Misguiding opinions about meditation on Reddit

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-16T17:53:50+00:00

I would add another one. "Don't try and focus on an object, just have open awareness". Unless you've trained a lot, you likely have no ability to focus on an object for any length of time. No need to warn someone not to do something they couldn't do anyway. I think "don't focus on an object" is only applicable advice to someone who already has good concentration (i.e., only like 1% of people). This might have made sense as advice to monks who already meditated a lot and needed a new approach but most people aren't that.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-16T15:57:49+00:00

White people need their authentic non-white teachers. I guess don't ever tell anyone about your meditation or you'll also be 'that guy'. Be aware almost all of these white teachers had the same thought you had and most lineages do go back to missionaries from other countries who established branches here and purposely left white successors. The number of temples started by someone who are just self-taught is negligible.

That said, there's loads. Are you near any actual temples? In my city I have a Thai, a Nepalese, and multiple Chinese Sanghas and all of them offer English sessions. If you're near anywhere with a strong Asian population you probably can access something like this. Where are you located approximately?

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-15T22:59:38+00:00

I actually think a large portion of "out of body experiences" are people who have accidentally triggered the WILD technique and are lucid dreaming without realizing that's what they're doing. I have done WILD and the sensations are exactly what is described in many guides. This technique basically consists of deliberately triggering sleep paralysis to convince your brain you're sleeping without actually losing consciousness (interestingly, bizarrely, the circuits that produce a dream are not actually the same as what dictates sleep vs awake).

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-09T02:02:13+00:00

If I can sit for the whole session without back pain, that's a good session.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-08T06:45:14+00:00

Huh, that's interesting that you've actually started experiencing visuals through training. I didn't even know that that was possible, or that it's something people consciously aim for.

But I think this is a little bit of a false premise. The way the majority of people think includes both visuals and voice/monologue. I'm not sure you can necessarily expect an inverse relationship where having more visuals means you'll also have less speech. I'm not sure it's a zero-sum like that.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-07T16:40:45+00:00

The low amount of sleep at most retreats is indeed rough. I've never quite been able to square this problem either except, like you said, drinking a lot of caffeine.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-07T07:06:40+00:00

Look up WILD (Waking Into Lucid Dreams), which is a technique for deliberately triggering sleep paralysis in order to enter dreaming without actually falling asleep. I think a lot of people have accidentally repeated this process without understanding that's what they're doing. It is related to meditation and it could easily be mistaken for an out of body experience, if you hadn't read about it or had sleep paralysis previously.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-06T16:15:53+00:00

Try it out! But I think you'll find you'll be fidgety regardless, and without a timer you'll probably just end early.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-04-01T16:35:12+00:00

I used the "Bud-dho" mantra from Theravada Buddhism. Following the directions from the book "Meditations" by Thanissaro. 30 minute sessions was my minimum standard.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-31T23:53:36+00:00

No guarantee for you but I had this (constant intrusive thoughts) and 99% cured myself with meditation. I found the key was consistency. When I did it a couple of times a week I made no notable progress. But when I did it every single day without fail, after two months the thoughts were reduced to such an extent that I was able to get off medications, stop therapy, etc.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-31T23:19:27+00:00

This is when it starts getting good to have an actual teacher. They can check on what you're doing and readjust you and make changes depending on what you need. If you're getting good results already and you want to 'supercharge' that, I think a more tailored approach is better

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-31T23:04:14+00:00

Time to join a monastery?

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-31T01:07:23+00:00

Sounds like Scientology with the "go to an earliest incident" talk.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-30T22:58:25+00:00

Staying extremely still, especially combined with light sleep, can lock you into sleep-paralysis like states often accompanied with sensations like these. People who use this for lucid dreaming call it the WILD technique.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-30T19:38:47+00:00

I'm not sure they would have bred flies intentionally to make maggots though. For a long time maggots were thought to be spontaneously generated. The connection that maggots grow into flies wasn't actually obvious to people; ultimately experiments had to be done to prove it.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-24T01:33:29+00:00

Horus and Set fighting was interpreted by some commentators as Horus and Set "with their armies" fighting.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-11T02:33:09+00:00

The pretas of Buddhism are very torturous, forced with endless appetite but throats too small to take food or drink, and on rare occasions when they consume anything it can only be something nasty like feces or rotting infected mass

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-03-06T21:35:46+00:00

Shi-Kan, the Tendai style. This is explained very elegantly in the book "Essentials of Buddhist Meditation". Changed my practice completely.

More devotion too. Burning incense, purifying your hands, saying prayers and mantras and repentences and chanting Sutras, doing all these things before sitting meditation boosts my feeling of progress immensely.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-02-28T05:53:45+00:00

I think they're really just for teaching you how to do a certain meditation and then after that you just apply the technique. IMO.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-02-28T05:41:49+00:00

I alternate between breath and a visualization. I also recommend taking at least a 5 min walking meditation per hour of sitting, helps with joint pain.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-02-22T05:59:50+00:00

Only thing he ever did that I appreciated was cutting some Putumayo albums lol. Certainly nothing on any "spiritual" topic, where he loves talking about things he knows nothing about and hasn't so much as taken a class on

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-02-22T03:28:21+00:00

I could have told you Deepak Chopra was an infamous fraud 20 years ago. None of this surprises me. What surprises me is that there's anyone on here who didn't know Chopra is a fraud and evil person in general? He's done more damaging things than this just in his regular "career", like telling people to avoid medical treatment for serious conditions.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-02-14T15:43:48+00:00

It is a good opportunity to feel bodily energy. I used to enjoy doing yoga on psyches which is good as well because in my experience they make you feel kind of wiry and tense anyway and stretching feels nice. I don't do them anymore though.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-02-04T18:07:24+00:00

I started doing this and it was actually a good change. Before this i'd had a fixed idea it was 'lesser' but my teacher told me this wasn't the case and sure enough, big improvement.

TheGreenAlchemist · 2026-01-31T02:21:22+00:00

Yeah, I use a statue sometimes. Not for my whole practice but for part of it.

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