"cheating" versus adapting the practice to your own needs

[Tine 628]

In the MBSR course forum, I often talk about being the expert for yourself and therefore encourage people to make their own choices about what works and what doesn't work for them: alter a position, stand up or lye down and so on.
At the same time, our mind continually tries to push us to choose comfort over courage: The courage to challenge yourself, your perceptions, your preconceptions, your relationship with the inner and outer world.

How can we tell the difference? Where is the line between adapting to our unique situation and simply choosing comfort?

[Tine 628]

Regarding the MBSR course, I think it's pretty straight forward: Doing the formal and informal practices as scheduled in the course. Within that, you can choose between a longer and a shorter version. But stick to the minimum time and stick with the type of meditation. Altering the position as needed is ok.

Once you've finished the course, and you want to maintain your meditation routine, it becomes harder. For example, I found myself cheating using a Yoga Nidra session on insight timer to fall asleep. It's counted there as a meditation but not only did I know that while it does have it's benefits it's not the kind of mental exercise I was supposed to be doing, rather something I could do as well. After a while, I also became aware of how the positive changes mindfulness meditation were getting weaker. Going to a Vipassana retreat was my way to kickstart my meditation practice again thoroughly.

Somehow I feel it's like going to the gym. If it's not somehow hard if there's no "sweat" if there's no inner resistance to overcome there's little to be gained, and if we are honest to ourselves we know when we are making the easy choice. I easily fall asleep lying down as well unless I am incredibly well-rested. So I sometimes do the bodyscan in my regular meditation position, which helps a lot staying awake as well as staying warm as I do use a warm blanket.

[Guest User 54]

Unfortunately there is no short cuts in spiritual practice when we wish to gain Insight or wisdom. And when we become lazy we will not be able to see progress in my own experience. So With meditation like mindfulness/Insight meditation it is important to meditate every day, But does meditation alone help us deveop as human beings? To be honest, in the 20 years i meditated With Insight meditation and mindfulness meditation as it is called today. We also have to work on Our morality, and end Our attachments to anger, like/dislike, jealousy, greed, and so on. 

Do we really need to do that even we do not choose a spiritual path like buddhism? Yes because meditation alone will only calm us down. it will not Automatic lead to wisdom. 

in the course of 20 years that i did do mindfulness practice (when i was a theravada buddhist) i become a teacher in the meditation comunity both for lay People but also in a few occations i did Train monks in the art of meditation.

The reason i left Buddhism and minfulness behind are not because it does not work, but it was that i had reached the Level of wisdom/Insight that i could within buddhist cultivation. So even i am now a Falun Gong practitioner With a different meditation technique i will say Mindfulness made me a lot to who i am today

 

[Tine 628]

Thank you @Amanaki, would you say that mindfulness is more like a tool to develop ourselves yet doesn't provide the direction? Instead it helps us searching/ defining said direction/ morality/ values?what would you say that mindfulness is more like a tool to develop ourselves yet doesn't provide the direction. Rather it helps us searching said direction/ morality/ values?

[Guest User 54]

Very welcome

 

Yes meditation is the "tool" or technique to calm the mind from daily thought pattern that is often very messy form of thoughts.

Meditation in my experience make it possible to tap in to Our inner self in a way we normally can not do (non practitioner of meditation).

When the mind become silent we "see" or understand more clearly Our problems and also it make it more easy for us to see the solution to how we should solve daily problems we experience.

"note" daily problems does not stop occuring for meditators but the problems seems smaller because we are able to see the solution earlier and we have a feeling of more time to fix it before it get out of hand.

In the spiritual sense, meditation let us tap into the spiritual realms where we normally do not Access. meaning for those who believe in a God or other deities will by meditation have a more easy way to understand the "unseen" aspect of life, or should i say, we see the spiritual realm and can interact With them. (them as in spiritual beings)

When it comes to the moral side of Our life, again meditation let us see what is "right action" and what is "wrong action" and lead us more toward the right effort, right speach and right thoughts.

 

So in my experience Meditation is the tool to open Our mind to become a person With higher moral, ethics and it lead us to speak truth,, not wanting to harm others, and meditation also help us let og of attachments we clinging to in life.