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File: 1608525922762.jpg ( 1001.82 KB , 1254x1080 , ascension-chakra[1].jpg )

 No.5302

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAVPDYhW_nw

Does anyone have any experience with meditation or mindfulness?
Ive been seeing it again and again and it *supposedly, i havent checked myself** studies show it can help you focus better and reduce overstimulation from the outside world.
As someone who has struggled my entire life being overstimulated by everything, and who has felt my anxiety increase and my ability to focus drop over the past few years, I wonder if i should try meditating. Leaving aside all of the spiritual aspects, and leaving aside all of the stemlord objections, are there tangible benefits? Did anyone try?
How do i properly do it? For how long?
Thank you.
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 No.5324

At least you will improve your patience and focus, that's the minimum what trying to stay with the breath does. This kind of concentration brings some calm and relaxation because you stop churning your anxious or unpleasant thoughts for a while.

Other benefits I've observed during the last years are:
– the increased ability to "step back" and disengage from some overwhelming emotions or obsessive thoughts (I had strong obsessions before, not anymore);
– automatically becoming mindful and making your breath more comfortable in stressful situations (helps your body to relax because the stress causes strained breath);
– being able to catch "subtle" thoughts flying through the mind without verbalization, kind of peek into your subconscious processes;
– some long-forgotten memories coming up.

Basically, meditation is looking at your mind and getting to know it better day by day. Focusing on the breath creates a "still spot" from where you can observe all its movements without being carried away by them because you have your breath as an anchor.

Start with 7-15 minutes daily, see if you can push it further without straining yourself too much. Guided meditation is everywhere now, I recommend this one for a start: https://www.dhammatalks.org/mp3_guidedMed_index.html

"Headspace" is ok too but it's more commercialized with all the theme-based courses. But avoid the "accept everything, just be here now" Western McMindfulness – it's a waste of time, the mind should be more proactive during the meditation (see the attached book for some theory).
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 No.5730

>>5324
I just started the free trial of headspace, and its been good so far, I am more focused and can sit for more than 10minutes in one place, but I don't intend to buy that stuff once the trial is over. Tried a video you linked, its good but its really hard for me imagine breath moving through different parts of the body, I guess that will come with time.
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 No.5761

>>5730
Probably observing breath at one spot would be the best for now. The sensitivity to both breath and body will grow eventually.
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 No.6340

Rev Left Radio had an episode on meditation with Michael Brooks a while ago. I never tried out any of the stuff they talked about, but it was a good episode and some stuff may be helpful.

https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/meditation-materialism-and-marxism
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 No.6341

>>5324
Based buddhist anon. I am still appreciative of your answers the other day.
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 No.6346

>>6340
Noice.
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 No.6347

File: 1608526046332.jpeg ( 5.23 KB , 248x204 , brainscan2.jpeg )

Well lets see meditation praxis in one form or another has been around for at least a few thousand years. And it hasn't caught on, so probably not. The scientific evidence where people got brain scanned shows that it definitely has beneficial effects, but it takes about 10 years of 2h+/day to get proficient enough to really make a difference. I would say changing your environment to fix root causes of your suffering is more cost effective than trying to change your brain.
If you get rid of capitalism and the inherent wealth inequality, you probably won't need meditation any-more.
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 No.6446

Letting you know that there is a Lucid Dreaming thread that has meditation guides
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 No.6471

>>6446
Thanks
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 No.6825

File: 1608526102416.jpg ( 260.84 KB , 1200x870 , big.jpg )

>>6341
Aw, thanks!

>>6347
Doubts here, otherwise rich and successful people would be happier by default. Instead they are doing drugs and having "I should buy a boat" existential crises.

Also, aging, illness, death, loss of loved ones will still exist in the communist future. Eliminating capitalism would improve the baseline for everybody but it's similar how therapy can bring you from a depression to the ordinary level of (un)happiness. Meditation can take you beyond the ordinary and towards the unconditioned happiness by changing how your mind perceives the world, stress, pain.

