dropthehat

Shifting between different states of consciousness can be jarring. What you did was come out of the world of concepts, into reality. It felt like a dream, because it is not the average person's base reality, since most people live inside their narratives. Me included most of the time.

It definitely can be productive, many forms of prayer are close to or indistinguishable from meditation. It all depends on what kind of prayer you practice and your intention behind it.

If you can stay aware of the sensory experience without your thoughts hijacking your consciousness, it works as a type of meditation. Meditation doesn't have to feel bad to work. I would say there is therapeutic value in just closing your eyes and sitting quietly while your subconscious brings up things from the past and the future, but you don't have to meditate like that.

I am just another student so you should take my view with a grain of salt, but I think you could benefit from metta / lovingkindness meditation. It might be easier to feel joy and love without your conditioned mind rejecting it if you feel you are growing your love for all beings instead of just blissing out and having fun by yourself.

It's easier to give out a concise explanation on topics you've put words to, writing to yourself about anything and everything should help with this. While putting words to different topics, you will become more aware of the patterns of your mind and it will become easier to explain your views on things you haven't written about as well. Here's a great video from Leo on some topics it is helpful to write out your thoughts about, I'm sure you will come up with something more personal and interesting to you as well.

@Hello from Russia Being conservative these days is rebellious though. Corporations, mainstream media and academia are all extremely left-leaning.

You have primed your mind to look for opportunities like this by starting on the path towards Self-actualization. I do think plants do have a certain grounding energy to them, which helps calm and focus your mind. I don't think it's a coincidence zen buddhists have made an art form of flower arrangement.

Having a pre-conceived notion about something can force your experience to fit into that mold, so there's always a possibility that your subconscious is making you disregard data to keep up the notion it has learned elsewhere. If you are ignorant of this, which all of us are at some points, direct experience can indeed just serve to feed and keep up an illusion. The way to combat this is improving sensory clarity, equanimity and focus via relevant meditations and yoga.

Recently I have been mixing up my formal sitting variations a bit too much and I became confused. I'm having a hard time deciding what to do with my awareness. The different practices I have used were like this: Staying aware of the sensations caused by my breathing on the upper lip. Noting "Thinking" when I got distracted by thoughts, or "Feeling" when I got distracted by physical discomfort. Being aware of the breathing in my whole body, noting "Rising" with in-breaths and "Falling" with out-breaths. I also noted "Thinking" and "Feeling" when I got distracted. Basic mindfulness practice with labeling Seeing, Seeing visual thoughts, Hearing, Hearing thoughts, Feeling touch and Feeling emotions. Recently these practices have been getting mixed up in my mind, and I often end up becoming so confused with all the things to label and move my awareness to, I end up trying to keep up non-conceptual awareness while not labeling anything. I guess my question to you is, should I go back to a more disciplined and organized practice or is "staying aware" without any specific technique as helpful?

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, it just seemed to resonate with me when I first found out about it. I found it during a time when I was getting desperate, trying to cope with depression and anxiety. It helped me remind myself that I had the power to change and get better. "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo could be described as a vow, an expression of determination, to embrace and manifest our Buddha nature. It is a pledge to oneself to never yield to difficulties and to win over one’s suffering. At the same time, it is a vow to help others reveal this law in their own lives and achieve happiness."

I sometimes have trouble with being unnecessarily judging towards other people or myself. Whenever that happens and I become aware of it, I try to remind myself that people are always doing the best they are capable of at that point in time. Maybe they aren't too conscious, maybe they have some bad information. Trying to force people to change their views never helps, try to accept people at whatever point in their growth they are and you'll be helping them move along better than wagging your finger.

I would recommend The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, it's a classic for a reason. It is a very approachable introduction to the concept of mindfulness and a non-conceptual frame of mind.

I have been struggling with the same thing, and especially in the last few months it has been bothering me. I have found three things helpful with making my views more clear and concise. 1. Explain things to yourself in a text file, like you would to someone who has no understanding of the topic. Try to explain the topic as clearly as you can, and you will soon find where you are having trouble. Researching those topics more deeply will help with that. For example, I had a hard time explaining meditation to my parents, because I didn't know how to explain the concepts of awareness, attention and mind-wandering. I looked up those terms on youtube and found many meditation teachers, who had already figured out ways to express those things eloquently. 2. Making mind-maps in Paint or some other drawing software. Having some visual context helps me memorize things easier. You can find out how to do mind-mapping on countless Youtube videos, it's a good tool to learn pretty much anything. 3. Asking myself questions while listening to lectures or reading something, making sure I can put things into words as soon as I learn them.

I like the idea of your unwanted thoughts being the results of a monkey mind giving you its opinion on things. Learning mindfulness is about giving the monkeys in your head another thing to focus on, other than thoughts that might make you spiral into a negative place. This first video is a short description of the monkey mind, while the second is a more in-depth conversation with some actual tips on how to take back control of your mind.

I do not know a lot of these matters, but I have tried combating the same thing, being an extreme introvert and having no interest in talking to some people. As soon as I started seeing those interactions as a challenge of growth, they felt more meaningful and not as tedious. The topics of the conversations do not seem as relevant anymore, yet I still learn something new every time. Meditation and this mindset of constant growth has helped me bring light to a lot of different things about myself that I still need to work on, for example negative assumptions about people, stereotyping, being emotionally unavailable and unable to relax in social situations. Here are a few ideas that worked for me and you might want to try out: Listen to other people and try to understand their point of view. Try to let go of the need to control the flow of the conversation, just observe. If you really want to talk about something specific, try to bring it up. It's okay if you can't talk about these things with everyone you meet. Everyone has something to offer on some level, but if you feel it's not worth the time to dig deep for it, you might have an easier time just eating alone and having interesting conversations elsewhere.