Do Nothing = Mental Masturbation?

[Gabriel Antonio]

i've been doing 2 and 30 minutes of do nothing a day. i have been "meditating" using this technique, but all that happens is: i keep thinking of random stuff, like imaginary conversations in my head. then when i notice that, i say to myself, "AWARENESS!" or "let go" three times but that doesn't prevent me from thinking, nor do i feel any expansion of my awareness.

i feel like i am wasting my time with this technique; yet i am too lazy to try out different ones. i know that i will slack off with other ones. the only one i am able to be consistent is the do nothing because it requires no effort, yet i don't see any results. i don't feel any peace, nor do i feel more present. all i feel is an escape from the world.

before someone tells me to build a concentration habit i can't afford myself to do so, because i follow the psychology principle of adding one habit at a time. if i start counting my breath or something to quiet the mind, i will diffuse my focus, instead of just thinking throughout the day, "shit, i got to meditate." i will add another one, "i got to meditate and concentrate"; thus, i will backslide. 

please help me. i am thinking of stop meditating at all and just live for the world. i feel meditation makes me too uneasy.. i lose motivation to leave my house. everything becomes about me. and my thoughts drive me nuts. i am also eating like a pig lately. not to mention all the masturbation ... what the fuck is that? today i lied on my couch watching tv all day. that's preposterous. i should be more present but all i do is escape from the here and now. i am ruining my intimate relationships and my family relationships. and i feel like i am going crazy sometimes. i am also losing motivation to work. i also get waves of anger. this meditation thing is not working. everything is getting worse.

anyway, shine the light of your awareness to this problem. i love advices, criticism, and brutally honest feedback.

[Prabhaker]

26 minutes ago, Gabriel Antonio said:

i don't see any results

When meditating, working on yourself, if you wonder whether you are making any progress or not, know well that you are not making any progress – because when progress is made you know it. Why? It is just as when you are ill and you are taking medicine. Won’t you be able to feel whether you are getting healthy or not? If you do not feel it and the question arises of whether you are getting well or not, know well that you are not getting well. Well-being is such a clear feeling that when you have it you know it.

But why does this question arise? This question arises for so many reasons. One, you are not really working. You are just deceiving yourself. You are playing tricks with yourself. You are less concerned with what you are doing and more concerned with what is happening. If you are really doing it, you can leave the result to existence. But our minds are such that we are less concerned with the cause and more concerned with the effect – because of greed. Greed wants to have everything without doing anything. So the greedy mind goes on moving ahead. Then the greedy mind asks, 'What is happening? Is something happening or not?' Be really concerned with what you are doing, and when something happens you will know it. It is going to happen to you. You need not ask anyone.

There is no fixed road. Everyone is on a different road; we are not on one road. Even if you are following one technique of meditation, you are not on the same road as someone else who is doing the same technique; you cannot be. There is no public path. Every path is individual and personal. So no one’s experiences on the path will be helpful to you; rather, they may be damaging. Someone may be seeing something on his path. If he says to you that this is the sign of progress, you may not meet the same sign on your path. The same trees may not be on your path; the same stones may not be on your path. So do not be a victim of all this nonsense. Only certain inner feelings are relevant. For example, if you are progressing, then certain things will begin to happen spontaneously. One, you will feel more and more contentment.

Really, when meditation is completely fulfilled, one becomes so contented that he forgets to meditate – because meditation is an effort, a discontent. If one day you forget to meditate and you do not feel any addiction, you do not feel any gap, you are as filled as ever, then know it is a good sign.

Do not make meditation a habit. Let it be alive! Then discontent will disappear by and by; you will feel contentment, and not only while you are meditating. If something happens only while you are meditating, it is false, it is hypnotic. It does some good but it is not going to be very deep. It is good only in comparison. If there is nothing happening, no meditation, no blissful moment, do not worry about it. If something is happening, do not cling to it. If meditation is going rightly, deep, you will feel transformed throughout the whole day. A subtle contentment will be present every moment. With whatsoever you are doing, you will feel a cool center inside…contentment.

Of course there will be results. Anger will be less and less possible. It will go on disappearing. Why? – because anger shows a non-meditative mind, a mind that is not at ease with itself. With meditation you will be more and more happy with yourself – remember, with yourself. These will be signs, the general signs. So do not think you are achieving much if you are beginning to see light or if you go on seeing beautiful colors. They are good but do not feel satisfied unless real psychological changes are there: less anger, more love; less cruelty, more compassion. Unless this happens, your seeing lights and colors and hearing sounds are child’s play. They are beautiful, very beautiful; it is good to play with them – but that is not the aim of meditation. They happen on the road, they are just by-products, but do not be concerned.

In a relationship, observe what is happening. How are you behaving toward your wife now? Observe it. Is there any change? That change is meaningful. How are you behaving with your servant? Is there any change? That change is significant.