Anyway, after capitalism is gone, everybody will have enough free time to meditate 2h+/day.
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 No.6826

>>6825
>pic
What an absolute unit!
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 No.12744

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>>19314
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 No.12746

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 No.12747

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 No.12748

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 No.12749

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 No.12754

>>12749
>meditation 22
kek
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 No.12767

>>5302
How does one get into meditation? I just meditate one day and forget to do it the next day.
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 No.12768

>>12767
Try to keep a schedule, it'll get uncomfrotable but after a week or two you'll be so used to taking 10-20 minutes off to sit still and meditate that you'll do it with ease.
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 No.12770

>>12768
As cringe as it sounds, I downloaded an app. I hope it helps. I've been getting increasingly worse anxiety since I stopped my casual meditation 8 years ago. It's reaching a very uncomfortable point where even office work is becoming unbearable. I have stopped smoking weed completely because of my anxiety too.
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 No.12772

>>12770
It's not cringe m8, just do your thing (though keep that phone off while meditating)
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 No.12777

File: 1608526874142-0.pdf ( 11.21 MB , CrazyCloud.pdf )

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>>5302
https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/meditation-instructions/
Just do zazen and mindfulness on your own, it's difficult when you start but just keep at it. Be careful not to fall into any buddhist trap of making you pray and chant towards "deities" and shit, which is a danger with these guided meditations. If they say something to the effect of "light washing over you", end it there. Zazen meditation is compatible with atheism, other religions, anarchism, communism, etc. because it is all about you learning more about yourself, your mind, and so on. I mean, Zen is of course a religion, with structure, priests, hierarchy, blah blah blah, but the cool part is you don't need to take part or learn any of that if you don't want to, and still get the benefits of zazen.

I attached some Crazy Cloud poetry for your reading pleasure.
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 No.13031

>>6446
Link to it >>5284
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 No.13516

is it normal to experience false sense of epiphany and generic smugness after meditation?

I'll be quite honest : I don't believe in Buddhist/Hindi bullshit in wishing good well on all the living beings and am exclusively focusing on breathings and disassociation from my own emotions because that's what was recommended on book 10% happier.

I think using meditation to calm my nerve has been beneficial but not sure if I am being ineffective / self-delusional by not following more traditional apprach
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 No.13608

>>5302
>are there tangible benefits? Did anyone try?

I'm practicing regularly for around half a year by now; I managed to develop sort of a reflex that often when I'm lost in thought or strong emotions, my mind yanks itself out of it and lets me observe what's going on more impartially.

On the other hand, while my "field" practice (when riding a tram, walking alone, etc) has improved, I feel stuck or even regressing in my practice "on cushion", my peak was around half an hour daily, but nowadays I can barely sit 15 minutes. I wish I had a proper teacher, but alas, the quarantine doesn't make this easy (I've been attending Theravada online meetings though).

>How do i properly do it? For how long?

For me a turning point was reading "Mastering the core teachings of the Buddha" ( https://www.mctb.org ), it was very refreshing to read someone describe samadhi and vipassana in detail, without the usual obscurantism, and with warnings about what you're getting yourself into (especially the "dark night of the soul" deserves mention, people generally don't like talking about potential negative consequences of following a spiritual path)

It's rather low on practical instructions though, for me helpful were Leigh Brasington's "Right Concentration" (for samadhi) and Yates&Immergut&Graves "The Mind Illuminated" (for vipassana).
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 No.13609

>>13516
I think you might be experiencing a jhana ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhy%C4%81na_in_Buddhism ), I mean in the second sense given on wiki (high concentration state).

From what I know the opinions on deliberately aiming for jhanas are mixed, some people think it's a waste of time, but tbqh it's not like your third eye would go blind from a bit of literal mental onanism.

You could always try some "insight" rather than "concentration" focused practice for a change (more or less, taking in sensations as they come and go, rather than focusing on something in particular) and see how it goes.
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 No.13610

>>12777
Just to offer a counterpoint: I'm this >>13608 anon, and I have tried doing zazen without a teacher a couple years before, and it ended up being a complete and utter waste of time for me. I'm sure it would be better with a teacher, but for self-study I would personally not recommend a tradition that has a bee in their bonnet about speaking clearly and explaining theory. Of course, to each their own, maybe some people handle this style of teaching better.
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 No.13614

>>6347
>just take happy pills bro
The absolute state of fuck yeah science redditors.
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 No.16039

> ASMR Anti-Capitalist Guided Meditation
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 No.16784

>>12744
>>12747
>>12748
>>12749
Is that from /fringe/ ? I recall seeing a big thread on unusual meditation methods and was never able to recover it after the fall of 8chan but it seemed the board went down before then.
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 No.19139

bump

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