The meditation thread

SlinkyMike

Active Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2021
Messages
122
Let's discuss mindfullness and other types of meditation here. You are welcome to ask advice, post articles pertaining to the practice or simply state that you are present in this moment. :)
 

Jings

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2020
Messages
6,092
Location
Gauteng
I'd say I am. But I suspect that is not what it means.
Have you ever had a conversation where you nod your head but actually have no idea what that person said because your mind is on other thoughts? That is not being present in the moment.
 

Düber

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2020
Messages
1,533
Have you ever had a conversation where you nod your head but actually have no idea what that person said because your mind is on other thoughts? That is not being present in the moment.
Does driving whilst thinking about something else fit here?
I have had some times where I have done over a 100km's and not a single clue as to how I drove or anything that happened along the way.
 

Jings

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2020
Messages
6,092
Location
Gauteng
Does driving whilst thinking about something else fit here?
I have had some times where I have done over a 100km's and not a single clue as to how I drove or anything that happened along the way.
Yes, driving whilst thinking of something else also qualifies as not being in the moment.
 

satanboy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2020
Messages
20,342
Location
Batcave
I don't agree. The OP said, "...you are present in THIS moment."

This one.....and this one....etc....

Nobody can say yes to that.
 

Tribs

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2020
Messages
8,957
Location
Centurion
I had a huge problem with not being present in the moment. Basically, it means your attention isn't fully on what you are doing and you ignore things you are not too comfortable with. A simple example: absentmindedly stroking your cat while watching a YouTube video. You are distracted. You are not giving the cat your attention. If you were to look at the cat, see how it is reacting to your touch and adjust where you are stroking it and how you are stroking, you would do a better job from the cat's perspective. You would also benefit from seeing the enjoyment the cat gets and possibly enjoy it more yourself.

Or like eating food. When you hurridly eat a meal so that you can get onto the next thing on your list - or eat while doing something else - you barely taste and feel the food. You don't experience it. But if you sit down in a quiet place, look at your food and take it slowly. You get to notice all the tastes and textures. Your brain and body become aware that you are eating. It now becomes about the experience rather than just shovelling it into your mouth, chewing and swallowing.

Most of us go through life like that. Being in the moment is to try and make you aware of what you are doing, what is going on around you and how you can improve your experiences. It makes dealing with issues and problems so much easier - rather than just ignoring them and hoping they will sort themselves out or go away. You get to the end of the day and feel that you have spent quality time with those you love or enjoy spending time with.
 

Tribs

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2020
Messages
8,957
Location
Centurion
Yes, driving whilst thinking of something else also qualifies as not being in the moment.
Yes and no. Driving is one of the things we can do with our unconscious brain. We learnt to drive by practising. We know by the sound of the engine when to change gears. We know that if we want to turn, we need to move our hand and push the indicator in the direction we want to go. Much like writing, walking, unlocking doors etc. You don't need to think about which way to hold the keys in order for it to go into the lock. You don't need to think which way to turn it - you just turn it. You have done it so many times that it is natural.

So, while your unconscious brain is busy with these tasks, your conscious brain and think about your day, try and sort out problems etc. So why I say you are not present in the moment is because you are not looking at the scenery - you have seen it hundreds of times before. You don't think about how it feels to be sitting in your car seat and feeling the steering wheel in your hands. But if you were to get into a sports car for the first time, you would be in the moment. You would feel the differences compared to your usual car. The difference in height changes your visual perspective, making it new. The sound of the engine is different. Until you adjusted to all these "new" experiences, you would not be on automatic.
 

Jings

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2020
Messages
6,092
Location
Gauteng
Yes and no. Driving is one of the things we can do with our unconscious brain. We learnt to drive by practising. We know by the sound of the engine when to change gears. We know that if we want to turn, we need to move our hand and push the indicator in the direction we want to go. Much like writing, walking, unlocking doors etc. You don't need to think about which way to hold the keys in order for it to go into the lock. You don't need to think which way to turn it - you just turn it. You have done it so many times that it is natural.

So, while your unconscious brain is busy with these tasks, your conscious brain and think about your day, try and sort out problems etc. So why I say you are not present in the moment is because you are not looking at the scenery - you have seen it hundreds of times before. You don't think about how it feels to be sitting in your car seat and feeling the steering wheel in your hands. But if you were to get into a sports car for the first time, you would be in the moment. You would feel the differences compared to your usual car. The difference in height changes your visual perspective, making it new. The sound of the engine is different. Until you adjusted to all these "new" experiences, you would not be on automatic.

