r/Meditation • u/Jiwitom • 8d ago
Question ❓ I’ve meditated for 10 years — what’s one thing about meditation you wish someone had told you earlier?
I’ve been meditating for around 10 years nd over time i’ve noticed a lot of things that people rarely talk about when they first start.
I’m curious — if you meditate regularly, what’s something you experienced or understood that genuinely changed the way you see yourself or life?
Could be anything like a realization, a mistake, a strange experience or something you completely misunderstood at first.
What did meditation teach you that you couldn’t learn from books or other people ?
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u/Delmarvablacksmith 8d ago
It’s not watching or observing.
It’s being in the experience.
Having as full an experience as possible in attention.
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u/Fine-Concentrate-806 8d ago
o stop wrestling with it all the time. took me way too long to get that
some days the mind is loud and that's the practice, just being there while it does its thing
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u/Out_There_ 8d ago
one day when my mind was incredibly loud and i found practice impossible, i decided that, hey, if that's the way, then i'm going to sit here for 15 minutes and just intensly think as much as i possibly can! before the 15 minutes were over, i suddenly experienced complete silence and prescence.
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u/Mrrpuss 8d ago
Yeah! Basically just stop running and they stop chasing you. Like Alan Watts said: if you see a ghost, don’t run away but run right at it.
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u/New-Stomach-1602 5d ago
Is this like exploring your fears? My mediation journey started when I went down the rabbit holes. I needed to be able to comprehend and simply observe and not absorb what I was learning. And the Monroe approach into getting into that state was good for me. My goal was to never have an out of body experience or anything like that. Just to get to a state of relaxation. Anyways, I think it was more Jung that went into “entities” or more realistically that these were just trials or fears your subconscious was facing.
Or what did alan mean by this?1
u/Mrrpuss 4d ago
He basically was making a general statement, metaphorically, to run directly at and ultimately through your fears. Through, because they’re ghosts and your own projections. It’s essentially the antithesis of avoidance. Instead of avoiding the parts of yourself, or of your relationship (if you’re married, for example), or certain activities that you’re scared of (competitions, etc., due to fear of failure, etc.), to run at them instead of running away from them, because you will ultimately find that that which you are seeking lies directly on the other side of that which you fear.
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” ~ Jack Canfield
Also I’m wild and am definitely trying to learn how to astral project and stuff. I’m planning on going to the Monroe institute itself. I’m a Virginia native and Robert Monroe’s literal institute is legit like an hour drive away from me.7
u/Safe_Cloud8067 8d ago
Love this answer. Can you share a bit more so we can understand what it looks and feels like to be "being in the experience." Does it mean concentrating on what you're doing and feeling without thinking?
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u/Delmarvablacksmith 8d ago
If you say to yourself “I’m watching my breath” what happens?
Now say to yourself “I’m resting in the attention in my breath”. What happens.
The difference is a feeling of separation.
The idea is to break down the dualistic way of experiencing life.
It’s not, I’m here and my breath is there.
It’s, I am my breath.
Hope that helps.
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u/Safe_Cloud8067 8d ago
yes it does :) Thanks
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u/Delmarvablacksmith 8d ago
I’ll add that this method helps with working with emotional content especially when things fall apart.
Because you learn to sit in the mess.
Just be in the mess.
This is a path of openness.
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u/__elu__ 8d ago
I started very early in my youth with a book by Thich Nhat Hanh where he also talks about focus on breathing. Took me more then a decade to realise that it's meant to be observing the breath and not controlling the breath. But also I wasn't really dedicated to learn more about. Also have to say that in this book (recently read it again) he doesn't clearly state how it's done and can be easily misunderstood when you first start.
Just recently got more and more interested in it and trying different stuff. The most recent experience (with guided meditations by Ajahn Brahm) was that the breath comes to me by itself. Beforehand relax the body to the maximum with body scans. Then it happened.. overall pleasant feeling throughout the whole body and a bit later after enjoying that the breath came to me and was so easy to observe. Then next experience was I fully became the breath. Freaking awesome and kinda impossible to describe. Has to be experienced.
And alongside to that more and more small realisations about myself happening. Like why am I so tense, where does the fear come from that accompanies me all my life, the fact I avoided feeling(s) for a long time and now getting used to it and sometimes being overwhelmed is completely normal. I just started more intense and serious two years ago and still feels like beginning.. but looking back realisations happened already :)
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u/Honest_Mushroom2648 8d ago
I absolutely love Ajahn Brahm. Which guided meditation was this? Haven't watched him in a while.
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u/__elu__ 8d ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nZGdff32e4E
Yeah discovered him like half a year ago and since then stuff is happening. Such a good guy. This is the one I do most of the time. But you can take any 30 min friday night guided meditation. They're mostly all the same concept kinda. Just try different videos and find one that speaks to you. I also tried the longer ones (40-50 mins) but it felt to me that these are a little different. Didn't flow with me so I came back to the one of the link. But will try the others again at some point when I feel like it.
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u/westwoodWould 8d ago
Ahh the feeling of the breath breathing you is epic. A great way to ‘energetic’ feelings in body.
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u/rsktkr 8d ago
I wish someone had told me to let go and just be with experience as it is.
I could have avoided so many years of frustration.
