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Meditation in the Time of Disruption

theringer.com

21–30 of 51 posts

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard good things about the dhamma.org 10-day Vipassana retreats. The sessions seem to require registering months in advance for new students, though.

10 days is a bigger commitment than I feel comfortable making at the moment.

Don't forget that it is a mental practice, and like in sports you can injure yourself. (Maniac episodes etc)

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#22
post #4

A man travels to live at a Buddhist monastery with the hopes of learning to become enlightened. Upon arrival he meets the head monk and asks “How long will it take me to reach enlightenment?” “Hmm...”, says the monk, “...perhaps 10 years.” Feeling this was far too long to wait, the man replies: “But, what if I work twice as hard? Devote myself twice as much to the practice? How long then?” “20 years,” replies the mon…

This is the difficult with the ego mind, it wants to stay alive - it wants to "do" instead of to settle. Practices to letting the ego mind settle, to letting mental coping mechanisms dissipate - replacing them with healthy coping when necessary, is a major key to health.

I once met someone who was doing their doctorate on meditation - however they didn't have a meditation practice. Certainly seemed like they were being called or drawn to meditate, yet their ego mind found a way to avoid it to stay alive/active..

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#25

I did transcendental meditation for 17 years. If you want to open the door to deceiving spirits in your life, go ahead and meditate.

I'm curious to know more. But I also think it's important not to paint all meditation with the same brush. Transcendental Meditation® is it's own weird thing.

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#26

I'm not sure what the take away was, but I really enjoyed the article. That seems appropriate. I've been doing unguided mediation by myself for short periods (sub 30m) for years. Never really took much instruction in terms of what type of mediation i should do. I think this article is the first thing that really made want to seek out instruction. Any personal recommendations for books/other material for someone that'…

The Mind Illuminated by John Yates (aka Culadasa) helped me a lot on how to structure my practice and how to deal with specific issues arising during meditation. I also find it quite well-written.

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#27

I did transcendental meditation for 17 years. If you want to open the door to deceiving spirits in your life, go ahead and meditate.

I'm sorry you are getting downvoted. 17 years of practice is no joke.

Would you be so kind and explain what you mean?

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#29

I'm not sure what the take away was, but I really enjoyed the article. That seems appropriate. I've been doing unguided mediation by myself for short periods (sub 30m) for years. Never really took much instruction in terms of what type of mediation i should do. I think this article is the first thing that really made want to seek out instruction. Any personal recommendations for books/other material for someone that'…

Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana[1] is a classic intro. Altho the free version at the link is called "rather dated" -- really, how "dated" can meditation instructions be? Anyway, I found that edition helpful.

[1] https://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

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