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That Misery Called Meditation

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Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#51

Post by initself »

philk wrote: post #14

I'm not really sure of the benefits of these big one off things; after seven days meditating you come back into your regular life, surrounded by your old environment and soon end up reverting to your previous mental patterns. It seems analogous to going on a running retreat, spending seven days running all day and then coming home and not running again. It strikes me that it would be more worthwhile to cultivate the…

You revert back to your own habits if you stop meditating everyday after "taking refuge in the Buddha".

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#52

Post by initself »

Groxx wrote: post #38
samatman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of meditation as a pot of water you're trying to boil away. A retreat is a chance to get that pot of water to a boil. Once there, a little meditation each day will continue to boil the pot. Without the focused immersion, a little heat each day might never boil the pot. Note that this works for languages, physical skills (aikido) and many other complex tasks.

And going back into the world analogous to having a cold shower. How much is undone?

You can take a cold shower, or you can ride the momentum that the retreat gave you and keep the shower lukewarm. Sometimes it even gets hot and really nice feeling and you don't want to get out, but then after that kind of shower, even drying off feels good.

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#53

Post by rsheridan6 »

humblepatience wrote: post #10

An interesting description of an experience - all I can say is, a 7 day retreat is probably a really, really bad idea for a beginner

Having tried it both ways, I think beginning with thirty minutes a day or something like that is like trying to learn to swim in a bathtub.

Unless you're on the edge of psychosis, a long retreat won't hurt you. There are rare horror stories about somebody going nuts, but that's probably about as common as somebody dying from a bee sting.

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#54

Post by humblepatience »

swombat wrote: post #13
humblepatience wrote: post #10

An interesting description of an experience - all I can say is, a 7 day retreat is probably a really, really bad idea for a beginner

What do you reckon is the ideal way for a beginner to get into meditation, then? Particularly if that beginner lives in a busy, noisy place like London and has a busy, time-consuming jobs like running a start-up.

From what I've heard, it's practicing 10 minutes a day for a while.

Going to a session helps too

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#55

Post by humblepatience »

humblepatience wrote: post #10

An interesting description of an experience - all I can say is, a 7 day retreat is probably a really, really bad idea for a beginner

I don't see why I'm getting down voted. I've been meditating on and off for years and I wouldn't just jump into a 7 day retreat until I was ready, it's do-able but probably not pleasant.

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#56

Post by c00p3r »

philk wrote: post #14

I'm not really sure of the benefits of these big one off things; after seven days meditating you come back into your regular life, surrounded by your old environment and soon end up reverting to your previous mental patterns. It seems analogous to going on a running retreat, spending seven days running all day and then coming home and not running again. It strikes me that it would be more worthwhile to cultivate the…

Just stop reading a journalist's crap and try to read something that worth it ^_^

http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Spiritual-Materialism-Shambhal... is a good starting point.

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#58

Post by alexyim »

It seems like you have to have a particular mindset to practice meditation.

For some reason, the concept of meditation is intuitive to me.. an analogy I feel like making is that it's similar to "reading between the lines." Yet at the same time, I understand the author's frustrations and I can't think of a way to make meditation work for him.

Maybe meditation isn't for everyone.

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#59

Post by Jach »

adammichaelc wrote: post #44
jw84 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attachment is the root of all suffering. The subtlety is that one may want but clinging onto that desire and not letting go creates pain.

Joy can't exist without suffering.

Source? I keep seeing this thrown around, and I really don't see how it follows. Do you really think people can't just be happy, that they need suffering in their lives, or knowledge of someone suffering? Perhaps we're operating under different definitions of 'suffering', but I'd be really interested to hear a good case study on this.
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