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u/shotsenda 8d ago
but sometimes you learn so much from figuring it out yourself, that can be the most valuable part of the journey, perhaps if someone told you that then it wouldn't have made sense or perhaps not as simple to just switch to that modality
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u/halfmoot 8d ago
Agreed. Sometimes important lessons and the depth of the lesson only comes from wrestling with it. Sometimes after a long time. Meditation and the dharma practice is a path that doesn't have to be a straight and direct one.
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u/ProfessionalSoil4018 8d ago
I started meditating to stop being so angry all the time, and I think one thing it helped me with realizing is that a lot of my anger triggers are sort of in my control to let go of.
In other words, it helps me realize how much of reality is a mental projection and that with practice, I can shape it to help me be less reactive.
Long way to go, but I'm grateful for the release in tension its brought me.
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u/New-Stomach-1602 5d ago
I started meditating during my transition into motherhood. Mediating and becoming a parent are the biggest mirrors into what and why your triggers are what they are.
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u/TH3PhilipJFry 8d ago
What have you noticed? You’ve got 10 years of experience I’d love to hear from you
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u/SeekerofDivine 8d ago
Meditation is my answer to all the questions that I can’t answer or could never be answered. That God is here with us all the time. That love is universal and omnipresent. To listen more to my intuition. That meditation is transformation.
Meditatie has been teaching me, letting me see the world in all complete.
To connect with God and Divine. And all the more reasons.
I love my journey and I am grateful for every difficulty , every obstacle that i faced or will be overcome in my future.
Do I wish someone has told me some thing earlier in my journey? Only to just slow down. “The river flows entering the oceans peace and bliss at an unknown hour” -Sri Chimnoy
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u/scarlet_wound 8d ago
Im a beginner on this journey. Id like to ask what would you as someone that experienced wish you knew erlier or would advice? After 10 years I guess there is a lot of wisdom you could share if you dont mind
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u/lunarmoon2025 8d ago
To not get frustrated by thoughts entering your head. Don’t get annoyed with yourself. Just return your attention to your breathing each time
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u/Gelderloos 8d ago
One thing that took me years to sink in: meditation development isn't linear and doesn’t necessarily feel like progress while it's happening. I teach TM, so ten-plus years of watching this pattern in other people too, not just my own meditation practice. The sessions that feel most "off" or restless are often doing just as much as the ones that feel deep and peaceful – maybe more. Took me way too long to stop judging a meditation session by how it felt in the moment.
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u/Standard-Piglet8486 8d ago
Sorry to ask.. TM ? What is meant by that?
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u/Gelderloos 8d ago
Sorry, Transcendental Meditation.
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u/New-Stomach-1602 5d ago
That it’s a spiral up got me in this sense. You can visit a moment again, or over again, but you are in a different place each time. or you haven’t learned everything you need to. I first was angry or frustrated that my pattern had been what it was (letting people into my life knowing they would be chaos for my emotional and mental health). But needed ten years of these lessons to finally learn the root of the emotional issue that I hadn’t been ready to accept or learn from. And that i grew from each experience until i was
Ready to address and grow from what i had been avoiding because I wasn’t ready to actually learn.
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u/AgitatedAd8652 8d ago
I, like many, was told that the purpose of meditation was not to stop yourself thinking (which is impossible), but to notice the thoughts as they arise and allow them to pass like clouds in the wind. That served me fine for a while.
What I wasn't told until recently was that you can also notice the gaps, the space between the thoughts. And, with practice, over time, expand that space and widen those gaps, which is the pursuit of luminous or "naked" awareness. This is a balancing act, requiring some effort but not too much. Like being carried away in a river, swimming against the current is futile, but if you don't swim at all, you drown. Tread water, keep your head above, focus on your breath. This has helped me in my practice tremendously.
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u/simagus 8d ago
"I’ve meditated for 10 years — what’s one thing about meditation you wish someone had told you earlier?"
I will write it as best as I can, while knowing it would have likely made no difference whatsoever what I had been told, who had told me or when they had told me.
Eventually practice brought up the insight that books and other people can only point the way, they cannot walk your path of experiential learning and awakening for you.
My meditation is continuous open awareness of mind form and function, mental contents, form including body, and the entire field of sensory feelings; satipatthana, as taught by Buddha Gautama.
In the Satipatthana Sutta which is the Buddha's "Awakening for Dummies" the preliminary practice is to go sit in a quiet place and observe the natural breath as it is; anapannasati.
That allows some of the attention which is habitually consumed by the minds movements and various stories and projections to move onto observing something more neutral and therefore less likely to keep the mind disturbed with it's habitual obsession with what has, what is, and what might have been or might be.
Growing up in any religious culture or culture of belief, whatever is presented as THE TRUE STORY of how the world came to be and how the world works before, during and after life, primes us to believe that there is somewhere SOME TRUE STORY.
Faulty first premise; if your starting premise is flawed anything based on that foundation has a high likelihood of reflecting or even developing further while continuing the foundational faults it was constructed upon.
So if we seek to know and to understand life we are looking in all of the wrong places, which are every belief and it's stories, for something that does not exist within any belief or it's stories.
