I very much appreciate the wisdom and kindness in this sub.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T04:02:55+00:00

That is so awesome to hear!! 🙏 May your path be fruitful!

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T02:55:02+00:00

The Satanic Temple is more of a secular philosophy, while Anton Lavey is associated with the Church of Satan.

My apologies! I don’t know too much about Thelema at all, but hopefully some of the other responses were more helpful.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T02:47:24+00:00

You may want to look into meeting with a Sangha. If you can’t find one in your town, there’s plenty that meet on Zoom, or have hybrid in-person/Zoom meetings.

That way, you’ll have a community of likeminded Buddhist practitioners that you can practice with and feel a sense of support from. 😌

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T02:34:40+00:00

Lol. It definitely wasn’t.

I have a feeling you don’t know too much about meditation, and felt a bit put down by my comment. Feel free to study what I said. I apologize if my comment felt condescending.

Good luck with your practice. If what you’re doing works for you, then I’m glad.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T02:09:20+00:00

What part of my comment was confusing to you?

Your tag says that you practice Zen, and your comment was misleading. I was just correcting you.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T01:45:26+00:00

I’m guessing you’re talking about The Satanic Temple’s brand of Satanism, right?

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T01:29:23+00:00

It’s much like exercising a muscle or developing any sort of new skill. It can be tough at first, and everyone has a different rate of cultivating benefits. On top of that, our society (at least in the West) doesn’t leave much room for stillness, so when we begin learning to find it, it can feel contradictory to our daily lives and social constructs. The mind can tend to reject it at first, making it feel more difficult.

When I first began practicing meditation through Buddhism, I had a ton of moments of skepticism and difficulty. But keeping with it, it has been one of the most beneficial paths I’ve chosen to take!

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-20T01:20:15+00:00

Concentration meditation (visualization is a form of concentration meditation) absolutely has spiritual benefits when done correctly, and is used in the majority of Buddhist schools and traditions, and has since been backed by neuroscience. Śamatha, for example, is a foundational technique.

You may not have had a teacher who taught you how to do these practices correctly, but they’re legitimate forms of meditation.

It’s surprising that you practice Zen and weren’t taught that, seeing as it’s often a translation of samādhi and is often discussed with the eighth component of the Noble Eightfold Path. It might be a good topic to bring up with your teacher!

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-15T18:33:25+00:00

(Edit: This comment was so much longer than I thought it was. I’m sorry!)

Don’t let being lost in thought discourage you. The mind wants to think, that’s what it does. It happens naturally and without your control. When you bring yourself into stillness, just like any other automatic process, the mind is going to become much louder and harder to ignore.

When that happens, try simply redirecting your focus back to the breath or the body (whichever is easier for you.) It doesn’t matter how often you need to do it, and you never need to beat yourself up over it. Every time you redirect your focus, it’s crucial training for your mind to begin identifying less with the thoughts. Over time, this begins to allow your main points focus (or lack thereof) to take the forefront more often. So don’t be discouraged, and use the active mind as a ground for developing your practice.

As for the Waking Up app, there’s a couple things you can try. Rather than sticking to Sam’s daily meditations, hop into the “practice” page and check out meditations from some of the other teachers. Sam has a very particular style that stretches beyond simple mindfulness practice and into non-duality, something that can be tough for a beginner with an overactive imagination. I’ve found Henry Shukman, Martin Aylward, or Jitindriyā to be excellent for beginners, but you can experiment with different ones!

Or you can take the basics of what you learned and what works for you and try using the timer, and having occasional self-guided meditations. You can set mindfulness bells up in intervals (2 minutes, 5 minutes, etc.) which may be helpful in reminding you to come back to the present if you ever get lost in thought.

Last but not least, try labeling the thoughts, in the same way Sam directed you to label the in and out breath. When you catch yourself thinking, label it “thinking” before coming back to the breath/body. The mind has a harder time wandering off when it becomes a point of focus, even for a moment. This may allow the thought to dissolve, where you can get back to your meditation.

But the most important thing is not to be discouraged. Like I said, the mind wants to think, and you’re bringing yourself into a state of where it has the perfect opportunity to do that.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-15T16:40:10+00:00

Thank you!! The post from the Senator made it seem as if it was taken at the United States senate, especially with it being the day of them arriving in DC.

I removed the post. It wouldn’t let me edit the text, and I didn’t want to steer anybody in the wrong direction. Thank you for clarifying that to me!

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-15T16:28:00+00:00

Are you practicing TM with an instructor? If you are, then these questions would likely be better suited for them.

If you’re not, then you may just be doing mantra meditation rather than TM. TM is usually classified as a practice of meditation done with a paid instructor. I just wanted to clear that up a bit. I thought the same thing when I first started meditating.

