I sat today. didn't want to because i had a new bow delivered and fell in love with it so forgot for most of the day. I certainly wouldn't have done it if it weren't for you guys!
welcome back Jean, I missed you. yes it is a privelege to have a wondrous space to sit, however I would love to be able to sit in a traffic jam in the middle of the M25!!!
nothing to say because today I am taking the liberty of being boring!!!
I agree with Jean, I have finally been able to catch up on reading comments from the last week and it's inspiring reading, none of it boring...no matter how hard you all try. I appreciate the insights and investigations from each of you. I sat this morning, but it was a struggle to get there.
Just checking in. I've been meditating in short bits each day (5-15 min.), with the exception of yesterday. Sheepish: I'm not sure if it's "right," but I've been using it to help me get to sleep at nights. In general, it has just been calming/relaxing, but I was lucky to have a profound insight a couple of days ago.
I sat this morning, briefly. I'm so glad that I've managed to sit most days through this past very busy month, and if, as I hope, things are quieter now, I'd like to start making the sessions longer. I think I won't increase my commitment, though, at present, but be realistic and take it slowly. I think it was a good thing this began at a time when I was so busy and so I was forced to make a very modest commitment which I could actually honour, and appreciate the very real benefit of sitting even for a very short time each day.
I asked that exact question of the teacher at my center -- was it okay to use meditation to help me go to sleep? And he said that of course the pure motivation, the one that we're supposed to have, is to meditate in order to benefit all sentient beings. But, he went on, if that really was our only motivation all the time, we'd already be enlightened and we'd have no need to meditate in the first place.
I basically think that any motivation is good motivation. Sure, meditating to free all sentient beings from suffering is better than meditating to calm down enough to sleep. But meditation to be able to sleep is better than not meditating at all, by a longshot, which is generally the alternative :-)
And anyway, when you're unable to sleep you *are* one of those suffering sentient beings we want to benefit.
So anyway, if it's bad, then at least we can keep each other company in our bad meditation. Theoretically I guess we could develop a habitual association of meditation with falling asleep, which could be bothersome later on, but I haven't noticed that, myself. I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it.
I think that's wise, Jean -- I've been glad several times that I took on the whopping huge commitment of three minutes a day. I don't think having a commitment so small has ever stopped me from sitting longer, but I suspect that having a larger commitment would have stopped me sometimes from sitting at all.
Speaking of sitting on the M25, Ruth, some people at my center do a "mindful driving" practice -- turning off the radio and making a practice of bringing their mind back to their driving whenever they find it's strayed somewhere. I've started doing it occasionally, but I usually forget I've undertaken it within a few minutes :-)
I concur absolutely with keeping the bar low as far as meditation commitments are concerned. It' the only way I managed to make any at all. Anything too ambitious would have defeated me.
Yes, sat this morning. 15 minutes seems to be my "natural" length of time - it's when I generally open my eyes to check the clock. I haven't yet tried to go longer - with more time in the mornings coming up I might give it a go.
I do find focusing on sounds actually helps me go deeper into the meditative state, it seems to be a path inwards (for me anyway).
obviously none of you drink like we do in the cote du rhone. I have to admit that if I don't sit before 6pm I never will as heure de l'apero calls and afterwards I would feel a fraud. That's every day. Oh my B*****confessions confessions confessions....
I love this group. What are y'all doing t'morrow? Apero chez nous.....
Today is Canadian Thanksgiving, so it's very quiet here, for a Monday. We couldn't celebrate with friends because we have a huge deadline, but tonight I will roast a small chicken and talk J. into making drinks. So I'll be sitting sooner, rather than later - like you Ruth! Last night, a really good 20 minutes. That second 10 is by far the most peaceful part, but I think I learn more from the superhighway of the first 10. Like Dale, my monkey mind and inattentiveness don't bother me anymore - it is just what it is, each day is different, and I know the meditation is doing me and the world some good, no matter what.
Tried for the first time this morning to sit with eyes open as Dale & Lorianne suggested. This is a new challenge to say the least. Forget monkey mind: TOTAL SQUIRRELMIND CIRCUS!! I don't know if it's because I'm a very visual person, or if it's just getting used to a new set of stimuli. Or maybe I should take my contacts out? Any comments on this would be appreciated.