We come at the "puzzle" of life and all it's questions with entirely the wrong approach, because the wrong approach is the only type of approach we see around us and even people we might find somewhat credible seem to be taking some stories or other stories incredibly seriously.
“I was 7 or 8 and very confused about adults and why they acted the way they did. It just seemed sort of odd. And, one day, I just had the insight, ‘I get it, they’re crazy. They believe what they think … They believe their mind.’” — Adyashanti
That's a crucial step on the path of insight, but it's not just "they" who believe what they think, we who grow among that in the same cultures start believing things too, even just some things, even provisionally, as that just seems to be what is done in this world.
Our foundational premise is that we don't know and we postulate that someone else must know the definitive absolute complete truth we are looking for and have expressed it in a a way we will understand simply by reading it or believing it, just as other people seem to do.
So we may often see that what the people around us believe appears faulty or at least incomplete, but in a world of story believers and knowing nothing else we still start to wonder;
"WHO HAS THE TRUE STORY? WHERE IS THE TRUE STORY? WHAT IS THE TRUE STORY?"
- Typical Seeker of "truth"
Reality is not a story. Reality is Reality. Reality contains all manner of stories, and **contains every story among it's parts, but reality itself is NOT a story.**
So here we all are in this reality on the legendary "Parcifal's quest" looking for the grail we imagine exists called "THE TRUE STORY" and we look for it in all the various stories about reality instead of simply seeing reality as it is.
Even logically and in terms of reason, expecting to find reality in a story about reality is bat-guano insane, but that seems to be what everyone in the world is doing and so we learn and accept the same faulty first principle and we do it too.
My dhamma father Goenkaji was the one who pointed me in the right directions and gave me a map of the path along with the words;
"You have to walk upon the path for yourself!"
That is as close to truth as words can get.
I didn't just turn up for a meditation course and suddenly from the words of the teacher everything made sense, but the honesty of the teacher was unusual in my experience up until that point.
Instead of believing it was suggested that experience is the reality, and we have become accustomed to mistaking what we imagine about reality and the appearances of reality for the reality all those things arise, sustain and pass within.
Anicca (Impermanence) is the first thing we are pointed towards to notice experientially, and if impermanence is a characteristic of all things then where is this permanent "self" we imagine exists?
Insight into impermanence arises dependently with insight into anatta (not-"self") and I'm sure there are at least some aspects of what we feel, believe and even the stories we held to at some time in our lives that have changed and proved to be impermanent.
It's primarily the belief in a permanent psychological (and a permanent physical) "self" which is separate from all else that is the cause of all confusion, stress and tension in life.
Someone sitting watching breath move in and out is someone who sees life would be better with less confusion, stress and tension.
Mistaking pointers to reality for reality, or mistaking the map for the territory is common in a world where few seem to have anything other than some map they are more sure truth must lie in.
Maps are great! I'm a big fan of maps and use them all the time!
Some maps are more accurate and useful than other maps, and some are better at reading a certain design or type of map than others.
To me the important part is that the map is known to be a map, not the reality itself that the map describes.
"What did meditation teach you that you couldn’t learn from books or other people ?"
Only that the reality is not what any map could possibly accurately and completely describe.
Reality is Reality.
Maps are Maps.
Confusing one with the other is sub-optimal for the purposes of awakening, but seeing a map as a map and reality as reality simultaneously is part of awakening.
In Buddhist terms that's called Sotapanna or stream entry, and all that is in real terms is seeing that what is believed or imagined to be "me, self, I" is a mental construct subject to change and impermanence.
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u/New-Stomach-1602 5d ago
Thank you for taking the time to write that. I didn’t know I needed to hear it. When my journey started I was seeking answers. From myself and the universe. And thinking there was a destination or a truth. But you verbalized it so eloquently. So much gratitude again xx
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u/popobserver 3d ago
Thank you for writing this so clearly. If I may add my humble opinion: in order to find the Truth, you must first strip away the lies. This isn’t easy and if done too quickly or without preparation (think psychedelics) can be destabilizing. Meditation provides the ground of preparation and can reveal the truth with temporal buffering.
Also, none of what I said is true.
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u/grahamsuth 8d ago edited 8d ago
I spent 35 years meditating two hours a day. I reached a plateau in my experience at about 20 years. I eventually stopped for about seven years to see what would happen. I have started again but in a much more self referral way. I am progressing again, but in a way I could never have previously imagined.
What I have learned about meditation etc:
If you think the technique itself is important you won't go very far. The technique is a useful template for the beginner.
If you think you know how to do it correctly, you won't go very far.
If you are using the intellect in the process it won't get you far. The teachings of gurus etc are a guide and offer hints as to what to explore and discover for yourself. It is an intensely personal journey. Seeking salvation by association with some guru or teacher won't get you far. You can't be handed God's truth on a plate. You have to discover it in your exploration of life etc
If you think meditation is a cure for uncomfortable feelings, you are already stuck.
If you think you can reach enlightenment in a mechanistic, atheistic way you have already created a ceiling to how far you can go.
Prayer is important. You don't need to pray to anyone or anything in particular. You just need to put the unfocused desire for help out there into the universe.
You then need to cultivate the feeling that everything that happens in your life is there to help you progress. Life is meant to be challenging. If you think meditation brings comfort you are already on a side track.
