Purple Jay

I use the Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei as my role models. I try not to envy anyone because a master once told me not to, but to me these guys are basically super heroes - even the ones that aren't doing that insane marathon ritual. I am currently trying to alter my sleep schedule more towards what a Buddhist monk would do. I know that the monks at Mt. Hiei sleep from 8-9 in the evening to around midnight which happens to be about 4 hours of sleep. But other than that I know nothing of what other monks do. Does anyone know what other Buddhist monks do (not the ones at Mt. Hiei) as far as sleep goes? What is their schedule and number of hours slept? Does anyone have experience with this?

Looks like nobody on this thread could give a satisfying answer before I researched it and found one myself. If anybody is curious, I found that Shaolin monks sleep from 10 evening to 6 morning. This is now what I do as well and I would recommend it for anyone looking for a healthy, peaceful and disciplined lifestyle. Thanks to @cetus56 ,@YaNanNallari and @pluto for the somewhat useful replies. Have a wonderful day.

@cirkussmile That's a very enlightened response. But it is also completely useless.

@jse Perhaps that is the more interesting question! But it's not the question I was asking. There's a time and a place for everything.

@cetus56 Didn't quite give me the answer I was looking for but never mind that, it was still useful. Thank you for the response.

@Ether I wish I could laugh with you but this is just not my kind of humor. x) Have a good day.

Is it worth it to train myself to be able to sit in some kind of cross-legged posture (like for example lotus position) for a longer period of time (as in several hours) or should I simply sit in a chair with my feet flat on the ground for the rest of my life? I currently meditate more than 1 hour a day, and I plan to do much more in the future, and I find it impossible to do a non-stop strong determination sitting in any cross-legged position. The blood stops flowing and my legs inevitably fall asleep so that I can't sit for more than 30-40 minutes! Is this something that will ever disappear or are you simply "not meant" to meditate cross-legged for more than 30-40 minutes? And what if one meditates much more than me - say 4-8 hours in one day - is it even possible/healthy to sit cross-legged for that long? If it is possible, is it worth doing? Is it preferable to "feet-flat-on-the-ground" or is it worse. Should one switch between the two with a 50/50 split? Any kind of experience, wisdom or medical knowledge would be much appreciated. Have a wonderful day!

Suffering through empathy is currently my biggest challenge. When something cruel happens to someone who is completely unconscious and has massive resistance in the moment, I tend to suffer on their behalf.

Lately during meditation I've been contemplating on thoughts, emotions and physical phenomena. Asking questions like "What is real and what is not real?" Here is my (humble) take on thoughts so far. Do not take my word for it, this is just me sharing observations. Keep in mind that this is from a non-enlightened perspective. I am not a spiritual teacher. Are thoughts real? Yes they are but it seems that they are not the reality they represent. Thoughts can occur, they are arisings just like you, me and everything else is this world. Experientially, they arise out of nothing and then they end. But what are they really? If I think of an apple, does the apple exist? No it doesn't, the thought of the apple is what exists. This applies to every physical phenomenon imagined. The image and/or understanding of something is not the thing itself. It's just a model. Whether that model is accurate or not has nothing to do with whether it is a model or not. Accurate or inaccurate, useful or useless, any thought about what I call "outer world" (any physical arising) is modelling. A new question then came to mind. A question which I encourage you to ask yourself. Can I come up with one single thought that is not modelling? So far, I haven't been able to. Regardless of whether the thought is about a physical arising or not, it seems that all thought is just more models, concepts, inner imagery, inner sounds, language system, ways of understanding reality etc. It's just content imitating other content. Mental projection. Just like me trying to understand my thoughts is actually me trying to create models of my own modelling. It's the mind drawing a map that explains how its other maps work. Do not confuse the map for the territory. Thoughts are maps. Sure, the map is real, the map exists. The map can be read and understood, it can be experienced. We can even be trapped inside the map (dogma?). But it's just a map. No matter what, it's just a map. Deriving our ultimate sense of reality from thought is a mistake because thought can never actually be the reality that it is mirroring. So we shouldn't take thoughts seriously? Generally speaking, no. Thoughts are great for sending people to the moon but... when looking for ultimate truth you'd be better off putting your faith in an acorn. Here is a sentence you can use to determine for yourself whether something is ultimately real: "If it doesn't exist when I'm not thinking about it, it can't be real." Not a lot of things survive this test. Even your world view. Even your own idea of yourself. I hope this was in some way clarifying. For now I'll leave concepts such as beliefs, opinions and emotions untouched. Have a great day! - Jay P.S. If you find any inaccuracies, please let me know. For the sake of the reader's clarity, I shall take your suggestions into consideration.

@Costa Cause intelligence (and science so that I can write things on the internet with my gadget) is the only thing that matters, obviously... It's good to see that you took the "don't think you know people" part to heart.

@Costa So because you read 3 lines I wrote, you think you know who I am and what my take is on science and technology in general? You also feel inclined to "correct my mental state" and give me "advice" because you now believe that I am some ungrateful, ignorant moron who doesn't belong in the 21st century and can't appreciate and savor all the material valuables in life. Do you think I'm fucking stupid? Do you think I'm wandering the world dumb, deaf and blind? Who the fuck do you think you're writing? The entity that read your words, do you think you know what that is? You don't know shit about what's going on over here, kid. Nothing, not a goddamn thing do you know about the "me" you think you're writing. This very unit over here is probably way more appreciative of technology (or anything in life, for that matter) than you'll ever be with your pathetic mentality. Stop being a prick, stop giving "advice" and whateverr you do, don't think you know people. That's my "advice" for you, you fucking stupid bastard.

Yeah cause even if they found out how it works it just doesn't matter. I mean, why would anyone care? Let's say we discovered that the world is made up of "whatever". Big woop. Now we think we know the secret of the universe but we're still suffering and we still don't understand anything about our own psychology. ^~^

@Sigma ...which is something that can help you be more forgiving. ^^ The human mind is miraculous, yes. There is nothing good or bad about thoughts. They just are exactly what they are (but not what they portray).

@Leo Gura This is what I've arrived at as well. Reality explores itself through thoughts and senses. That's what life is for! Admittedly, I haven't figured out how emotions play into this quite yet though. Hopefully, clarity will be found on that soon.