I had a devil of a time with it at first. I remember a time when there was a sleeping bag in my field of vision, and a fold in it looked exactly like an impish, leering man. I tried to make him go away, but I knew it would be no use. I wondered whether I should get up and put the thing away, but I stuck it out, and it finally occurred to me -- so what's wrong with having a leering imp here? Let him stay, if he wants to. He's just a distraction, no more real or less real than any other perception wandering around my mind.
It was kind of a turning point in how I dealt with distractions -- realizing that the game wasn't making them going away, the game in fact was leaving them alone. He did hang around intermittently through the session, but he wasn't nearly so distracting as when I was trying to make him go away.
One possibly useful bit of Tibetan psychology -- the Tibetans don't think that the first piece of visual perception, the piece in which you make images out of the incoming light, is under your control. So if your eyes are making patterns and what-not, that's not necessarily being distracted -- it's just the "eye-consciousness" doing it's stuff. No point in trying to control that. What you're working with is your discursive mind, the part that talks and frets and craves. And what you do with that is, when you realize you're distracted, you just put it back. Rest it on the object of your meditation again. But that doesn't mean that the distractions necessarily vaporize. Sometimes they'll stick around. That's okay.
(And if it's intolerable, I'd just go back to having the eyes shut. Plenty of people meditate with their eyes shut.)
Dale, thanks. I enjoyed your story of the impish, leering man!
the game wasn't making them going away, the game in fact was leaving them alone I figured you'd say as much. I went through that with auditory stuff. I guess I was taken by surprise by how challenging this was by comparison. Should've known, eh? If it can be, it will be? (It probably didn't help that I was feeling mighty irritable and edgy going into it, having just completed one of my least favorite tasks dealing with some accounting. Blechh.) I'll give it another go in the morning, sans accounting. Thanks for your support and encouragement. yrs, another xzenfvk...
15 Comments:
I sat today. didn't want to because i had a new bow delivered and fell in love with it so forgot for most of the day. I certainly wouldn't have done it if it weren't for you guys!
welcome back Jean, I missed you. yes it is a privelege to have a wondrous space to sit, however I would love to be able to sit in a traffic jam in the middle of the M25!!!
nothing to say because today I am taking the liberty of being boring!!!
Bravo! Dare to be boring! That's my new motto.
I sat this morning, because T's home from college and it's her birthday today (she's 20 !!!) and I have a feeling the evening will be packed.
Nice to sit in the morning -- I'd kinda forgotten how nice.
I agree with Jean, I have finally been able to catch up on reading comments from the last week and it's inspiring reading, none of it boring...no matter how hard you all try. I appreciate the insights and investigations from each of you. I sat this morning, but it was a struggle to get there.
Hi-
Just checking in. I've been meditating in short bits each day (5-15 min.), with the exception of yesterday. Sheepish: I'm not sure if it's "right," but I've been using it to help me get to sleep at nights. In general, it has just been calming/relaxing, but I was lucky to have a profound insight a couple of days ago.
I'm learning a lot from your comments.
I sat this morning, briefly. I'm so glad that I've managed to sit most days through this past very busy month, and if, as I hope, things are quieter now, I'd like to start making the sessions longer. I think I won't increase my commitment, though, at present, but be realistic and take it slowly. I think it was a good thing this began at a time when I was so busy and so I was forced to make a very modest commitment which I could actually honour, and appreciate the very real benefit of sitting even for a very short time each day.
Hey, Moira! Good to see you.
I asked that exact question of the teacher at my center -- was it okay to use meditation to help me go to sleep? And he said that of course the pure motivation, the one that we're supposed to have, is to meditate in order to benefit all sentient beings. But, he went on, if that really was our only motivation all the time, we'd already be enlightened and we'd have no need to meditate in the first place.
I basically think that any motivation is good motivation. Sure, meditating to free all sentient beings from suffering is better than meditating to calm down enough to sleep. But meditation to be able to sleep is better than not meditating at all, by a longshot, which is generally the alternative :-)
And anyway, when you're unable to sleep you *are* one of those suffering sentient beings we want to benefit.
So anyway, if it's bad, then at least we can keep each other company in our bad meditation. Theoretically I guess we could develop a habitual association of meditation with falling asleep, which could be bothersome later on, but I haven't noticed that, myself. I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it.
