Type(s) of meditation you practice? Benefits?

[ChrisB87]

Hey,

So i am wondering what type/types of meditation you practice? where you learned? who you learned from? and what benefits you experience?

I practice Vipassana, Anapana, and Metta

I learned at the S N Goenka courses.

I haven't progressed very far despite meditating for years. But my practice isn't consistent and my Sila is just awful, which hinders me.

I feel so far Anapana has been most noticeably beneficial. I think the benefits of Vipassana may not be so easy to gauge in the short term, but is apparently the most important one.

Hope this can be an interesting thread with good input. Looking forward to hear your experiences.

Edited October 17, 2013 by ChrisB87

[ChrisB87]

Clearly everyone is too busy meditating to respond, which is what i should be doing.

Moderator, feel free to close.

[PimonratC]

This is one of the meditation teaching, But I like the way he talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJBERBnnDV0

This could be help you. I'm sure. ^_____^

[PimonratC]

Another one. This is a great one of mindfulness teaching.

I think this video could be the answer you're looking for.

[sabaijai]

Excellent video, thank you.

[Sheryl]

OP, I'm practicing the same as you, have for 23 years now, many, many benefits.

But the sila is really vital. (And not only for this technique....any). You won't progress if you have major lapses of sila. It's like trying to climb a flight of stairs or a ladder while refusing to lift your leg off the lower rung. Simply not possible to go up unless you do, the attachment to that lower rung is nailing you down.

I suggest you make a strong determination and clean up the act, and I think you will find then that matters greatly improve. Mental states and actions are intertwined and reinforce each other. When you break sila, you are acting from a base of craving or aversion and by acting on it, you strengthen that state of mind, which of course is exactly the opposite of what you want and this will naturally make it very hard to practice Vipassana.

I can tell you from my own experience that once you do stop breaking sila, within a fairly short time you will see for yourself that not only do you not "need" that behavior, it was harming you and you are happier and better off without it. And of course once you genuinely see that it was harming you, then there is no longer an inner struggle over it and keeping sila becomes easy. It is just hard in the beginning because you are under the illusion that these things are a source of enjoyment or that you need them.

[ChrisB87]

Thanks for you advice Sheryl!

Yeah, i am starting to realize how important Sila is. It's been such a struggle. I've ended up in a real mental low-point. Worse than before i started, but i think that is just because i was steeped in ignorance before, whereas now i realize and have started fighting with my own mind about it, lol

I have another course coming up in February, so hopefully that will help strengthen my sitting determination. At the moment i have totally lost it.

I also think i am too attached to the technique itself and the benefits i had before.

[rockyysdt]

Thanks for you advice Sheryl!

Yeah, i am starting to realize how important Sila is. It's been such a struggle. I've ended up in a real mental low-point. Worse than before i started, but i think that is just because i was steeped in ignorance before, whereas now i realize and have started fighting with my own mind about it, lol

I have another course coming up in February, so hopefully that will help strengthen my sitting determination. At the moment i have totally lost it.

I also think i am too attached to the technique itself and the benefits i had before.

Hi Chris.

Sometimes it's a matter of how you interpret your experiences.

As Mindfulness is "bare attention", rather than having "totally lost it", you have actually become aware of what is.

You have become aware of living without Sila.

An awareness more powerful than sitting in bliss, as it allows you to review, change, re focus, and fine tune.

An awareness allowing you to gain wisdom through experience.

Wisdom can be found at every level from the simplest to profound.

No matter how uncomfortable they make us feel, I consider all positive or negative experiences as opportunities to investigate.

It's those who bury their awareness who miss out on these opportunities.

Edited November 4, 2013 by rockyysdt

[ChrisB87]

Thanks Rocky,

I never looked at it that way before, but i think you are right.

Before, i though my meditation was stronger than now, but back then i couldn't even see how much my conduct was harming me.

It's probably a positive thing actually, if i can use it to make a change.

[jpeg]

Transcendental Meditation I learned long ago, when it was affordable Instant benefits include sharpened mind, no dogma and well, transcendence

[Sheryl]

Agree with Rocky. It is important to remember that meditation is a means to an end and that what you experience during meditation is not what you meditate for.Just a physical exercise is for the purpose of a healthy body and not for what you experience while exercising, which in fact can often be uncomfortable.

Experiences during meditation will sometimes be pleasant, sometimes unpleasant (sometimes very unpleasant), sometimes boring, sometimes frustrating etc etc...doesn't matter as long as you are aware and do your best to be equanimous. The only yardstick is not in what happens while you are sitting but rather the changes in you and how you live your life overall, which come about gradually.

It has actually been my observation that people whose experiences during meditation tend to be enjoyable/blissful are often the people who seem to show the least benefit from their practice. Perhaps because they get "addicted" to these pleasant feelings and instead of practising properly just use the meditation time to try to experience them. Not a problem I've ever had, though...I almost never experience anything pleasant yet here I am, 20+ years later, still practicing and better off for it.

Of course, if you are so agitated that you are unable to sit, there is a problem there and you need to patiently deal with it. Observing sila will certainly help to reduce mental agitation.

[ChrisB87]

Great insights. Thanks again for your very compassionate, helpful, and detailed responses. Its has helped motive and encourage me.

[weary]

Blown away by your replies too, Sheryl. Those 23 years certainly paid off in some valuable insight. Thank you.

[Nihago]

watching on the point morning and evening.

[cheeryble]

I was "brought up" on alternating anapanasati and metta bhavana.

For some reason I was never shown the Satipatthana Sutra.

For those in that situation, it is a most highly recommended practise (by the man himself).

It is a manual for the systematic deconstruction of the self into its constituent parts nama and rupa, mental and physical, and exposes the illusion of a separate entity.

I have found this the most valuable of all practises.

When there is no you, "things" are observed, but as they say, no observer.

Practise Satipatthana and you can also become transparent to stimuli which would otherwise disturb the "you" which automatically arises and tenses in reaction to "bad" things. Things just pass through and out the other side. As I once heard in a Buddhist context, you can "make like a log".

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.soma.html

ps be prepared for the like of meditating on the deconstruction of a corpse.

This sort of thing has not been disturbing, but highly liberating.

A meditation hall just didn't seem right without a skullcap or some such.

pps happy to discuss further

Edited January 22, 2014 by cheeryble

[cheeryble]

Good morning.

I should have said in my last post that as usual of course the problem is STAYING in a state of non-self and retaining this liberation.

....and of course we always tend to revert from our ultimate state to our everyday/relative state.

Still most valuable though and sure a gradual change happens.

I also think the practise of dividing the world into realities (parramatta dhamma) and illusions (concept) is highly efficacious. Next time you're on the mat try listening to the sound of a birdsong or the like without constructing a bird automatically. Listen to the pure sound. Eventually you'll notice you are constantly constructing yourself as you construct the bird. Practically the whole of mankind is walking round thinking they're seeing the world when what they're seeing is their version of it.....which they are setting in stone, deifying, as "this is how it is" and therefore "this is my opinion and I have it right".

All that reinforces the sense of self but conversely it's bit by bit removal allows one to realise the world is not as it is it is but as we are. IMO this sort of thing.....generally overlooked......is also at the heart of Buddhist practise. I was lucky enough to converse at length with an extraordinary woman, Sujin Boriharn Wanaket, who thought enough about this to write the meisterwerk "Survey of Paramattha Dhammas".

The mighty Diamond Sutra (Prajnaparamita Sutta), which literally sent shivers down my spine when I first read it, is of course all about this exact subject.

ps I previously meant the "decomposition" of a corpse but the iPad took over :-)

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app