Meditation for me is not a child’s play. It is a deep transformation. How to know this transformation? First you will feel your inner transformation in your outer relationships, and then you will go deep. Then only will you begin to feel something inner. So probe into, penetrate your relationships, and look there to see whether your meditation is progressing or not.

If you feel a growing love, unconditional love, if you feel a compassion without cause, if you feel a deep concern for everyone’s welfare, well-being, your meditation is growing. Then forget all other things. With this observation you will also observe many things in yourself. You will be more silent; you will have less noise within. When there is a need you will talk, when there is no need you will be silent. You will feel more at ease, relaxed. Whatsoever you are doing, it will be a relaxed effort; there will be no strain. You will become less and less ambitious. Ultimately, there will be no ambition. Even the ambition to reach moksha will not be there. Even the desire for liberation is a bondage. Even the desire to be desireless is a bondage.

One thing more: whatsoever you are doing, do not think that results will be coming in the future. If you are doing something real, results are here and now. In inner work, if you have meditated today, results are not going to be tomorrow. If you have meditated today. the perfume of it, howsoever little, will be there. If you are sensitive you can feel it. Whenever something real is done, it affects you here and now.

So meditation is not just a certain thing which you do for one hour and forget. Really, the whole of life has to be meditative. Only then will you begin to feel things. And when I say that the whole life is to be meditative, I do not mean to go and close your eyes for twenty-four hours and sit and meditate – no! Wherever you are you can be sensitive and that sensitivity will pay. Then there will be no need to ask, 'Am I progressing or not?' Only with this capacity of being aware of all things happening around you will you develop the capacity to feel what is happening within. 

Osho, The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2, Talk #18

[Gabriel Antonio]

@Prabhaker do what should i do? try out a different technique? i feel more present when i am out in the world doing shit than when i am sitting down doing nothing... maybe i should start taking massive action since doing things make me feel present... what do you think?

[Leo Gura]

@Gabriel Antonio You might benefit from a more rigid mindfulness practice with labeling, or concentration on breath.

[Prabhaker]

48 minutes ago, Gabriel Antonio said:

i feel more present when i am out in the world doing shit than when i am sitting down doing nothing...

When you begin to meditate, you can feel disturbance more. Whenever someone begins meditation, he will become aware of many things of which he was not previously aware . This is how things are, and one has to pass through them.

Unnecessary chattering of mind disappears in two ways. You become unconscious in the worldly affairs. But, really, it remains there. It cannot disappear. Your consciousness has disappeared, so you cannot feel it, you cannot be aware of it. If you become more conscious, in the meantime you will have to suffer more. But accept suffering as a part of growth, as a part of training, as just a discipline, and then one day, when your consciousness has gone beyond your it, thoughts will disappear not just for you – they will disappear objectively.

Patience is the greatest spiritual quality; if you have patience nothing else is needed. Patience means hope, trust, and without any hurry, without any impatience.

1 hour ago, Gabriel Antonio said:

what should i do? try out a different technique?

If you begin with something active also,  alive, moving , it will be better; then you will begin to feel an inner stillness growing. The more it grows, the more it will be possible for you to sit silently. 

Walk meditatively as if the eternity is yours, just walk the way you go for a morning walk in a relaxed way. Relax your body, relax your behavior, relax your acts. Walk in a relaxed way, eat in a relaxed way, talk, listen in a relaxed way. Slow down every process.

Someone asked Buddha, ”How shall we meditate?”

Buddha replied, ”Whatsoever you do, do it with awareness; this is meditation. Walking, walk attentively, as if walking is everything; eating, eat with awareness, as if eating is everything; rising, rise with awareness; sitting, sit with awareness; all your actions become conscious, your mind does not travel beyond this moment, it remains in the moment, settles in the moment – this is meditation.

[Loreena]

1 hour ago, Prabhaker said:

When you begin to meditate, you can feel disturbance more. Whenever someone begins meditation, he will become aware of many things of which he was not previously aware . This is how things are, and one has to pass through them.

Unnecessary chattering of mind disappears in two ways. You become unconscious in the worldly affairs. But, really, it remains there. It cannot disappear. Your consciousness has disappeared, so you cannot feel it, you cannot be aware of it. If you become more conscious, in the meantime you will have to suffer more. But accept suffering as a part of growth, as a part of training, as just a discipline, and then one day, when your consciousness has gone beyond your it, thoughts will disappear not just for you – they will disappear objectively.

Patience is the greatest spiritual quality; if you have patience nothing else is needed. Patience means hope, trust, and without any hurry, without any impatience.

If you begin with something active also,  alive, moving , it will be better; then you will begin to feel an inner stillness growing. The more it grows, the more it will be possible for you to sit silently. 