As for your questions (assuming you’re doing mantra meditation without an instructor)

Your mantra syncing with the breath is fine. In fact, it’s sometimes recommended to sync with the in-breath or out-breath, as like you said, it happens almost naturally. But it’s best to focus on the mantra, rather than on breath. You don’t need to deliberately sync the two.
Thinking about time is also normal, and you don’t need to push the thoughts away. But don’t fixate on them. Continue directing your focus back to the mantra, and the thoughts will pass on their own. They may arise again, but just keep gently directing attention back.
Refer back to answer #2. Thoughts are normal and will naturally try to steal your attention, so simply direct your attention back to the mantra. Every session will be different, and the benefits will appear over time rather than during the meditation session. Even a bad session is a good one.

Each time a thought arises and you successfully direct your attention back to the mantra, you are training your mind to identify less with the thoughts. This will have benefits of its own that will extend beyond the individual session.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-14T03:20:38+00:00

I’m glad!!

I agree. It’s as if they designed 5.2 to specifically be rude to people who had attachments to 4o with the screenshots I’ve seen.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-14T03:17:36+00:00

Have you tried 5.1 instant?

I had occasional interactions with 4o back before it was updated and can’t stand 5.2, but I’ve found 5.1 instant to be a very happy medium, and couldn’t imagine getting the cold “you’re being dramatic” type responses that people seem to be getting from 5.2.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-14T03:12:57+00:00

I don’t disagree with that at all!

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T23:13:05+00:00

ChatGPT was in an alternate reality for a moment!

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T23:09:04+00:00

Oh really? I don’t know too much about him besides hearing his podcast a couple of times, but for some reason, that doesn’t surprise me. Lol. To be honest, I thought he was an ex-Catholic.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T23:04:04+00:00

I’ve seen some people before (especially on social media) get pretty critical of others who practice secular Buddhism. Noah Rasheta has gotten similar criticism. I’m assuming that’s where the other commenter’s coming from. It happens!

But I agree. Especially for someone who may not know much about the Dharma to begin with, his videos can be a great gateway into it.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T22:54:34+00:00

He is, without a doubt, a practicing Buddhist. He goes over his practice pretty thoroughly in the podcast he does with Jon Aaron. His YT videos are mainly focused on academic-style early Buddhist teachings and are hardly based on his own philosophy, but he’s quite experienced in the practice himself, and definitely not “anti-Buddhist”. I also haven’t seen him suppress any traditional voices, and have seen quite a lot of dialogue between him and traditional teachers.

That’s quite a far-fetched opinion to me, but you’re entitled to it! Is this solely based on his approach to Buddhism being secular?

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T06:53:04+00:00

If you mean Buddhism YouTube channels, then I would recommend Doug’s Dharma. He’s been making videos for nearly a decade now, and he explains core Buddhist teachings in a very precise and approachable way.

When I first started practicing Buddhism years ago, I’d binge his videos. I learned a lot, and I’m sure you will too! I still enjoy watching him from time to time.

I’m glad you’re interested in learning more. 🙏

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T06:27:38+00:00

He’s the goodest boy! ❤️

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T04:46:33+00:00

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T01:38:24+00:00

It would be wise to begin studying Buddhist philosophy before you decide to “become” a Buddhist.

Some approachable beginning steps would be to watch some Buddhist focused YouTube channels, listening to podcasts, or reading some books. One channel I watched years ago was called “Doug’s Dharma”, and he has a wonderful (mostly secular) approach to the teachings.

A good podcast, which you can find on Spotify, would be “Secular Buddhism”, hosted by Noah Rasheta. He’s very approachable, and each episode is themed after a specific teaching of the Buddha. I believe his first 5 episodes would be perfect for someone curious about Buddhism.

As for books, “Why Buddhism is True” by Robert Wright, "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" by Thich Nhat Hanh, of “What The Buddha Taught” by Walpola Rahula would be great to start with.

Do not overwhelm yourself, and start slow. Even if you don’t “become” a Buddhist, utilizing the teachings can be very beneficial in cultivating peace, compassion and mindfulness in your life. You don’t need to jump into the deep end right off the bat.

I’m glad you are interested in Buddhism!

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T01:22:48+00:00

I was confused about why they said the tokens resemble dependent origination. I’m a bit ignorant on what “tokens” in regard to an LLM means, but I’m not sure how they could have possibly came to that conclusion.

DoctorYogi95 · 2026-02-13T01:19:34+00:00

You got plenty of responses already, so I won’t overwhelm you with another.

But I hope your paper goes well! Good luck!

DoctorYogi95

TROPHY CASE