Objectless used to be one of my main forms of meditation. Zazen Buddhist meditation was my first step outside of Christianity and into a better fit religion.
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What exactly is meditation?
- Thread starter Eddi
- Start date
Objectless used to be one of my main forms of meditation. Zazen Buddhist meditation was my first step outside of Christianity and into a better fit religion.
I meditate but have never had the benefit of proper instruction. I train and helped train many interested in physical strength for more than fifty years. So many do not succeed in forming the training 'habit' because they think strength training is simply physical exertion. You have to understand that first, you must develop the 'habit' of training. You can do that by practicing a one-minute hand, arm or leg movement everyday. Once you have formed habit, then it is easy to succeed in maintaining whatever training schedule is appropriate for your strength goals. Why wouldn't you start meditating in short intervals?...Personally, I set no time limit. I am a wild and crazy guy.
Secret Chief
Degrow!
No reason at all, it's a good idea. I don't do set times.
What's "proper instruction?"
For many beginners, including myself, a short interval takes one no deeper than the basic practices that bring one to a meditative state. If I spend five minutes focusing on breathing, I've done nothing more than spend five minutes focusing on breath.
One may be more relaxed, but one hasn't meditated.
What I'm accepting as being meditation apparently is simply relaxation if there are deeper states of mind to be experienced.
I suggest your post might be if not proper instruction, very informative.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
I have some experience but no authority. I am expressing my views.
No thought certainly is pleasurable, but when one meditates one should not be seeking pleasure.
I have read that sages deprecate it.
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That's a shame.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Why? Would you think that day-dreaming about one's sex life is meditation? I agree that one could be totally focused on that.
You expressed them as definitive fact.
How did we get from "no thought" to "pleasure" to "day-dreaming about one's sex life"?
How does one experience pleasure in the absence of thought...in complete stillness of mind?
The formless jhana of neither perception nor non-perception is one example.
Wouldn't this state be better described as "equanimity" rather than "pleasure", especially as @Aupmanyav is using the term?
Isn't "pleasure" a vritti?
I'm referring to the third rupa jhana cycle of this specific formless jhana that grabs your attention. Equanimity refers to the fourth rupa jhana cycle when the knowledge is fully integrated into your conscious mind.
I'm not familiar with that term. After a quick google, I might venture that the rupa jhanas might be considered a vritti in that the psyche is being changed, and disturbance accompanies change. I think it is rather interesting that I used a spiral whirpool symbol to represent the rupa jhana cycle in the article I wrote about the jhanas, and vritti means whirlpool.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
That would be indicative of attachment.
aka "a bliss junkie"
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Nothing wrong with bliss unless one hangs on to it as if life depends on it for all its worth, one would never let go of it.
If only that monkey let's go of its grip ......
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Ww2
But when pleasures pass , as it will , clinging on to it creates more suffering and anguish as it does when one let's go and continues the course and allows it to pass as well with the experience of suffering itself, which in turn passes as well.
It's the ability to pass all realms is where suffering ends for a person or if not , at least things becomes a bit easier in life.
Oh definitely. Me as well.
But when pleasures pass , as it will , clinging on to it creates more suffering and anguish as it does when one let's go and continues the course and allows it to pass as well with the experience of suffering itself, which in turn passes as well.
It's the ability to pass all realms is where suffering ends for a person or if not , at least things becomes a bit easier in life.
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Samata, Samatva, equanimity, no pleasure, no sorrow.
That is my problem with Sankara's 'Chidananda rupah'.
"yam hi na vyathayanti ete, puruṣam, puruṣarṣabha;
sama-duḥkha-sukham dhīram, sa amṛtatvāya kalpate." BG 2.15
The person who is not disturbed here, O Best of Men; and is steady in happiness and sorrow, he is considered eligible for immortality.
I'm unclear by your post on what specifically you find problematic. Can you please expand on this?
I've never had any instruction in meditation, and don't really think of myself meditating... But when i take a walk by the river or in the forest it calmes my mind... Is this meditation? I don't know.
There are a couple of tranquil places along my walking paths where i often sit and listen to the water or leaves, or animals. This allows my mind to relax even more. Again, meditation? I don't know.
What i do know is it is an enjoyable part of my life.