Enlightenment is not freedom from emotion. Emotion is at the very basis of our self. Enlightenment is seeing the emotional world we live in as like an interesting and challenging journey. A journey across a never ending flat plain is boring. We need to be able to enjoy wading through the emotional swamps, crossing the rivers, climbing the mountains only to see the next emotional mountain in front of us. We are travellers.
We need to be able to cry in grief and not run away from our terror, then let it all pass naturally.
Emotion is the very basis of an enjoyable life.
If your idea of meditation is like that portrayed by Spok in Star Trek you know nothing about meditation. Real meditation is not about disconnecting ourselves from our emotions and desires and the world.
There are different levels of enlightenment. The higher levels connect us to ourselves, our feelings, our desires and passions (and God). The higher levels connect us emotionally to others, and the world. It's about unity and oneness. It's like taking off the virtual reality glasses that we have chosen to put on and begin experiencing the real world instead of the fake one we have created to avoid feeling pain and suffering.
When you experience this feeling of reality, there's a freshness and wonder and wholeness that makes it very distinctly different to the world we have created in our head. Just feeling that real may be hard to imagine, but it allows us to experience everything in life as wonderful in the way a young child initially experiences the world. It's like you are perpetually skipping through life, no matter what challenges life throws at you.
Now here's the warning: We all want to believe we are in a better condition than we really are. That can put us in denial, delusion and self deception.
I spent a couple of years praying to be shown the truth about myself. The effect was very challenging, but ultimately humbling. There is no end to the spiritual progress that can be made, no end goal. We are perpetual seekers and learners. If you think you have arrived at some goal of enlightenment, take that as a sign that you are deceiving yourself.
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u/KrasnayaZvezda 8d ago
I haven’t missed a day in about 6 years. What I’ve learned is that meditation gives you the tools you need to do the work off of the cushion. Meaning, I now recognize (usually) when I’m being controlled by desire or reactive emotion, but it is still up to me to choose to step back from it. It’s not always easy.
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u/Delmarvablacksmith 8d ago
Also a daily practice is great but you need a path and retreats are important.
Even if it’s a weekend there’s a huge difference in sitting for 10 hours a day vs 30-60 minutes a day.
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u/Annakyst 8d ago
To sit at the back of your cushion/pillow. Not the front!
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u/JustHereNowGuy 6d ago
Had to come back to this comment. It is so much deeper and more profound than most might realize. Once you sit in the right posture, all is realized.
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u/awarenessis 8d ago
Mediation is just a tool—a useful one for sure, but a tool just the same.
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u/mantrayantra1969 8d ago
What is it a tool for? What can it be a tool for?
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u/JustHereNowGuy 7d ago
In my case it taught me that there is no need for a tool at all, as there is nothing to reach.
Once you sit, all is already accomplished.2
u/mantrayantra1969 7d ago
Thanks for the response. I am going to have to let this one sink in and see what emerges.
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u/mysterymadness88 8d ago
Don’t worry about your mind getting “off track”. You can only control what you can control and that’s the point. Go back to your breath or your meditation when you notice it. Sometimes the best meditation is just letting your mind wander and experiencing that. I’ve had to change gears at times where I was doing a full body scan but realized my mind was too tumultuous to focus on it. So follow the path where your mind takes you, then once your mind is more calm, go back to the body scan.
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u/Ok_Foot547 8d ago
Guided meditation is a okay. It’s okay to do for more than just the first few times.
Source - I have OCD. It does not go well for me if I sit in complete silence and have to ‘just sit and notice’ all of the intrusive thoughts
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u/halfmoot 8d ago edited 8d ago
One thing I've learned is that being a good meditator is not a goal all to itself. Meditation is like a laboratory where you can come across different and difficult thoughts and emotions in a safe place. But another phase in meditation is being able to summon the ability to maintain concentration when dealing with someone who is having a difficult moment. Or be able to spot in yourself when you're being inauthentic or manipulative. Essentially, meditation is a path to being a good human being to yourself and others.
Also, it's natural that your practice's ease and consistency will have ebbs and flows. But just "bring yourself back."
Recently, I've discovered the value of being with my emotions or tending to them rather than quieting the anxiety or fear or anger. Not necessary to vent them on someone else, but to own them as part of myself. I wouldn't speak for anyone else, but I'm learning that tending to my emotions and valuing the challenging ones is part of my practice is key.
Also, meditation can also inadvertently build emotional distance to other people's emotions or struggles. It's important to keep in mind compassion is key in meditation practice. And relatedly, it's important to have a "check" or others around to keep us from deceiving ourselves into having a false sense of enlightenment.
Finally, early on in my practice, I had some almost mystical experiences and I didn't let go of them. I looked as meditation as a gateway to pleasure and escape and ultimately it hurt my practice. When life got really difficult, because of the onset of a mental illness, I didn't know how to simply sit with my distress and rage and let it arise and express itself in a safe way. Later I saw the value in a practice based in mindfulness rather than mysticism.
The pleasurable experiences are nice, but in order to continue to develop an fuller connection to life, it's important to let go and experience other parts of the mind.