Walk meditatively as if the eternity is yours, just walk the way you go for a morning walk in a relaxed way. Relax your body, relax your behavior, relax your acts. Walk in a relaxed way, eat in a relaxed way, talk, listen in a relaxed way. Slow down every process.

Someone asked Buddha, ”How shall we meditate?”

Buddha replied, ”Whatsoever you do, do it with awareness; this is meditation. Walking, walk attentively, as if walking is everything; eating, eat with awareness, as if eating is everything; rising, rise with awareness; sitting, sit with awareness; all your actions become conscious, your mind does not travel beyond this moment, it remains in the moment, settles in the moment – this is meditation.

This is great advice. 

[Space]

@Gabriel Antonio Quality over quantity is very important with meditation. If you’re sitting down for 2.5 hours a day but half of that is lazy, unfocused and unconscious, then personally I would recommend cutting it down. Not saying this is the case for you, but it’s important to realise that there’s no point forcing yourself to do a certain amount unless you’re really really committed to it.

With regards to the technique, it could just be a matter of more thorough and focused practise (I don’t know how long you’ve been meditating for), but as Leo said you may want to experiment with a more rigid technique for a few weeks or a month. Just remember that this work is not meant to be easy. It’s nice when it is, but for the most part it’s not. Yes the noting practise is more intensive, but like anything, if you work it into a habit where it becomes just as effortless as Do Nothing then it’s a great alternative. This is what I did. 

Also, you say you feel like you’re wasting your time with the technique. Realise firstly that this is just the egoic mind creating excuses. See it for what it really is. And secondly remind yourself that the technique does work, and has worked for many many people over thousands of years. As I said, you may just need to put more intentional focus into it - don’t be lazy!

As you probably know, for some a technique like Do Nothing comes very naturally and they can make some nice progress in a short space of time. However, for others it can be the complete opposite. Don’t be discouraged by this though. Shinzen Young says that most people’s spiritual development looks like a hockey stick if plotted on a graph. Basically an exponential growth curve. In the beginning it may not appear like your meditation is doing much at all, but there is still spiritual purification occurring deep in the subconscious. 

It sounds like you’ve got the Do Nothing technique down though. Personally i’d avoid saying things to yourself during the meditation, but if it helps you then go for it. Shinzen also says that if you’re too spacey, Note, and if you’re too racy, then Do Nothing. 

I know it’s tempting but try not to get attached to your ideas of what meditation might do for you. Keep your practise method-orientated as opposed to goal-orientated, particularly long-term goals. Focus on the quality of each particular sitting, rather than what you might get out of it. This way your not expecting some kind of particular result from your practise, even if it’s just being more present.

 

 

[Seeker_of_truth]

@Gabriel Antonio I'm just a newbie here but I've seen Shinzen Young's video on do nothing meditation and what he says is that in this type of meditation, your previous meditations and god (or whatever you want to call it) meditate you. Which means I think you need to have done some other meditation before having the do nothing technique in your meditation routine. 

Edited June 14, 2017 by Seeker_of_truth

[abrakamowse]

Do Nothing = Do Nothing

 

and 

 

Mental Masturbation = Mental Masturbation

[Bob84]

On 6/13/2017 at 5:34 AM, Gabriel Antonio said:

i've been doing 2 and 30 minutes of do nothing a day. i have been "meditating" using this technique, but all that happens is: i keep thinking of random stuff, like imaginary conversations in my head. then when i notice that, i say to myself, "AWARENESS!" or "let go" three times but that doesn't prevent me from thinking, nor do i feel any expansion of my awareness.

i feel like i am wasting my time with this technique; yet i am too lazy to try out different ones. i know that i will slack off with other ones. the only one i am able to be consistent is the do nothing because it requires no effort, yet i don't see any results. i don't feel any peace, nor do i feel more present. all i feel is an escape from the world.

before someone tells me to build a concentration habit i can't afford myself to do so, because i follow the psychology principle of adding one habit at a time. if i start counting my breath or something to quiet the mind, i will diffuse my focus, instead of just thinking throughout the day, "shit, i got to meditate." i will add another one, "i got to meditate and concentrate"; thus, i will backslide. 

please help me. i am thinking of stop meditating at all and just live for the world. i feel meditation makes me too uneasy.. i lose motivation to leave my house. everything becomes about me. and my thoughts drive me nuts. i am also eating like a pig lately. not to mention all the masturbation ... what the fuck is that? today i lied on my couch watching tv all day. that's preposterous. i should be more present but all i do is escape from the here and now. i am ruining my intimate relationships and my family relationships. and i feel like i am going crazy sometimes. i am also losing motivation to work. i also get waves of anger. this meditation thing is not working. everything is getting worse.

anyway, shine the light of your awareness to this problem. i love advices, criticism, and brutally honest feedback.

Try not thinking by focusing on your body. Give joga nidra (sleep joga) a try.