Meditation

[UglyCasanova]

I have a friend who works part time at a float studio here in Oslo. I was invited for a free session once but I was sick when the day came. I should ask him if the offer still stands.

UC, Goenka is really popular here in Northern Thailand. They have free 10 day retreats all over here, and do it on a sort of 'if it works for you, all we ask is that you donate your time to volunteer to support others to have similar experiences at minimum' system, which i really respect. There are different levels, but all of them are silent studies. This aspect (silence over a long period of time) is very important. Maybe it would help you too? It really helped my partner deal with a lot of things in life, and has helped many of my friends too. The video below is meant for people that obviously can't attend an actual course, but if you ever have the chance to do either isolated retreats somewhere by yourself or actually take a course under the supervision of an instructor, i really recommend it. I don't know how to explain it unless you have experienced it yourself, but it is something best served as a whole over a long period of time, though obviously their are benefits that you can take from it too if you don't have the time and just want to do it piece by piece. But these are just my thoughts, everyone is different.

Thank you for your insight! I would really like to do a ten day retreat, obviously, but my work and personal life and the commitment that comes with them make it more difficult than doing a weekend. Maybe I can manage to set something up for my summer vacation. I'd absolutely love to. I've watched about 10 minutes of the video you posted and I'm already brought back to when I first started meditating maybe 5 years ago or so, which was a nice reminder of where I started and where I am now. So, thank you again.

[$harkToootth]

Kent, you should try it. It is a pleasant experience. Just (imo) not cost, or logistically ideal. I've been meaning to go again just to see if I have another impression.

[UglyCasanova]

I willhave definitely remind him of the offer.

[$harkToootth]

Any body into Wim Hof 'Cold Therapy'? I kind of do it intermittently. The breathing techniques are cool. As I said, I always liked walking in cold weather (before I new of him, but he takes it to another level).

[UglyCasanova]

walking in cold weather

Story of my life.

[$harkToootth]

This is why I want to be an Honorary Norwegian (my colleagues made my an Honorary Latino and the honor was great ).

[comesect2.0]

I then do a full body scan

[Faldoe]

Any body into Wim Hof 'Cold Therapy'? I kind of do it intermittently. The breathing techniques are cool. As I said, I always liked walking in cold weather (before I new of him, but he takes it to another level).

Bumping for general bump but this is interesting. My friend told me of the Wim Hof breathing method. I tried it but not sure if I did it correctly.

I've been meditating more and it has been great. Really good for me and I'm feeling/seeing the benefits.

I also start every morning with a cold shower. I don't shampoo/soap but just turn on the cold and jump in and it's great. Some mornings are easier than others to make that jump into that stream you know is really cold. It wakes me up and I breathe past that hyper breathing one usually does when getting into super cold water. The cold shower and meditation have become part of my daily routine.

[Lurker13]

I was meditating the other night and a thought about a girl who was murdered recently. I thought 'We need to give an enlightenment pill to the whole human race'. But then I thought 'Would forcing someone to become enlightened be an enlightened thing to do? What about their free will?' Also, forcing someone who is on their own personal quest for enlightenment would seem to obviate their quest, and for them it might be as much about the journey as the destination.

So, given the choice, would you force the entire human race to become enlightened - including yourself - or would you continue to let the world wallow in samsara?

[$harkToootth]

I was just thinking about this sort of thing Lurker as I was shoveling snow.

Unpopular opinion, most people are already enlightened, in theory, they just don't execute upon what the know. Using myself as an example, I know mediation, saving money, exercise, making music, would greatly fulfill me... yet I'll still watch hours upon hours of youtube garbage and beat my meat like it owes me money.

I think most people 'know' the meaning of life... it's just the discipline of 'doing' is what gets a lot of people in trouble. I'm going to choose free will (or my tenuous grasp of the concept) every time. I just wish there was a better way to hold those who are kind of 'fucking things up for the rest of us' accountable, or 'like just stop doing that'.

I really do need to meditate though. I can feel my brain atrophying.

[Faldoe]

Good question.

The notion of enlightenment is a tricky one. I'm not suggesting you are thinking this but many people do, and I myself can succumb to it, but is enlightenment a static state where once it is reached you stay? Has anyone really reached it? - Besides the claim Buddha did.

Meditating, I've (the self is another tricky thing) been seeing the nuance of what makes up me, my experience, notion of self, etc. We are very steeped in it. Often people that are seasoned meditators - and who I would say are more grounded and honest - talk about how easily they can be swept up into suffering. I'm not sure we can give people a pill to get rid of human nature. This isn't to say we are destined to be "bad" or do terrible things but rather the ability to do the worst we've seen demonstrated by the human race dwells within us all, as latent potential. I'm not trying to minimize, either, terrible things done by specific people under the guise of "well we're all capable of doing bad things," but saying part of the suffering is the shitty things we can do, and do, to each other and ourselves.

I think the best we can hope for is people wake up to their ability to project onto others, be a perpetrator even if they have been a victim - i.e. no one is immune from people that which they hate or to wrong another like they have been wronged.

Consciousness is also a very strange thing and sitting you start to see the self is an illusion. Its tricky to say that as it isn't that easy or cut and dry. We have all these things that make up who we are. There is also the babble from the default mode network which you can encounter sitting. To see how subtle the making up of the mind is, not sure if it is something that can or should be given to people without their effort. It's like "you" have to try to find out "you" aren't really there. I don't know, I feel like there is something to the effort and the commitment.

Imagine the artists we like and the struggles they've had and what they put into the art to make it what it is. Or to bare the pain to channel it. What if it merely just was and they didn't have that? This may be an apples and oranges comparison but again I think there is something important about the effort, the discovery, journey, yada yada.

[popvulture]

I mean, California Über-Alles, right? Mellow out or you will pay.

I believe fully in meditation and encouraging people to have a try, but once anything like that becomes forced in any way, it loses all magic. There's something very intrinsically linked to that self discovery, key word being self. Man.

[$harkToootth]

There's something very intrinsically linked to that self discovery, key word being self. Man.

One of my favorite lines in David Lynch's CATCHING THE BIG FISH is The thing about meditation is: you become more and more you. I love that book!

[Lurker13]

Well alrighty then, samsara it is. Thanks for responding, guys.


One night last month while meditating I heard an inner voice say

Everyone is awesome every day.

I thought that was pretty awesome in itself.

As far as technique goes, I have been using the four-fold breathing technique - count to four while breathing in, count to four while holding your breath, count to four while breathing out, and (the hard one) count to four while holding your breath after breathing out. On a good night, it's an inner voice doing the counting. But sometimes, it's the conscious voice because I'm not relaxed enough to let go.

Sometimes I use an "OM" chant instead, with the inner voice usually appending an incomprehensible mantra-ish sound onto the end of each "OM".

Sometimes the inner voices really come out, in cryptic two or three word phrases.

It's all mysterious and wonderful.