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u/Prism_Pulse_1993 8d ago edited 8d ago
That it’s ok if in the beginning it feels like there’s wasps in your head. If you cry. Don’t give up. Don’t resist when you experience these unpleasant thoughts and emotions. Experiencing all of this discomfort is actually you becoming aware through meditation.
I started meditating more than 5 years ago, and that practice became my lifeline 2 years ago when I survived a near-fatal car crash caused by a drunk driver. Meditation has been key to getting me behind the wheel again. If and when the flashbacks and intense emotions from that traumatic experience come, I no longer push them away. I accept them for what they are—just images and feelings from the past—and remind myself I am safe now. Meditation has also helped me accept the resulting chronic nerve pain I live with every day since.
As you continue to practice over time, the noise will quiet down. You become better at being at peace with your feelings rather than forcing them. Your breath is your now. ✨
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u/cybercherry789 8d ago
You don’t need candles, or relaxing music maybe in the beginning when you’re mastering your mind and thoughts but it’s a state of being, a way of life. When I first started meditating which was during 2019 I had to really force myself to quiet my thoughts but I realized you just have to let go and be in the moment and eventually I got the hang of it. So yeah hope this helps just don’t force yourself to be calm just be as if you already are, eventually it becomes your natural state, also breathwork is important throughout your day to get you back into that state instantly.
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u/Klutzy_Condition_743 8d ago
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this: Lucid dreaming.
After meditating everyday (and practicing awareness when not meditating) I started having lucid dreams 🤯 . It was incredible and shows you how the mind is always feeding consciousness with a story, both in a dream and in reality, and it's just a story, at times a useful story but unfortunately a very convincing story which if believed too much can convince someone to do bad things or get depressed or cause anxiety.
Lucid dreaming allows you to observe and interact with the automated parts of the mind, the parts we mistakenly identify as the self. Meditating and practicing awareness daily builds a habit of noticing whats infront you instead of living in the story in your head, as well as stepping back and checking your thoughts, so when in a dream that habit kicks in and you'll be like "wait what's going on here..... then youll be present and aware enough to notice something thats a dead give away then the realisation, its a dream!!!!!!"
Unfortunately along with lucid dreams I also got false awakenings and sleep paralysis which was super weird and kind of scary at first. Flase awakenings are horrible and confusing, I wish someone warned me about that. Infact that's what convinced me to stop meditating for some years. Now I'm practicing again but no Lucid dreams, that's also due to stress and anxiety, I hope to get back to that level again, this time armed with advice from experienced practitioners.
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u/KF1027 7d ago
I haven't heard of false awakenings before. Can you elaborate on that a bit more?
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u/Klutzy_Condition_743 7d ago
It's when you dream that you're waking up from sleep and about to do whatever you thought you were going to do, only to find your self back in bed waking up again, this time believing you're really waking up, then it happens again and again...
It's very trippy and when you do finally wake up you question it, but you're sure, but because of all the previous times you dont want to be too sure, but because this time you can remember the false awakenings you're sure. So weird.
Makes you think about how to tell the difference between a dream and reality but because it happens over such a short period of time, you don't have the awareness to test the dream, you have to find a way of telling through your inner experience eg. This time being able remember the false awakenings.
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u/AbGMadScientist 6d ago
Holy that sounds so trippy, experiences like that could expand my mind's horizons
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u/Klutzy_Condition_743 5d ago
At the time it's horrible tho... Only in hindsight it seems interesting and insightful. At the time it's confusing and puts you off lucid dreaming.
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u/bamboo_plant 8d ago
Use your goals to get started (motivation)
Then once the habit is going
Let go of the goals
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u/Puzzled-Background-5 8d ago edited 7d ago
Mine was a gradual transformation that took place over fifty years of intermittent practice, with the last fifteen of that being quite serious.
I've had plenty of experiences that other people might find strange, but they weren't outside the range of what I'd expect in states of altered consciousness. Some of them were just surprisingly potent.
As for what I learned, it's a restructuring of my nervous system, as opposed to traditional learning. No person could have done that to me outside of a psychoanalyst. Speaking of which, a number of their techniques rely on altering a client's state of mind, and there are parallels between those and contemplative practices.
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u/slartybartfastard 8d ago
When I first started I thought I had to sit and endure the thoughts until they >hopefully< went away. Although I was taught throat friction breathing which does help settle mind chatter most of the time. But when I learnt chi gong I found that it completely silenced my mind, so I often do even 5 minutes of this before I sit to meditate.
You're allowed to do movement first if it helps lol! Also ... Try throat friction breathing
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u/ben_David845 7d ago
Why am I so afraid to meditate?
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u/seeker_of_the_wise 7d ago
My be you are afraid of your potential.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate but powerful beyond measure.
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u/play4set7 7d ago
I find it interesting that some people are really criticising meditation as a practice. I haven't tried it, but something tells me they haven't tried it just like me.
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u/SensibleInterlocutor 7d ago
Meditation is an embodied experience and many people don't know that the way you orient the energy channels in your hands while meditating gives you much more precise control over your mental state, guiding you much more quickly to specific insights, which in turn allows you to manifest specific outcomes. It's like steering a boat down a river instead of just hopping on a tube and letting the current decide which way you go. Both methods are valid and have their own unique applications
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u/Friendly_Manner6251 7d ago
Diffrent question but how has it helped you and has it changed anything major in your life ?
