One more book, this one on meditation

[flexagon]

I don't meditate; that is, I don't do sitting meditation. But heisenbug does, and other friends do, and I like reading, so I did sit and read a book on the topic. Despite the terrible title of Real Happiness, it had some concepts that I really liked.

1) "Effort needn't be struggling or straining -- it can be relaxed perseverance." Well THERE'S a nice thought. Speaks for itself, doesn't it? A whole new style to aim for, in fact, and I love it and am thinking of it often.

2) The idea of being able to always calmly start again, presented as a life skill.

3) The idea of "add-on" thoughts, where we begin with one sensation or experience and make it ever so much worse by piling on our fears for the future, our (negative) impression of ourselves in light of the initial thing, and our projections of all that into forever. This one is a keeper, and has wormed itself into my head. If I'm worried about a work email and I start to go off into "this is always my problem, I'm never good at thinking big-picture, I'm actually not as expert as people think, and OH GOD, how am I ever going to keep being productive for another twenty terrifying years..." I'm a lot more likely now to say "add-on!" and think again about that one email. This is a good trick. "Add-on!" :-)

I am now expecting a flood of "you should meditate" comments. Here's the funny thing; when I read about the mind states of meditation I'm filled with constant "oh, I do that" recognition. I practice my focusing deliberately, I often move mindfully, I basically do the book's body-scan meditation while lying in bed, I am very often conscious of trying not to identify overmuch with thoughts or emotions (and being aware of them in the first place). I don't much like to hold physically still, this is true... I like to find mindfulness in motion, instead. Or in the world.

One day perhaps I'll become a practitioner of mysore yoga, and lose myself every day in a slow, memorized, solipsistic recreation of the Ashtanga primary series. That, I could imagine.

Comments

[triesticity.livejournal.com]

"Relaxed perseverance," ooh, that's really good. And mindfulness in motion or the world, yes! I don't meditate either - for a while, I was going to Quaker meeting, which I liked, but it's at a sort of awkward time (11 am Sunday - early enough that I have to set an alarm/make a point of getting up and showered and dressed at a certain time to get there, but late enough that when it's over, I feel like it's eaten into my day)). I feel like have enough meditative moments climbing, or cooking, or doing dishes, or running (not that I've run in a few weeks, but when I *was* doing it regularly...).

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

Oh man... the "add-on" thing is tough. I do that sometimes to the point of paralysis. A woman in my office dies sitting meditation in her office. I've got the cushion and some suggestions about the guided meditation thing, butt I haven't had a lot of luck there.

It sounds like you have a lot of the practices going.

[flexagon]

butt I haven't had a lot of luck there.

Perfectly phrased, my friend. ;-)

Let me know if recognizing the add-ons helps you at all! It's definitely been helping me.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

This book sounds great! I hear you about the practices of meditation being things you do already - me too. Are you familiar also with reactions against meditation as therapy? eg this newspaper article http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/25/mental-health-meditation

[flexagon]

Interesting, no, I hadn't been! That led me to this blog post on the "dark night" phenomenon, which I'd never heard of but doesn't really surprise me to read about:
http://shinzenyoung.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/dark-night.html

You stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back into you.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of the 'dark night' before either. Thank you for that link.

There's also the 'dark side' of Buddhism, meaning that like any religion it reflects its culture of origin. I've just tried (and failed) to find an article I read a few years ago, in which somebody wrote of growing up in a Buddhist culture. That author told of remembering per grandfather's resignation to hardship, leading him to do nothing.

[elbren]

yea, I don't tend to stick with sitting meditation because it's just the prayerful state of mind I try to cultivate throughout the day whenever I can, but walking meditation works better for me, the rhythm helps with mindfulness & the progressing route helps with awareness.