I'm Starting To See And Feel No Difference Between Meditating And Not Meditating

[Joseph Maynor]

Is this normal? Now when I meditate, nothing really changes for me.  

I've been meditating everyday for a little over 1 year now.  1 hour each day, no missed days.  Actually, why lie there were a couple of missed days in there.  But never 2 missed days in a row.  As I can recollect.

Now, when I meditate, it's just a change of inputs, but the awareness is the same.  My monkey mind is much calmer now. It used to be flapping all over the place when I meditated and otherwise.

I still want to meditate very much, so I'm not saying meditation is useless.  It's like a magnifying glass for awareness.  Merely a restriction of inputs for awareness.  That's it!  Not a huge change for me anymore.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Loreena]

@Joseph Maynor Jo Maybe this happens in the beginning.  

Probably you need to wait

[ajasatya]

@Joseph Maynor do you live stuck in the past? are you anxious for the next move?
if your answers are no, then you've already attained the pragmatic healing that the meditation habit provides. you can move one step further and let go of gains from your meditation habit. just meditate for no reason.

letting go of gains is a real method to make your ego actually dry out. it feels unpleasant. it feels like a waste of time. but that's how the real work feels.

Edited July 2, 2017 by ajasatya

[Shin]

22 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Is this normal? Now when I meditate, nothing really changes for me.  

I've been meditating for about 2 years

Now when I meditate, it's just a change of inputs, but the awareness is the same.  My monkey mind is much calmer now. It used to be flapping all over the place when I meditated and otherwise.

I still want to meditate very much, so I'm not saying meditation is useless.  It's like a magnifying glass for awareness.

This is when it all begins :3

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by Shin

[Joseph Maynor]

1 minute ago, ajasatya said:

@Joseph Maynor how long have you been meditating for?

do you live stuck in the past? are you anxious for the next move?
if your answers are no, then you've already attained the pragmatic healing that the meditation habit provides. you can move one step further and let go of gains from your meditation habit. just meditate for no reason.

letting go of gains is a real method to make your ego actually dry out. it feels unpleasant. it feels like a waste of time. but that's how the real work feels.

1 year. 

[zazed]

This is normal. Really, why would you only meditate when sitting cross legged on the floor? Is the meditative state not always a good state to try to be in, does your mind need your legs to be crossed somehow?   Basically, I often fall into meditation whenever i stop talking and relating to people, which is all the time when i have a spare alone moment.

It can become boring, it can lead to a dark night this way, because your daily activities can lose meaning, if there is only being. In my experience, the dark night is when the monkey mind is still uncomfortable with the silence and emptiness of the true self emerging. It's better if i'm just with family/friends, their chatter soothes the monkey and the true self via love.  It's easy to be meditative if there is only input, but if work or family requires output the monkey needs to act. Being is not doing stuff, so that's what i'm struggling with now. If i have to think about things, i seem to be attached to no mind, which is also a desire, which is not rly good for me. If any of this makes any sense whatsoever...  

Good for you, keep at it <3
I think you are on to something here, especially if master Shin says so!

[Shanmugam]

@Joseph Maynor What is the method of your meditation?

[Shan]

@Joseph Maynor

I hope this article answers your question. Are you on Level 10 ?

 

 

 

[Joseph Maynor]

On 7/3/2017 at 3:30 AM, Shanmugam said:

@Joseph Maynor What is the method of your meditation?

Do nothing meditation.

[Shanmugam]

Do nothing meditation can be tricky... Are you being mindful of your thoughts when doing the meditation?

[cetus]

1 hour ago, Shanmugam said:

Do nothing meditation can be tricky... Are you being mindful of your thoughts when doing the meditation?

I had a brother who did do-nothing. He was good at doing nothing on a park bench all day.
 But than you have someone like Eckhart Tolle who did it mindfully and was willing to do the actual work of digging deep within himself for truth. And of course that's the only place your going to find any meaningful answers. Through silent self observation.

[AleksM]

@Joseph Maynor Yes, this is normal. When the monkey mind gets calmer as you are describing, you start to embody more of alpha and theta brainwaves(a calmer state) and less beta brainwave activity (mental sounds). After a while, almost no mental sounds are present. This means that you embodied a calmer state of mind.

This does not mean you ridded yourself of the mind or that you transcended the mind, it just became less obvious that the mind is still in operation, because you cannot hear internal thoughts.

However this is far from transcending the mind so be careful, the mind can still play tricks with you in fact after you embody a state of perfect mental calmness (no mental sounds) the mind can still play tricks with you almost 24/7. 

The mind uses projections from the past/future and those projections project themselves onto the now moment.

Monkey mind, the mind that's not present  = hearing mental sounds, past and future thoughts...

The present mind = no mental sounds because it is present, still has a grip on you and controls you, still attached and still identified with the mind...

No mind = no mental sounds, ability to detach from the mind on demand, ability to act arational, you can use the mind like a servant and not let the mind use you, discernment, identified with nothingness - consciousness - God - awarness, no self....

 

This is not some theory I have heard somewhere this is actually a timeline I have gone trough and experienced. People who think that being present with no monkey mind is the answer to end suffering and identification with the mind are dead wrong, it is funny.

[Leo Gura]

@Joseph Maynor Don't kid yourself. You've only scratched the surface.

[Arkandeus]

perfect, great,
I think it might be about the perfect time for you to simply meditate your life

[Shin]

You mean being aware of your thoughts as thoughts and not you ?

Because being aware only of awareness itself and being aware of nothingness would mean you realize some kind of enlightenment experience.