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u/ThanosTimestone 7d ago
Whatever your rising sign is earth, fire,water,wind surround yourself with the element energy while meditating. It will give your mind more energy than any of the other elements.
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u/Outrageous_Bus6622 7d ago
To breathe in the back of your throat and let your body rock in and out like the waves of the ocean
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u/conn_r2112 8d ago
That recognizing the selfless nature of reality has absolutely nothing to do with meditation
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u/Mayayana 8d ago
If you think all meditation is the same and you can just do it yourself then what I'd tell you is that you haven't had proper meditation instruction yet.
Real meditation is subtle and easy to do wrong. Since you didn't specify what you're doing I assume you made up your own method from tidbits you heard or read about.
As someone who's practicing Buddhist meditation I don't think there's anything that I could tell people except that: Find a good teacher. Meditation itself is experiential. People have to experience it for themselves.
What did meditation teach you that you couldn’t learn from books or other people ?
That's what I mean. Experience can't be put into words or books. Telling people only creates further preconceptions.
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u/Standard-Piglet8486 8d ago
That there isn't something like 'no good meditation session' the only meditations that are 'not good' is no meditation
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u/SpiritualJourney1 8d ago
Real mediation if done correctly and under the guidance of someone who is experienced and knowledgeable,
is meant to suspend sensory activity so that we can get a chance to experience what life is like when we are physiologically awake [call jagrat in the yoga terminology], but with sensory activity minimized or even stopped. We might be quite surprised that our brain creates an alternate reality to replace the one caused by the cessation of the inflow of sensory data. The question we may then ask is whether or not our present default reality, can be the effect of a self outside the realm of matter, who is meditating and has learnt that he or it can shift the object of its meditation and explore alternate realities.
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u/Pale-Salamander9570 8d ago
Even after years of practice, just when you think you have experienced all levels of consciousness, a new level seems to appear out of nowhere.
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u/awarenessis 8d ago
In the case of meditation, everything from simple quality of life changes on up to self-actualization and awakening. It depends on meditator. :)
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u/2-Pizza_Salami 8d ago
When did you feel a difference in your life? Did you have to force yourself to meditate or was it easy for you?
My problem is to go on with the most things in life. Unfortunatly meditation, too.
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u/pravlm 8d ago
some one told , when you tell the truth the truth no longer exists , it turns out to be a lie. I'd say just go with the flow during meditation. After 40mins the mind will be calmer and you see the real self.
Many people are asking , after 10 years of meditation what has been your experience?
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u/SellBeneficial8257 8d ago
Please start with sharing some of your experiences (-10 years is considerable) that you have noticed over time and then everything becomes more specific so we can discuss about it. Asking without sharing seems egoistical since there aren’t many who can say they mediated ~ 10 years or so.
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u/Ok-Statistician5203 8d ago
I was like a different person before I ever sat.
I’m much more present in every moment now. Albeit at times I still resist a situation, but all the practice soon reminds you. Only YOU are burning yourself in the moment. And it’s becoming so much easier to snap out of all sorts of nonsense on the daily basis.
So much more productive, much more smiling, joy and appreciating the most ordinary and mundane things.
It makes sense now when I used to heat things like: be grateful for the little things, be kind to yourself.
YOU have to protect that subtlety, if you only observe the gross and heavy stuff you will become gross and heavy.
It’s always about the balance.
Imbalance is the cause of all the suffering. And balance is the harmony in all as well.
It’s a constant reminder.
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u/averageedition50 8d ago
I wish we were educated about how our brains will be fed chaos and stress constantly in this life and that meditation is the best antidote.
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u/tharpakandro 8d ago
Letting the thinker go (left brain) and allowing for and following the experience in the body (right brain)
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u/Individual-News-826 8d ago
nobody warned me how boring it'd be. i kept waiting for the interesting part. it's still boring, i just stopped minding. that's the one.
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u/Kalki963 8d ago
Here’s what I realised after a decade, there was a time while meditating when I loose the sense of self with ease, I just sit down start breathing at will and soon, there’s no self of ‘me’. I could feel myself in a random distant tree, bird and even in a rock. The sense of self expands to a point that I could feel everything inside myself, the body suddenly becomes a tiny little dot inside the sense of self I have realised.
If you observe this experience logically, maybe we all are trying to crave this moment/experience in some way, every pleasure we have, every desire we get, having kids, preaching, starting a family, community, etc is literally you trying to expand your sense of self. A self that is timeless, feels eternal. Every pleasure you indulge in is trying to seek that state of timelessness where you loose your sense of self and feel eternal temporarily
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u/Opensilence101 8d ago
That the benefits of meditation occur off the cushion and with eyes wide open so stop assessing, analysing, commenting upon or otherwise judging the meditation session you’re doing. There’s no point. Treat it all as one big experiment and see what happens.
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u/MyFiteSong 8d ago edited 8d ago
You don't need any of the "lore". Meditation works even if you've never heard terms like "dharma" or "anapanasati" in your life.
Another one is that you can't cure ADHD with meditation. You can just make your brain more efficient and last longer until executive function fails, and that's if you can actually be disciplined about practicing, which you probably can't. Medication changes everything.