I think that's wise, Jean -- I've been glad several times that I took on the whopping huge commitment of three minutes a day. I don't think having a commitment so small has ever stopped me from sitting longer, but I suspect that having a larger commitment would have stopped me sometimes from sitting at all.
Speaking of sitting on the M25, Ruth, some people at my center do a "mindful driving" practice -- turning off the radio and making a practice of bringing their mind back to their driving whenever they find it's strayed somewhere. I've started doing it occasionally, but I usually forget I've undertaken it within a few minutes :-)
I concur absolutely with keeping the bar low as far as meditation commitments are concerned. It' the only way I managed to make any at all. Anything too ambitious would have defeated me.
Yes, sat this morning. 15 minutes seems to be my "natural" length of time - it's when I generally open my eyes to check the clock. I haven't yet tried to go longer - with more time in the mornings coming up I might give it a go.
I do find focusing on sounds actually helps me go deeper into the meditative state, it seems to be a path inwards (for me anyway).
Boring is Good :-)
obviously none of you drink like we do in the cote du rhone. I have to admit that if I don't sit before 6pm I never will as heure de l'apero calls and afterwards I would feel a fraud. That's every day. Oh my B*****confessions confessions confessions....
I love this group. What are y'all doing t'morrow? Apero chez nous.....
ps my new bow is gorgeous.......
pps have a delicious evening Dale!
Today is Canadian Thanksgiving, so it's very quiet here, for a Monday. We couldn't celebrate with friends because we have a huge deadline, but tonight I will roast a small chicken and talk J. into making drinks. So I'll be sitting sooner, rather than later - like you Ruth! Last night, a really good 20 minutes. That second 10 is by far the most peaceful part, but I think I learn more from the superhighway of the first 10. Like Dale, my monkey mind and inattentiveness don't bother me anymore - it is just what it is, each day is different, and I know the meditation is doing me and the world some good, no matter what.
And by the way, Bravo, Aki!
Tried for the first time this morning to sit with eyes open as Dale & Lorianne suggested. This is a new challenge to say the least. Forget monkey mind: TOTAL SQUIRRELMIND CIRCUS!! I don't know if it's because I'm a very visual person, or if it's just getting used to a new set of stimuli. Or maybe I should take my contacts out? Any comments on this would be appreciated.
I had a devil of a time with it at first. I remember a time when there was a sleeping bag in my field of vision, and a fold in it looked exactly like an impish, leering man. I tried to make him go away, but I knew it would be no use. I wondered whether I should get up and put the thing away, but I stuck it out, and it finally occurred to me -- so what's wrong with having a leering imp here? Let him stay, if he wants to. He's just a distraction, no more real or less real than any other perception wandering around my mind.
It was kind of a turning point in how I dealt with distractions -- realizing that the game wasn't making them going away, the game in fact was leaving them alone. He did hang around intermittently through the session, but he wasn't nearly so distracting as when I was trying to make him go away.
One possibly useful bit of Tibetan psychology -- the Tibetans don't think that the first piece of visual perception, the piece in which you make images out of the incoming light, is under your control. So if your eyes are making patterns and what-not, that's not necessarily being distracted -- it's just the "eye-consciousness" doing it's stuff. No point in trying to control that. What you're working with is your discursive mind, the part that talks and frets and craves. And what you do with that is, when you realize you're distracted, you just put it back. Rest it on the object of your meditation again. But that doesn't mean that the distractions necessarily vaporize. Sometimes they'll stick around. That's okay.
(And if it's intolerable, I'd just go back to having the eyes shut. Plenty of people meditate with their eyes shut.)
Dale, thanks. I enjoyed your story of the impish, leering man!
the game wasn't making them going away, the game in fact was leaving them alone
I figured you'd say as much. I went through that with auditory stuff. I guess I was taken by surprise by how challenging this was by comparison. Should've known, eh? If it can be, it will be? (It probably didn't help that I was feeling mighty irritable and edgy going into it, having just completed one of my least favorite tasks dealing with some accounting. Blechh.) I'll give it another go in the morning, sans accounting. Thanks for your support and encouragement.
yrs, another xzenfvk...
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