Maybe that's why meditation is not easy. The mind tends to wonder a lot.
 

SlinkyMike

Active Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2021
Messages
122
What does this mean?
Such a great question. @Tribs does a great job below. I'll try to expand on it.
I had a huge problem with not being present in the moment. Basically, it means your attention isn't fully on what you are doing and you ignore things you are not too comfortable with. A simple example: absentmindedly stroking your cat while watching a YouTube video. You are distracted. You are not giving the cat your attention. If you were to look at the cat, see how it is reacting to your touch and adjust where you are stroking it and how you are stroking, you would do a better job from the cat's perspective. You would also benefit from seeing the enjoyment the cat gets and possibly enjoy it more yourself.

Or like eating food. When you hurridly eat a meal so that you can get onto the next thing on your list - or eat while doing something else - you barely taste and feel the food. You don't experience it. But if you sit down in a quiet place, look at your food and take it slowly. You get to notice all the tastes and textures. Your brain and body become aware that you are eating. It now becomes about the experience rather than just shovelling it into your mouth, chewing and swallowing.

Most of us go through life like that. Being in the moment is to try and make you aware of what you are doing, what is going on around you and how you can improve your experiences. It makes dealing with issues and problems so much easier - rather than just ignoring them and hoping they will sort themselves out or go away. You get to the end of the day and feel that you have spent quality time with those you love or enjoy spending time with.
This is a great take.

I like that you have this kind of first person view here and I think that is helpful for people to see that as they try to understand what this is about and why they might want to try it.

I'm going to try and put forth a more objective and pragmatic view allied to what you have posted above because I often speak to people who ask "how?" as well as "why?".

A lot of the practice of meditation converges on the idea that consciousness is not just a kind of call and response to stimuli. Sure, we have artifacts that emerge in consciousness as result of stimuli but that doesn't answer the question:

tumblr_msnwmstfsM1rsyukao1_1280.jpg


Because yes, we do have artifacts that arise in consciousness seemingly at random, regardless of stimuli. In fact: as you mine deeper, it can almost start to seem that that is what consciousness is, just this endless rise and fall of thoughts, just... kind of... appearing.

That is something that I personally find quite maddening but what is worse is that it is possible to become quite hopelessly engaged in these thoughts, to become distracted by them and to become that way so frequently that a large part of ones waking life can be spent in that state of distraction. Only ever somewhat engaged, never fully able to grasp a the big picture and so frequently impacted by that that it spills into feelings of anxiety and in the worst cases existential dread.

Being present in the moment, by contrast, means to be un-distracted by any artifacts that might arise in consciousness. Without investment in the passing thoughts, you are here, now.

A good analogy that I have seen elsewhere is to imagine gazing at a highway from a small distance, you see the vehicles, cars, trucks, motorcycles. You see them all coming into view and then passing but you perceive only of a busy highway and not each individual thought vehicle. You allow the traffic to pass without having to act or react in any way on or to each passing vehicle.

During practice you might use various devices to allow for your attention to broaden in this way.

Some practitioners might begin by rubbing their fingers together, just touching enough to create a sensation. Try it now: close your eyes rub your thumb and index fingers together lightly in a circular motion and try to find the ridges of your fingerprint. As you do this think of nothing else, just try to sense the ridges. Notice how they come and go, and how this begins to define a pattern. Notice how thoughts try to intrude into the detection of the ridges and how those, too, come and go. Next, slowly release your investment in the ridges of your fingerprint, just allow that sensation to naturally fade. Same way it arose. Same way it falls away again. All thoughts do this. Just allow them to. Don't try to make them, just let the highway function on its own as you loosen your gaze and start to open that attention fully within.

Another exercise might involve breathing and trying to catch the moment a thought forms itself and begins to rise. Nothing else, just let it do that while you try to catch the next one. And the next, and so on. As the breath links the thoughts so the breath rises fades and so the thoughts rise and fade. Release into this rhythm and allow that which perceives to open fully within.

In each case you are practicing the art of maintaining a state of mind that abstracts itself from your thoughts and sees them merely as passing artifacts that emerge in consciousness. You are able to view your mind and its ceaseless activity objectively as opposed to that simply being 'who you are' and that allows for a very unique analysis of your own psyche.

This abstraction gives rise to some of the more advanced questions in the practice of mindfullness, techniques like watching the watcher for instance but mostly it forms the fundamental framework that underpins the practice: the idea that we are not subject to our thoughts but rather they are a process that does not cease but also does not have control of us.

I find that to be a very freeing idea and I find the practice to be a remarkably interesting thing because of this.
 
Top