I didn't do that shit for 20 minutes to be now on Facebook—and closed the tab.
Admittedly, I stopped actively practicing shortly after the course ended, but do find it extremely helpful when my mind is racing and I can't fall sleep. 5-10 mins of breathing exercise and I'll be fast sleep.
[1]https://stanfordhealthcare.org/events/scim-mindfulness-medic...
Do you realize you are probably suffering every minute even when you don't have to sit quietly? It is enough to be away from the rich source of distraction and immediately a kind of anxiety appears, making you seek the next stimulus. Is it ok to live with such a constant need to be fed with this stream of data?
Why? Because it's not possible to enjoy it? Because desire is linked to suffering?
Here's the thing. I get why ego can get in the way of enjoying things more fully, and that meditation can help give you a broader perspective on life, but I don't buy into the whole superiority that comes from self-denial. I don't think there's wisdom in shutting yourself away from the world. You can enjoy the chaos, not in some limited way, but fully enjoy it. If you need a simple life to get your kicks then fine, but that's just one model of a fulfilling life, there are others.
Unfilled desire is linked to suffering. Filled desires are linked to pleasure, but after fulfilling one desire, another one appears.
It's life. So it's not fulfilling desires but being conscious about how desires are born, and consciously choosing which one to fulfill.
Desire is a misused word. It's used as a catch all for all pleasure seeking, but in reality it's a special type of pleasure seeking, a directed form of pleasure seeking based on craving. If you're a pleasure seeker that doesn't have any strong craving for one type of pleasure over another you're still grouped in with those that are addicted to certain types of pleasure.
In other words, if you enjoy life as it comes, you aren't plagued with the problems of craving, therefore the same rules don't apply.
>> I was suffering every second, >Do you realize you are probably suffering every minute even >when you don't have to sit quietly?
This wasn't about enjoying "life as it comes". This was about being addicted to the next stimulus; exposed by just trying to sit down and meditate for 20 minutes.
You're conflating being able to handle and enjoy some chaos with the inability to tolerate a few moments of peace.
The suggestion was that you suffer even when your mind is engaged in something where this suffering was not apparent. In other words, even when you don't feel like you're suffering, you probably are. I disagreed with this by pointing out that even though meditation has its merits, there are other ways to enjoy your life, and therefore this assumption that you're 'probably suffering' is somewhat of a stretch.
The biggest problem around meditation is that most are not able to clearly express what meditation is really doing with you.
Second, it's not about 'not thinking'. It's about being aware of your thoughts, as if watching them from a distance.
Third, you can't not benefit from taking some to sit and quiet your mind. That's as absurd as saying you don't benefit from sleep or rest.
How do you know this?
It was like ibuprofen for my suffering mind. Not that it helped immediately - but after a prolonged practice I noticed that suddenly my mind was not in psychic pain and I could just take the situation at hand without unnecessary added stress.
So, I suppose the perceived results might depend on the life situation at hand (ambient stress factors, so to speak).
For me, this is one of the main reasons I want to try to take up meditation (I still haven't). It just seems so absurd that simply sitting down and doing nothing would feel so uncomfortable. So, why not do it and maybe discover what is going on.