Have you ever practiced sitting meditation? If so, did it make you question how we perceive things?

[Buddha Dharma]

Whenever one practices sitting meditation as Buddhists define the practice- this means to simply sit and let your thoughts go as it were. This includes letting thoughts arise and fall without trying to dictate.

You might notice if you practice like this that our mind images start to seem like generated pictures. Like if you hit erasers together and the chalk dust flies. This is what mind images and memories seem like the longer you sit. Like something arising from seemingly nowhere to play before your mind's eye.

Like your entire consciousness as you've ever known it could come entirely unraveled like a ball of string. It might also seem like your thoughts lose their usual narrative and just mingle together randomly. Like events in your memory follow no clear line anymore as pictures just appear and vanish.

Do any of you know what I mean? Have you experienced this yourself? I would guess that many of my fellow Dharmists have anyway.

Does this make you rethink our consciousness at all, and how we perceive the world? Rather we really perceive things accurately at all?

 

[RoaringSilence]

Whenever one practices sitting meditation as Buddhists define the practice- this means to simply sit and let your thoughts go as it were. This includes letting thoughts arise and fall without trying to dictate.

You might notice if you practice like this that our mind images start to seem like generated pictures. Like if you hit erasers together and the chalk dust flies. This is what mind images and memories seem like the longer you sit. Like something arising from seemingly nowhere to play before your mind's eye.

Like your entire consciousness as you've ever known it could come entirely unraveled like a ball of string. It might also seem like your thoughts lose their usual narrative and just mingle together randomly. Like events in your memory follow no clear line anymore as pictures just appear and vanish.

Do any of you know what I mean? Have you experienced this yourself? I would guess that many of my fellow Dharmists have anyway.

Does this make you rethink our consciousness at all, and how we perceive the world? Rather we really perceive things accurately at all?

Before you start , set one rule , that no matter what pops up in the mind is an automated program which will function around what it knows so whatever you are thinking is unimportant and irrelevant , when you observe this happening , identify yourself as the observer , the moment you realize that you are the observer touch your thumbs to your fingers making a circle . the more you stay in that state the more adept your association with the thumb and fingers will be established. with more practice , there will come a time when u simply touch your thumb to the finger and ur instantly in that observer state. then you climb to Observing the observer , and link it with a different finger, and so on.

it doesn't matter what the quality of thoughts that pop up... it is completely irrelevant coz any quality of thoughts that are flowing are following an automated process ..so it doesn't matter if you have a higher intellect vs another.. its all useless and circumstantial. the only constant here is the silent observer , and beyond .

 

[Srivijaya]

Does this make you rethink our consciousness at all, and how we perceive the world? Rather we really perceive things accurately at all?

Yes. Our perception seems to be an ordered assemblage of otherwise random impressions. The act of drawing them together creates 'self' at the same time. If this process doesn't summon and order them, they are virtually incomprehensible - a jumble of data occupying no defined time or space and belonging to no one.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Whenever one practices sitting meditation as Buddhists define the practice- this means to simply sit and let your thoughts go as it were. This includes letting thoughts arise and fall without trying to dictate.

You might notice if you practice like this that our mind images start to seem like generated pictures. Like if you hit erasers together and the chalk dust flies. This is what mind images and memories seem like the longer you sit. Like something arising from seemingly nowhere to play before your mind's eye.

Like your entire consciousness as you've ever known it could come entirely unraveled like a ball of string. It might also seem like your thoughts lose their usual narrative and just mingle together randomly. Like events in your memory follow no clear line anymore as pictures just appear and vanish.

Do any of you know what I mean? Have you experienced this yourself? I would guess that many of my fellow Dharmists have anyway.

Does this make you rethink our consciousness at all, and how we perceive the world? Rather we really perceive things accurately at all?

It's preferable not to have all that clutter sticking around.

Hitting erasers together. *Grin*

I like that. Buddha made of chalk dust.

