of meditators what I should do and someone said to tie my shoe laces together when I meditate
It's called having a senior moment
Is there a lost & found department for mindfulness
and if so, can mindfulness really be found there?
Can mindfulness explain how it lost it's owner.
Appropriate mindfulness gives rise to selflessness.
Inappropriate mindfulness gives rise to selfishness.
Each moment, a new existence to choose.
Mindfulness is also coming back when lost in 'thought'.
So you drop your tea cup because thinking of something else and it falls to the ground and breaks. So then mindfulness of cup breaking.
You could say oh it's my fault to lose mindfulness or you could just be mindful of returning and noticing again what is arising. Cup fell. I wavered in mindfulness. And observe the mind and surroundings again
and if so, can mindfulness really be found there?
There is attention and the department store of mind chatter. If lost in thought we are not in the moment. We are inattentive. In such a state our choices are unconscious.
Mindfulness from what "I" gather, is paying attention to what is happening in the here & now, with all six the sense doors open and welcoming any data received...
However at times the mind consciousness can and often is charmed by its own thoughts and these thoughts are in the habit of dragging awareness's attention away from the here & now of the sense doors and into the mind's imaginary world of make-believe, hook line & sinker... and (make) believe me this imaginary world of make-believe can be quite attractive to the mind caught off guard with all those wonderful places (past haunts & future expectations) to get lost in...
These thoughts as we all know, can't always be trusted, they are great story tellers and can spin a good tale or two....very convincing...almost believable...
But thus have I heard they are no match for the breath, the breath has a way of gently bursting their bubble and bringing all the senses to their senses so to speak......
Don't be too hard on the mind when its thoughts drag awareness's attention away, just give it time to catch its breath and the moment will be as good as new...
Hmm well thought being thought, it's also possible my thoughts are up to no good and spinning another convincing tale ....
It’s sometimes hard to avoid getting caught up in the collective vibe at any given time, if you can forgive the hippy sounding idiom! I have had a regular meditation practice for some years and normally slip quite easily into a concentrated state for a while. During the second lockdown I have found on occasion it has been harder to maintain that relaxed but alert state. We are not Islands.
Just more stuff to process I suppose.
Something I am experiencing currently is falling asleep during meditation. This is something that I have only experienced previously when very tired. Now it is happening even after a good nights sleep. It might
just be old age of course..🙁 But I suspect it has to do with absorbing general airs of tension due to the pandemic. If anyone else is experiencing something similar and has any tips I would be interested.
I’ve found that sometimes it is easier to remain in a relaxed state with the aid of a bell or some very quiet music. Wind chimes can be good too.
@Choephal
From one zen perspective.
Few meditators get to persevere very far in a practice without having to address torpor arising from time to time. Our difficulty in accepting it's visits often illuminate aspects of our own spiritual attachments that we otherwise might not be inclined to face.
Like pain, it is only a notice that something needs to be looked at.
Folks who rush into forms of concentration to ameliorate torpor's existence often miss the underlying causes and lessons that were actually being offering.
Like any other phenomena within formal meditation, allowing it's own arrival, life and departure to be free of our inclinations to control it's journey, offers a very direct path towards suffering's cessation.
I have found that some contemplative examination of a present state of torpor in relationship to the 4 NT & 8 FP, outside of formal meditation, can help determine if there is also some action on your part that's required or not.
In gassho
I have tried it and I have to say that I can’t meditate and have music on at the same time. I don’t doubt that it can be helpful for some though.🙂
Have you tried ambient sounds such as rain drops or a crackling fire?
A few good face slaps does wonders.
I have seen and experienced severe torpor. A bowl of water in front of ones meditation cushion should stop you hitting the floor with your head. 😶 Yes that happens.
In a more gentle way. I find it is temporary. There is usually a cause as @how mentions eg.
I often meditate with a mug of green tea. As long as drinking mindfully, it works simply ...
https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/29835/managing-slaps-and-torpor-in-meditation
To put this in dzogchen perspective. Mindfulness is not something you enter or leave when meditating.
Maybe try changing your posture to a balance yoga asana or if you have a spare cat place it on your head.
No, although for a while some years ago I found playing a recording of a tambura drone useful.
It certainly is true that a cat on ones head will have you paying attention to position, otherwise you might get a clawed paw stuck somewhere sensitive as the whole ensemble shifts. I vaguely remember trying this sometime during my misspent youth.
I had a friend who had one of the most extreme forms of arising torpor that I had ever seen. Even though he persevered for years through a sitting practice, within 15 seconds of beginning any sitting, he would repeatedly nod off and then jerk back up awake, over & over & over.
Congregation members marveled at his persistence at sticking with his practice over such a difficulty even though they also chose to sit somewhere farther away from the distraction of this constantly bobbing meditator.
He was a marine biologist whose job for the government involved killing & cutting open fish all day long to examine their stomach contents. They day he eventually left his job was the day that all this bobbing during meditation stopped.
Personally, I'm a flibbertiggibet. I don't lose mindfulness. I lose my mind. But I pick myself up everytime, and that's my biggest practice I think.
Lately the coffee maker has been taunting me. There aren't very many steps to making a mug of coffee, but it seems to lull me into skipping one of the steps sometimes.
You haz mind?
I wants one! What is it like?
That said, I rarely forget anything important. It’s like there is a priority system in the brain that reminds me of my glasses, my keys and my phone. Although I did once lose my iPhone. It slipped out of my trouser pocket while I was sitting in the bus. I got it back when a kind Turkish gentleman dropped it off at my home.
This I can understand. I once did the whole thing of making a percolator full of coffee — without the actual coffee. A big can full of warm water did not satisfy.
I left my job on 18th December and start a new role on Jan 11th in a completely new career. I have long lamented my previous career and how much I had grown to dislike it. In the 11 days since I left that job, I have never had the concentration meditating that I do now. I would like to say it's because I am on vacation, but I think it's because I am finally at ease with my life.
At ease with life.
I'll join. Bravo.