https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAVPDYhW_nwDoes anyone have any experience with meditation or mindfulness?
Ive been seeing it again and again and it *supposedly, i havent checked myself** studies show it can help you focus better and reduce overstimulation from the outside world.
As someone who has struggled my entire life being overstimulated by everything, and who has felt my anxiety increase and my ability to focus drop over the past few years, I wonder if i should try meditating. Leaving aside all of the spiritual aspects, and leaving aside all of the stemlord objections, are there tangible benefits? Did anyone try?
How do i properly do it? For how long?
Thank you.
At least you will improve your patience and focus, that's the minimum what trying to stay with the breath does. This kind of concentration brings some calm and relaxation because you stop churning your anxious or unpleasant thoughts for a while.
Other benefits I've observed during the last years are:
– the increased ability to "step back" and disengage from some overwhelming emotions or obsessive thoughts (I had strong obsessions before, not anymore);
– automatically becoming mindful and making your breath more comfortable in stressful situations (helps your body to relax because the stress causes strained breath);
– being able to catch "subtle" thoughts flying through the mind without verbalization, kind of peek into your subconscious processes;
– some long-forgotten memories coming up.
Basically, meditation is looking at your mind and getting to know it better day by day. Focusing on the breath creates a "still spot" from where you can observe all its movements without being carried away by them because you have your breath as an anchor.
Start with 7-15 minutes daily, see if you can push it further without straining yourself too much. Guided meditation is everywhere now, I recommend this one for a start:
https://www.dhammatalks.org/mp3_guidedMed_index.html"Headspace" is ok too but it's more commercialized with all the theme-based courses. But avoid the "accept everything, just be here now" Western McMindfulness – it's a waste of time, the mind should be more proactive during the meditation (see the attached book for some theory).
>>6341Aw, thanks!
>>6347Doubts here, otherwise rich and successful people would be happier by default. Instead they are doing drugs and having "I should buy a boat" existential crises.
Also, aging, illness, death, loss of loved ones will still exist in the communist future. Eliminating capitalism would improve the baseline for everybody but it's similar how therapy can bring you from a depression to the ordinary level of (un)happiness. Meditation can take you beyond the ordinary and towards the unconditioned happiness by changing how your mind perceives the world, stress, pain.
Anyway, after capitalism is gone, everybody will have enough free time to meditate 2h+/day.
>>5302https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/meditation-instructions/Just do zazen and mindfulness on your own, it's difficult when you start but just keep at it. Be careful not to fall into any buddhist trap of making you pray and chant towards "deities" and shit, which is a danger with these guided meditations. If they say something to the effect of "light washing over you", end it there. Zazen meditation is compatible with atheism, other religions, anarchism, communism, etc. because it is all about you learning more about yourself, your mind, and so on. I mean, Zen is of course a religion, with structure, priests, hierarchy, blah blah blah, but the cool part is you don't need to take part or learn any of that if you don't want to, and still get the benefits of zazen.
I attached some Crazy Cloud poetry for your reading pleasure.
>>5302>are there tangible benefits? Did anyone try?I'm practicing regularly for around half a year by now; I managed to develop sort of a reflex that often when I'm lost in thought or strong emotions, my mind yanks itself out of it and lets me observe what's going on more impartially.
On the other hand, while my "field" practice (when riding a tram, walking alone, etc) has improved, I feel stuck or even regressing in my practice "on cushion", my peak was around half an hour daily, but nowadays I can barely sit 15 minutes. I wish I had a proper teacher, but alas, the quarantine doesn't make this easy (I've been attending Theravada online meetings though).
>How do i properly do it? For how long?For me a turning point was reading "Mastering the core teachings of the Buddha" (
https://www.mctb.org ), it was very refreshing to read someone describe samadhi and vipassana in detail, without the usual obscurantism, and with warnings about what you're getting yourself into (especially the "dark night of the soul" deserves mention, people generally don't like talking about potential negative consequences of following a spiritual path)
It's rather low on practical instructions though, for me helpful were Leigh Brasington's "Right Concentration" (for samadhi) and Yates&Immergut&Graves "The Mind Illuminated" (for vipassana).
>>13516I think you might be experiencing a jhana (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhy%C4%81na_in_Buddhism ), I mean in the second sense given on wiki (high concentration state).
From what I know the opinions on deliberately aiming for jhanas are mixed, some people think it's a waste of time, but tbqh it's not like your third eye would go blind from a bit of literal mental onanism.
You could always try some "insight" rather than "concentration" focused practice for a change (more or less, taking in sensations as they come and go, rather than focusing on something in particular) and see how it goes.
>>12777Just to offer a counterpoint: I'm this
>>13608 anon, and I have tried doing zazen without a teacher a couple years before, and it ended up being a complete and utter waste of time for me. I'm sure it would be better with a teacher, but for self-study I would personally not recommend a tradition that has a bee in their bonnet about speaking clearly and explaining theory. Of course, to each their own, maybe some people handle this style of teaching better.
>>33942Wait. Who's this guy? He has meditation and capitalist critique theory on his channel wtf?
>>34304Well, there's this
>>5324 and
>>33942This second guy seems to be a communist and has guided mediations on his channel.
Day 2 of failing to meditate. God damn. You'd think doing nothing for 5 minutes would be easy.
>>38010What can one expect after, say, reaching first jhana? People write as if you'll have complete control over your mind and simply have unshakeable willpower, but it doesn't sound realistic. The book even describes witnessing "ultimate truth". While I've had deeply spiritual experiences that one might describe as that, I also think such experiences can easily lead one astray.
More than anything, what can I expect as a casual meditator?
Day 1. Just finished my first 15 minutes. Crazy what the brain wanders off into. A tiny psychedelic experience. Tried to maintain focus. Crazy how little I let my mind idle during the day. No wonder I'm a nervous wreck lol.
👍 looking forward for the next 15 minutes. I'm following this book
>>38010 (thanks anon). It suggest 1-2 hours a day (at least the quick skim I read said so) but I'm shooting to complete the first step, which is to make meditation a daily habit. I'm comfortable with committing to 15 minutes daily.
Anyone else doing meditation?
>>38509Have you tried meditating on a chair without touching the back?
Learning to not fall asleep is an advanced step of progress in this book
>>38010I also get sleepy and sometimes doze off but usually the uncomfortable position I end up in wakes me up. If I'm sleep deprived it can happen often during those 20 minutes.
>>38519Oof, gotta work on that homie.
Another technique I was taught by a japanese Buddhist monk is to semi close your eyes. This helps with staying awake and wandering off a bit.
Did a meditation waiting at the bank. The bank has a turn system, so I opened my eyes each time a turn was called, then closed them immediately, until it was my turn. It wasn't even that long but the effect was more profound than my morning meditations. I felt calm, content, joyful. There were some rich ladies complaining about the customer service at the bank. I couldn't help but laugh. It was so amusing.
>>38535Could also be the psoas. The back is a bitch. If anon can't sit in a chair for even a minute, then they really need to put in effort to work on that ASAP.
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