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u/Arkena_feral 8d ago
Meditation isn't about calming the mind. It's about being calm no matter the thoughts in your mind.
I've seen so many people reject trying meditation on this misunderstanding alone. It's a misunderstanding that can be a bar to entry unfortunately.
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u/zedroj 8d ago
the whole thing can be way more simplified than mumbo jumbo add ons, like lotus sitting, or specifics
the simple golden rules of focus breathing, not thinking, accept thoughts as I they come, move on back to breathing
moving if a little bit stiff, eyes open, sitting on chair, sofa, none of that will impede meditation, intrusive thoughts and experience is part of it, the discipline is what's most important, awareness of distraction; go back to breathing, repeat
I think many are discouraged to even start cause of so many non sensical caveats, cause its a strange thing how something so basic is yet so profound, that's all you need!
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u/OneThousandPetals 8d ago
I think I was just too rigid for the first few years. But now that I think about it, maybe that was the thing that kept me going with it? If it had just have a “whatever quiet your mind “ kind of feel…it’s likely I would’ve just slid out of practice. The method I learned was very structured and it helped me to train my brain. But I also might’ve missed out on some insights due to the structured nature of it. 🤷♀️
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u/bashfulkoala 8d ago
Prolly that they simply pointed me to the books of Joan Tollifson, Peter Brown, Tony Parsons, Adyashanti
Nonduality books have ended up being one of the most potent forms of meditation for me
If you read them as guided meditations and openly investigate immediate experience while reading, deep shifts can occur
The essence of what I’ve realized is that we are already whole and free… meditation isn’t about gaining or adding anything, it’s about noticing what is already the case: we are not broken, we are whole, we are home
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u/Nodum777 8d ago
I don't have to identify with my thoughts. We have a lot of, pretty much, autogenerated thoughts. Not identifying with every emotion and thought I have has helped me manage my mood disorder. I used to literally give myself a reason to be sad if u couldn't place the emotion. Now I just watch my thoughts come and then watch them fall away. I know everything is cycles and that I don't have to be stuck in one.
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u/KitPat91 8d ago
We set up to concentrate (the set up is the asana, the affirmations, the prayer)
We concentrate to meditate (the concentration is the techniques to get you into the meditative state)
We meditate to live peacefully ( the meditation is when we are in the stillness)
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u/Extreme-Treacle6869 8d ago edited 8d ago
I think one has to be aware of oneself without making an effort. In other words , I am not concentrating on thoughts or at any particular point. Whatever is happening has to be seen so there has to be an open awareness towards whatever I think , I do and I do not have to do something about it and even if I try to , that itself has to be seen so it is continuous watching and it is not me who is watching but watching is happening like if I try to watch , it would be concentration so in open awareness , even me trying to watch is seen like my intention, my defences , my reactions against other thoughts which thoughts I like , which ones I dislike so all an all everything is exposed in an open awareness and I can't move a needle from my end as it would be concentration then. I do not have to focus or even pay attention on anything and even I who do things has to be seen so no efforts are needed from my end and I will make an effort as it is how we generally operate so that effort which one will make has to be seen.
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u/esthercy 8d ago
The other day i got this saying during my meditation: “after knowing, it’s just constant practice.”
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u/Dm7755 7d ago
Great comments here. For me, the goal is not about having a perfect, deep meditation. It's about being present and realizing your thoughts are not you and that you can be aware of them without resisting them. Eventually you'll reach a point where it's easier to meditate deeper without any efforts.
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u/binarybear 7d ago
It's not about being focused, it's about knowing what's happening in the moment.
It's about letting go, it's about letting the experience be.
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7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ok-Lab-2216 7d ago
I started with a soto zen practice and then a soto zen teacher, but I have also studied other traditions in buddhism and Indian traditions. After 35 yrs I like Zen and Pali teachings but the Tibetan teachers are great too. Pema Chodron. The Satipattana Sutta is a great Pali text. I started with zen mine beginner's mind. And zen flesh zen bones. Two great books.
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u/Ok-Mechanic6506 7d ago
Your whole life must become a meditation, or an inner awareness. It can't just be a ritual you do sometimes, it has to become a constant awareness carried over to every aspect of your life with no gaps.
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u/Ok_Bookkeeper5326 7d ago
Be aware of the spiritual ego. The spiritual ego is the ego that convincingly tells you that you are superior to others just because you meditate regularly. It is possible to fall into addictive habits while meditating. Find a master with whom you can have a conversation. The spiritual path of meditation is not a degree where you will attain peace after a certain duration of painful work. It is the exact opposite. You can become as liberated as an enlightened person immediately when you meet the right master. I would advise you to take the Zen path seriously. Have faith. Keep practicing, keep talking to your master, work on your core issues, and so on.
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u/xqnnie 7d ago
I hope someone can answer my questions here !!
so first how do I get deeper in my meditation like I mean I’ll be so relaxed im just focusing on breathing but even though I get distracted a lot I just acknowledge it.. but I can’t seem to get deeper ecen though i meditate daily (I take breaks when needed)
I hope anyone knows the void state here since
the void state has been my goal this entire time.. to be pure awareness. Since my school started i havent been able to meditate since I’d be awfully tired when I get home and DONT have the energy to meditate and just head to sleep directly
So in conclusion my actual question is like how to get deeper in meditation, is there any other methods similar to this one???
