Why You Should Stop Meditating

[UnbornTao]

Clarifying what the activity is about and its purpose is invaluable. Meditation is aimed at controlling the mind, producing positive states, healing, and stillness. No method can produce it as method itself is indirect. You can be at the bus stop (contemplation) so that when the bus comes, you're ready to jump onto it. This kind of contemplation is having the intention to "experience" the nature of something or have insights into it, openly and actively questioning with that purpose in mind.

Meditate, if that's what you want.

Edited June 3 by UnbornTao

[Daniel123]

1 hour ago, r0ckyreed said:

Beautiful. We all have unique experiences. Every once and a while, I will do a brief meditation practice, but like I said, I don't want my life to be centered around quieting my curiosity. I want to expand my curiosity, and I find that contemplation is the right practice for me. Meditation is usually a waste of time except for moments where I need to relax into stillness.

I think there is much to learn during prolonged silence and meditation does not have to be contrary to curiosity. For me it's about being maximally curious about exploring, actually. Just not about exploring thoughts and concepts, but rather dimensions and aspects of consciousness itself.

But - at least for me - a simple 20-30min meditation is usually not enough to get to a state that is conducive to deep exploration. That's why longer sessions and retreats are helpful in that regard.

But I think, both exploring thoughts / concepts and silence have their place and value.

[enchanted]

18 hours ago, r0ckyreed said:

I used to engage in a meditation practice. But I recently discovered that meditation is a waste of time. I realized that I get the same benefits if not more when I go out, hike in nature, and contemplate consciousness. 

Contemplation, exercising in nature, and socializing have been my 3 greatest spiritual practices. 

Here is a simple example why meditation is a waste of time. Imagine that you are playing an open world video game like Skyrim. Imagine just sitting your character up with the greybreards for the entire game just meditating. Do you see how limited your experience would be? You wouldn’t get the character development that you need to grow if you just play the whole game up meditating with the graybeards. 

Life is too short to become a monk drone. There is so much of life to experience and so much growth. When you are meditating, you are not doing something else such as exercising, socializing, fulfilling your life purpose, etc. 

Now, of course, brief meditation won’t harm you, but I don’t see how it could help you any more than contemplation. Contemplation is the art of understanding and curiosity. How can you be curious with a silent mind? Do you see how if you just meditate all day, you won’t be thinking and contemplating deeply. You won’t get off the cushion and enjoy life out in nature. Essentially, your life is no different than you being in prison, except this is a prison of your own choosing.

There is more to life than staring at a cave wall. Notice how unintelligent of a life this would be. You wouldn’t even watch a video game streamer do this.

Something to think about.

Yes, meditation can mean different things. Krishnamurti is also highly critical of meditation according to a method by someone else. Then you become a mindless drone as you say. 

[r0ckyreed]

Hey guys, I was wrong. I was overlooking times when meditation did connect me to absolute beauty. However, meditation being the center of one’s life may not be a good idea.

[Ayham]

@r0ckyreed yes, meditation in and out of itself is very important for our work, it is important to have a still mind, to be able to sit and do nothing, retreat into solitude, connect with your true self, and have a higher baseline of consciousness

Meditation gives you a clear mind and if you want just better mental health, it will give you that, if you want non dual states, jhanas, samadhi, etc. it can give you that if you do it right. 

And yes, it is also a mistake to spend all your time mediating or sitting with the greybeards lol, but also you would miss out if you never train with the greybeards.

A holistic approach that includes mind (contemplation, reading, writing, etc.), body (exercise, martial arts, yoga, etc.), spirit (meditation, music, poetry, art, etc.) and shadow (journaling, self-reflection, therapy, etc.) is the best approach because it leads to holistic growth in everything, and until you master meditation, nothing will develop you in the domain of spirit as much.

 

[Keryo Koffa]

@r0ckyreed Contemplation is great but it's like combining various ideas, while meditation is opening yourself up to new ones and going beyond the mind into the realm of pure experience. Not to say that I have experience with that, I've been too impatient to even start, but now I will. I wonder if it can get you anywhere near psychedelics. Also a way to compare them is like chugging energy drinks to get things done vs receiving a massage.

[nistake]

Well, if you think about meditation in a simplistic manner (e.g. blankly staring a wall for months and years), then yes, it can seem as a waste of time.

However, meditation is not about brute-forcing the mind into silence. Personally, when I think about meditation, I see it as a complex spiritual practise which is good for developing the following qualities:

- Mindfulness

- Concentration

- Body awareness

- Relationship with aversion (discomfort, pain, etc)

- Relationship with thoughts and emotions

- Experiencing altered states of consciousness

- Being in the present moment and appreciate it as it is

There's one caveat though. You need to be serious about it. If you meditate once in a while for like 5-10 minutes and then skip days, well, then it's not really effective. If you take it seriously and practise daily, it can transform your life in a radical way. This is where I disagree with Leo. Yes, you can get massive gains in a retreat setting, but a serious daily practise in your home can also be benficial tremendously.

With that said, meditation is not the be-all and end-all and it is certainly not for everybody. For some people yoga, exercise, being in nature, etc is much more effective.

Edited June 3 by nistake