 

[PureX]

I prefer to lay on my back, on a hard surface, as opposed to sitting. I like to feel the Earth pulling and holding my body to it, as I breathe the sweet air that surrounds it in and out of my lungs, and feel my blood flushing the oxygen through my body. And to revel in the inexplicable joy of being alive.

 

[shunyadragon]

I practiced Zazen for years in my studies of Aikido, Iado, Kendo. I have always questioned how I perceive things. In one form or another I ahve practiced meditation a number of different ways. My goal of meditation is simply passive emptying and quietness. My preference is walking meditation, and Zen Garden meditation.

 

[wandering peacefully]

It seems when one meditates often enough it becomes easier to see when our minds start creating stories and it is easy to stop the stories and go back to focusing on the present moment. So in that sense it does seem our consciousness is made more aware by meditating. Humans are programed to follow stories made up in our minds which affect our perspective and attitudes. Meditation allows us to realize that and have more control over our consciousness instead of the other way around. I have found anyway. I used to meditate formally sitting but now I am able to do just about anything while meditating. Walking, working, kayaking, driving, etc. It certainly makes for a peaceful and fulfilling existence.

 

[sayak83]

Whenever one practices sitting meditation as Buddhists define the practice- this means to simply sit and let your thoughts go as it were. This includes letting thoughts arise and fall without trying to dictate.

You might notice if you practice like this that our mind images start to seem like generated pictures. Like if you hit erasers together and the chalk dust flies. This is what mind images and memories seem like the longer you sit. Like something arising from seemingly nowhere to play before your mind's eye.

Like your entire consciousness as you've ever known it could come entirely unraveled like a ball of string. It might also seem like your thoughts lose their usual narrative and just mingle together randomly. Like events in your memory follow no clear line anymore as pictures just appear and vanish.

Do any of you know what I mean? Have you experienced this yourself? I would guess that many of my fellow Dharmists have anyway.

Does this make you rethink our consciousness at all, and how we perceive the world? Rather we really perceive things accurately at all?

Are you talking about meditating while based on the in breath and the out-breath? In those meditation, I am aware of the breath and then aware of the body and its surrounding. Then, the texture of darkness in my eyelids becomes an object of awareness. My mind does not (or no longer, maybe) generate pictures spontaneously unless I wish to doze off.

 

[robocop (actually)]

Whenever one practices sitting meditation as Buddhists define the practice- this means to simply sit and let your thoughts go as it were. This includes letting thoughts arise and fall without trying to dictate.

You might notice if you practice like this that our mind images start to seem like generated pictures. Like if you hit erasers together and the chalk dust flies. This is what mind images and memories seem like the longer you sit. Like something arising from seemingly nowhere to play before your mind's eye.

Like your entire consciousness as you've ever known it could come entirely unraveled like a ball of string. It might also seem like your thoughts lose their usual narrative and just mingle together randomly. Like events in your memory follow no clear line anymore as pictures just appear and vanish.

Do any of you know what I mean? Have you experienced this yourself? I would guess that many of my fellow Dharmists have anyway.

Does this make you rethink our consciousness at all, and how we perceive the world? Rather we really perceive things accurately at all?

When I meditate I inevitably realize something I didn't realize before, and when I let go of something and think differerently while not meditating I get shivers across my body sometimes as if I were peeing.

 

[Buddha Dharma]

Are you talking about meditating while based on the in breath and the out-breath? In those meditation, I am aware of the breath and then aware of the body and its surrounding. Then, the texture of darkness in my eyelids becomes an object of awareness. My mind does not (or no longer, maybe) generate pictures spontaneously unless I wish to doze off.

Yes, you are right. That happens too. It depends on how long you sit I think.

 

[Buddha Dharma]

When I meditate I inevitably realize something I didn't realize before, and when I let go of something and think differerently while not meditating I get shivers across my body sometimes as if I were peeing.

The Buddha would say that any reactions like shivering or mental trembling in meditation is because we don't always reign in the mind. The mind isn't necessarily used to being reigned in, which meditation does do.