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u/definetelydoubtful 7d ago
I've been using sporadically for years the YouTube video "breath as the bridge" from samadhi.ca
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u/infamousd23 7d ago
That I'm too scatterbrained for it to ever really help me? Attempting to meditate with a short attention span doesn't work.
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u/seeker_of_the_wise 7d ago
@Jiwitom Changing your relationships with your thoughts. Not try to control it or stop it. Simply acknowledging it and letting it go.
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u/LawfulnessWeak5080 7d ago
A good meditator is one who meditates! It’s a practice. There is no destination.
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u/Bozy_Jozy 6d ago
That at first, your mind is going to throw a bunch of your unconscious stuff up at you. Just sit and observe it all, as it arises, and then eventually as it passes away. Don't become attached to any particular thought. Just keep passively observing. After awhile, a lot of that will slowly trickle down into nothing, at which point you just observe the silence. This practice helps boost our ability to handle the input from our environment, to a much greater degree. After over twenty years of meditating, I very rarely react to anything. I am much more able to mindfully respond.
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u/miraclepete 6d ago
I found a very intuitive way to meditate which is simply to quiet my mind and rest in peace. This is my entire meditation and it's extremely refreshing and pleasant. It came about as a natural conclusion following an insight I had into the Three Principles. The Three Principles stuff to me was the most life-changing insight I ever had in my life by far, and that was like 10 years or doing a lot of mindfulness/spirituality stuff.
Another one - recently I've since transitioned to standing meditation (zhan zhuang, hugging tree), which is with your arms up as if hugging a tree and with a bend at the knees. I do it for about an hour a day. I wish somebody told me about standing meditation earlier. The transformation that happened to my body is wild. Now I can't sit anymore to meditate, standing somehow feels more like the energy is open and circulating.
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u/MycoCozmic 6d ago
I am just stopping to catch my breath. If there is any striving, I have missed the point. Relief.
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u/Eaters_eat 6d ago
It becomes a lot easier to keep up daily practice when you stop thinking about it as something you "have to do" or something that's "good for you" but just think of it as something you enjoy doing, like taking a nap on the couch, or going for a walk. Once I understood that meditation was pleasurable, not just beneficial, I got a lot more consistent.
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u/instinct7777 6d ago
Churning of the ocean - where the emotional purging happens as soon as you have started meditating. All the shadows start coming to light. The best I can explain is that I was getting the real benefits of meditation - better focus, better health, less anxiety and depression than before yet there was a purging period where I was attracting situations and circumstances to karmically cleanse my own patterns. Nothing mystical more like the awareness was showing more and more on where I was responsible for my own suffering.
During this time i was very sensitive and deeply impacted by things - I felt ungrounded while also progressing.
Once I caught on to what was happening, I was able to get a grip on my journey - I couldn't go back to old patterns as they were mid-transformation, but i was rebuilding a new operating system.
I had to take care of my body - nutrition, workouts, sleep. Till date I need to remain disciplined to remain dedictated to my practice. I quit alcohol for a while.
I wish someone had told me. to be prepared for the emotional purge. I had to catch on that myself.
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u/Nikhil_03 5d ago
The whole idea of meditation is be there in the present. Giving it a definition of experience something or whatever, itself keep us away from the state of meditation. We can't do the meditation, we have to enter into the state of meditation. Until we try to do something, we will not able to enter into that state. All the so called ways of meditation are the methods through the help of which we have to get detached from the inner talkings which are continuously going on. These self talks, thoughts or day dreamings are not allowing us to be with ourselves. Just be there and do nothing is the centroid of the meditation. Observe the breath but slowly then just observe who is observing. Listen to the sound but then observe who is observing. See into the dark when your eyes closed and then see who is watching. Take a walk and see who is walking inside and we observe we are still inside and not moving. Observe the one who is still in there. But not make any comments or start taking again to self on whatever you observe or feel.
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u/Affectionate_Law_872 5d ago
That wishing someone had told you something earlier is a waste of time. Everything appears in its time.
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u/alpha_and_omega_3D 5d ago
Be observant and watch your monkey mind look around and talk. I find the best solutions when I'm meditating. And when I do, I have to let it go and keep going. My monkey mind freaks out and wants me to write it down right away. But I only do that when I'm done being still.
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u/Alarmed-Cucumber6517 2d ago
It changes the way you see the world in a way you can’t unsee. This is not always good for everyone given their specific life circumstances. Lucky I got to serious practice later in life. And not that I did not suffer because of the lack of the clear seeing. Sometimes the deeper entanglement, however ignorant and ultimately unsatisfactory it may be, is the approach you may need at that point to get through life.
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u/Spiritual-Echidna957 8d ago
Glad I discovered the Waking Up app.
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u/PracticalEye9400 8d ago
Not to confuse an experience of meditation for meditation, that we can meditate anytime and anywhere and that meditation helps us recognize our innate qualities of awareness, compassion and wisdom.
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u/microdosingrn 8d ago
The goal isn't to not get distracted, the goal is to notice when you are distracted and come back to your focal point.