You're Only As Good As Your Deepest Meditation Session

[Mulky]

I am no expert on anything, but here is a notion that has been popping into my mind alot lately.  What determines our progress toward enlightenment, is not how often we meditate to a certain level of deepness,  but how deep our deepest meditation session has been(so long as it is somewhat recent).   To sit and meditate for 30 minutes a day and only to the same depth each time, is only good for maintenance.  If we really want to become enlightened, we have to keep going when it gets scary and uncomfortable, new and expansive, somewhere we haven't been before, a new frontier.  In my mind, if you sit down to meditate and haven't gone deeper and further than before, you're just maintaining.  A man can meditate 30 minutes a day for 20 years, and another guy can who has just found out about meditation can sit down and meditate 10 hours straight and penetrate deeper and establish himself at a deeper level permanently, than the 30 minute guy.  At the same time, someone can meditate for 5 minutes and if they let go completely could finish the task just like that.  In my mind it's how courageous you are to keep going and let the barriers dissolve, whether it takes you 5 minutes or 7 days, the depth of your deepest meditation is the most important thing, not how many times you meditate.

 

[Leo Gura]

Mechanical, daily mediation isn't very effective for becoming enlightened. I've found that you really gotta hit it hard at least occasionally with marathon sessions. There's nothing quite like doing 7 days straight of non-stop concentration on a single question. You don't stop even when you sleep. You keep the concentration going even in your dreams. After a few days of that, it's like you're in another world. You will never get that kind of focus even with daily 120 minute sessions.

Yes, focus is the key.

[Kevster]

@Leo Gura Did you do this at home or did you visit retraits for this for example?

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

[Leo Gura]

20 minutes ago, Kevster said:

@Leo Gura Did you do this at home or did you visit retraits for this for example?

Thanks in advance,

Kevin

Mostly retreats.

The most I've meditated at home is like 4 hours. But I will be doing solo retreats soon.

[Vinnie]

Anywhere that u can't be disturbed, I've got keys to my dojo so I use there. Love nature as well. Can't stress strong determination sits enough.

[Azrael]

On 26.2.2016 at 4:19 AM, Mulky said:

What determines our progress toward enlightenment, is not how often we meditate to a certain level of deepness,  but how deep our deepest meditation session has been(so long as it is somewhat recent).

I'd agree that you really have to go deeper in your meditation sittings to get to new realizations and stages of the journey. Yes, I can verify that with my own experience. However, I'd like to also stress that it is not as linear as you put it.

It's not that every time you go deeper in a meditation that you instantly get new realizations and go further to your enlightenment. You can't go towards your enlightenment any ways. It seems to me that I have phases in which I set the bar of deepness in my meditations a little higher and then in other phases I get rewarded for that work.

For me it's more like a pendulum with that and it is even not that predictable. I had strong determination sittings that deepened my meditation but didn't bring my much further on my journey. I had other sits that are kind of mainly "responsible" for where I'm at know.

If I go back to your illustration I'd say that the most "linear" progress in terms of deepness of meditation and going further on your journey is probably done by strong determination sittings. That's my experience. But as I said, it's very a broad generalization. 

Thanks for you view on this, though!