Meditation, some answers

[Gem]

Most of us, and I think probably all of us, will feel various discomforts during meditation sessions, and there are deeper reasons why that happens which have to do with how the ego produces feelings (including pleasurable ones) that keep you reacting...

You'll take a chair because you don't like discomfort, and you're craving nice meditation experiences you think are prevented by discomforts that stop you from meditating, which is a bit misguided. Of course, if you're in severe pain and likely to do an injury then take the chair, but if it's just crybaby mind whinging, me, my, mine, I, then it's probably better not to.

On the other hand, you wouldn't deliberately make yourself uncomfortable or cut off circulation or something, so cushions, stools etc. is common sense, but keeping in mind, as Gibran so eloquently said: "have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host and then a master?"

[Unseeking Seeker]

Speaking of posture, I’ve found it to be irrelevant actually, just as I find any prescribed practice limited. Be it standing up or lying down on bed, softened attention in thought rested stillness is the orientation which I’ve found positions us in a mode of receptivity and surrender, whereupon divine magnetic electricities are imbibed at the optimal time, bringing with it an energetic transformation. It needn’t be a clap of thunder, though sometimes it is!

I’d say that our prioritisation of God search or let’s say, rekindling our own divinity within, is the shift we choose to make uncompromisingly through day and night, which then is our practice or non-practice, as the case may be.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared...yDoFaAFC3QyaB5

Nice. Like the Rolls Royce of meditation cushions.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Gem

You'll take a chair because you don't like discomfort...

Distractions of the body are not anything I am interested in during meditation. Period.
The same reason I was taught to eat mild foods. Why?
Because lemme tellya when you are in the Higher Realms - a sudden burp
or cramp in the gut will bring you down faster than you can say, "Nooooo".
(I think of Jane Seymour to Christopher Reeve.)
We will have to agree to see things differently, Gem.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Legrand

Nice Still Waters,
I would rather call this state of Equanimity one of Eternal Joy, if we are to use words.

Antoine

I am perfectly comfortable with the terminology "Eternal Joy" (or, alternatively, "Eternal Peace").

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Gem

If I sit for just one hour, I usually experience quite a bit of discomfort, and I find sitting upright and still for an hour takes quite a bit of determination.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I used to lose track of time when fully ABSORBED in a sitting meditation ... and 8-9 hours would elapse with absolutely no discomfort whatsoever. As a matter of fact, there was no sense whatsoever of body consciousness and this is relatively common in ABSORBED meditators.

When I encounter people who want to start meditating, I try to discover what will ABSORB them completely. In keeping with this, I recall a story about Ramakrishna telling a simple farmer disciple to meditate on what he LOVED most ... and it was his bull that tilled the fields with him ... and that was reportedly very effective as a beginning meditation (or, more appropriately, concentration) exercise.

Your practice does indeed require determination and seems to focus on discipline. To each their own.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I'm so proud of you---I'm not surprised he called you, my friend.

I can be quite unforgettable and leave a lasting impression when engaged in a dialogue.

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 978 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Since we don't have a leopard skin like the yogis use
in the Himalayan Mountain caves! Lol...next best thing!

I actually asked a yogi from the Himalayas (whom I met at the Khumba Mela at the foothills of the Himalayas in India) the reason for meditating on animal skins. His answer caught me by surprise ... it keeps the snakes away ( ) as the snakes don't like that surface.

Was he pulling my leg? I don't know.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by Gem

Most of us, and I think probably all of us, will feel various discomforts during meditation sessions, and there are deeper reasons why that happens which have to do with how the ego produces feelings (including pleasurable ones) that keep you reacting...

You are correct that, in the beginning stages of meditation, there is BOTH physical discomfort AND mental/emotional restlessness. They are two different things and are obviously addressed differently.

In Buddha's Satipatthana Sutra (Foundations of Mindfulness), the sutra starts with physical awareness and proceeds to the feelings/emotions ... and then to the thoughts.

In Pantanjali's Yoga Sutras (Asthanga Yoga --- eight-limbed yoga), the physical postures (asanas) are the 3rd limb (of 8) as it is logical (in many cases) to address any physical discomfort as best as possible before proceeding the the mental/emotional practices.

[Still_Waters]

QUOTE 982 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

Speaking of posture, I’ve found it to be irrelevant actually, just as I find any prescribed practice limited. Be it standing up or lying down on bed, softened attention in thought rested stillness is the orientation which I’ve found positions us in a mode of receptivity and surrender.....

You have just raised an EXCELLENT point.

Although I did extended periods of sitting meditation in my formative years, I eventually gravitated away from that little by little. At that point, I came across the following quote from Ramana Maharshi:

"Setting apart time for meditation is only for the merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude." - "Be as you are - The teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi", David Godman

https://www.reddit.com/r/AdvaitaVeda...that_there_is/

Your point is very well taken!