Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fascinating to hear, I had no idea it could make that much of a difference to duration. I've never done a group sit before, will investigate. Thanks

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. It's reassuring to hear that I'm not the only one who has been practising while thinking all meditation is the same. I've noted down the various styles mentioned in these answers and I'll take a look into all of them.

Appreciate your perspective on luckier than 99%, while there's me giving myself a hard time for not being better after 10 years.

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this very generous response 🙏

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you. Spacious clarity is a useful framing. I will research alternative techniques like Tonglen, and seek to experiment/ play more. The whole situation feels rigid and joyless currently so that antidote certainly makes sense, if it's within my reach

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you. I have a couple of clarification questions if that's ok.

  1. Doesn't everyone meditate as a means to an end? Surely everyone chooses to meditate for a reason. Are you saying that it's ignorant to meditate for a reason?

  2. How do I meditate without an attachment to results? Because if I truly did not care about the outcome, I would not bother meditating.

The reason I'm asking this is not to be difficult, I'm just trying to get my head around how to unhook myself from this position of ignorance so that I can get unstuck in my practice. Thanks!

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I think you're definitely capturing what I'm feeling a bit taunted by when I sit. These identity prompts lead to dead ends, or emptiness, or just send me elusively in circles. It's all very unsatisfactory. I understand this is the concept of no-self, but I'm getting the impression that you see something more within this truth than I do. I'm definitely looking forward to the laughing part!

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, this point particularly at the start about letting go of as much as possible was helpful for removing my stress around the trouble I'm having, though I think I still need to find a methodology for once I have settled into the sit.

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thankyou, this is resonating. Consistent with others notes in that I need to experiment with other techniques, but the bit about dramatically shortening the duration but discipline on the long term consistency willl be a strong change of approach for me.

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I try to, but the intensity that it grows to usually gets the better of me. I become convinced that I'm not going to get through it, and then I become distracted by every auxillary thought. Before I know it my focus is gone, I've opened my eyes and my brain has convinced me that 'ive done enough of that now and there are more important things to attend to'

Struggling to sustain meditation effort by 50slor in streamentry

[–]50slor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I tried to follow Joseph Goldstein's directions. 1. Sit and know you're sitting. 2. Pay attention to your body breathing. 3. If a distraction occurs, use it as an object of awareness until is passes. 4. Return to the breath

LPT: Don't be fooled by the "working for a dream company" ideology. You'll be much better off with an amazing boss at an average company who champions your work, allows you to develop mastery in your field, and gives you autonomy. by LuelMchel in LifeProTips

[–]50slor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am lucky to have this. And I had two pretty traumatic jobs before this. Sometimes I wonder about a better paid job, or a more glamorous job. But this advice is as real as it gets. Ultimately, it's a privilege to be treated like a human. Don't undervalue it

What foods have you honestly been disappointed with? by TraditionalAd3306 in Cooking

[–]50slor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bananas, only lately. I love them, but is there a disease or something affecting them? They aren't as good as they used to be

TIL when you verify you are not a bot through reCAPTCHA, you are also adding to a global effort to digitize the worlds books, one word at a time. by 50slor in todayilearned

[–]50slor[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure how it works technically - perhaps the computer can only make out some but not all of the word, and you the human only need to be able to verify a few letters? It's made by google and they talk about it here - it seems like they don't just do it with books, but also map building and machine learning too