1 Hour Of Strong Determination Sitting Has Become Easy?

[ZenDog]

So I have been doing 1 - 1.5 hours of strong determination sitting a day for a while now.

At first 1 hour was extremely challenging and I made fast meditation gains. I then increased the challenge by sitting cross legged on a hard floor. 

Sitting crossed legged on a hard floor for one hour has become more or less easy. 

Is there anyway to increase the challenge without just increasing the time spent? like upping it up to 2 hours. 

[Azrael]

6 hours ago, ZenDog said:

Is there anyway to increase the challenge without just increasing the time spent? like upping it up to 2 hours. 

Yeah, I've come across this problem as well. I'd generally just recommend to increase the time - so you can reach with some training 2-3 or 4-5 hours. That will literally be life-changing.

But, what you can do w/o upping the time is sitting in a more advanced posture. For example I can sit 90 minutes easily in the "Burmese Posture" - but I'll definitely come across some problems if I try it with a "Quarter Lotus". So this way you can kinda harden the task.

However, as I said I'd definitely go for long hours. You'll also find that every 30 minutes you add to the clock is a completely new experience. For example when I tried to sit for 120 minutes back in November last year I would do the first 60 minutes very calm w/o pain. Then from 60-90 minutes I felt like I would sit lopsided because I sat so long. This induced some strange feelings and worries I had to overcome. Then from 90-120 minutes the real leg pains would come over. After sitting for 90 minutes your ass hurts constantly and your legs will just like a play in a theater build up and release pain very rhythmically. You are always looking if it is coming back and so on. This fucks you up deeply, man. 

So, go for the real torture here. It's worth it.

[Neo]

You guys are just gluttons!

[vizual]

You're either serious about it or not

[ZenDog]

@vizual lol

[ZenDog]

13 hours ago, Arik said:

 

However, as I said I'd definitely go for long hours. You'll also find that every 30 minutes you add to the clock is a completely new experience. For example when I tried to sit for 120 minutes back in November last year I would do the first 60 minutes very calm w/o pain. Then from 60-90 minutes I felt like I would sit lopsided because I sat so long. This induced some strange feelings and worries I had to overcome. Then from 90-120 minutes the real leg pains would come over. After sitting for 90 minutes your ass hurts constantly and your legs will just like a play in a theater build up and release pain very rhythmically. You are always looking if it is coming back and so on. This fucks you up deeply, man. 

My legs feel fine during the day. Im kinda starting to worry that ill fuck my legs up if I do this for the rest of my life 1-2 hours x) ?

I have also tought of eating a really strong chilli then do the sit. Cus chilli hurts like shit and I hate it, but it wont cause harm to you, so its harmless pain,

[Azrael]

11 hours ago, ZenDog said:

Im kinda starting to worry that ill fuck my legs up if I do this for the rest of my life 1-2 hours x) ?

Shinzen Young points out in this video that if the pains go away in 5-10 minutes after the sit, you are okay. Also most people can sit w/o problems for 4 hours, he says. Of course there are exceptions - but you have to decide on your own. I wouldn't recommend eating too much chili though. I once had a friend who did that for fun a little too much and now isn't capable of differentiating several tastes anymore.

So just go with the sit if you want. This method is probably one of the most practiced and oldest in Asian traditions. Just look at Zen. And these monks sit sometimes much longer and a lot of them reach a very old age. Just saying ...

[Falk]

This was just what i needed ....i just did a 80min sds and when my alarm went off i was like : what? already?  this can´t be ^^

i start 1 week ago and the first sit was crazy ...i cried 3 times , the 2nd and 3rd sit were a bit hellish with pain in my back ..then it became easier and easier every day. so tomorrow is day 8 ...i will do a 2h sit  ( i might regret that emoticon tomorrow in the last 30minutes  

[ZenDog]

@Arik Yea I dont have any physical issues im 20 lol, so I should be fine. 

[ZenDog]

@Falk haha 

Nothing is like when you are in massive amount of pain and frustration and you hear the alarm go off. The alarm is the best sound in the entire universe

[Ray]

Hey everyone  I've some question regarding strong meditations sittings and you guys seems to be really hardcore on the topic  so I will bother you  @ZenDog @Arik

I've been meditations for a year now, I've been doing almost all the technique that leo suggest among which the do nothing that I've been doing for 4-5 month in a row and currently doing it. However I start to feel that I'm on big plato, during all my meditation journey I always felt that I was improving; right now I feel that I'm not really improving and furthermore for like 1 month I can't reach long moment of peace and calmness. I still mediate in a chair position and today I've decided to make the "big leap" into a crossed legged position. So here are my questions: 

- have you ever "get bored" of a technique after doing it for a long time? before I had just a week or 1.5 week of "bad" meditation session, but nothing more than that... 

- strong meditation sitting it's basically just a long session (more than 1 hour) of a meditation technique (without moving etc... of course)? like when Leo published the video on meditations on steroids he was already doing 1 hours of meditation per day... so he was already doing meditation on steroids all the time (and so I "already done" some long meditation with my daily session)? 

-straighten the spine, swallow, relaxing the jaw, recenter the attention when I'm falling asleep etc... are "acceptable" movements right? (silly question, but I want to be sure ahah) 

- there is a really big difference between a chair position and a crossed-legs position? like what are the benefits of a crossed legs position except that the pain it's bigger so you must face a bigger challenge? 

- You guys do Burmese Posture, Quarter Lotus ahah... what crossed-legs position would you suggest me to start with? And what "tools" do you use? like pillow, covers...? 

- @ZenDog a cool way to increase would be do a Viapassana! I will do one on the summer

Thank you for the time, much love for all the people on the forumm <3 ahah

Edited March 20, 2016 by Ray

[Steven]

37 minutes ago, Ray said:

- strong meditation sitting it's basically just a long session (more than 1 hour) of a meditation technique (without moving etc... of course)? 

Hey Ray just a bit of caution here... The strong determination sitting means you have to pay attention constantly to your body making sure that it is not moving even slightly… this is not the same as simply relaxing and thinking that your body is not gonna move anyway keeping it in check every now and then ... It's like when you're paying attention to your breathing but this time you pay attention on the body and you are making sure it's static.

If you are really doing one hour of this then you are pretty advanced...

Edited March 20, 2016 by Steven

[ZenDog]

6 hours ago, Ray said:

Hey everyone  I've some question regarding strong meditations sittings and you guys seems to be really hardcore on the topic  so I will bother you  @ZenDog @Arik

I've been meditations for a year now, I've been doing almost all the technique that leo suggest among which the do nothing that I've been doing for 4-5 month in a row and currently doing it. However I start to feel that I'm on big plato, during all my meditation journey I always felt that I was improving; right now I feel that I'm not really improving and furthermore for like 1 month I can't reach long moment of peace and calmness. I still mediate in a chair position and today I've decided to make the "big leap" into a crossed legged position. So here are my questions: 

- have you ever "get bored" of a technique after doing it for a long time? before I had just a week or 1.5 week of "bad" meditation session, but nothing more than that... 

- strong meditation sitting it's basically just a long session (more than 1 hour) of a meditation technique (without moving etc... of course)? like when Leo published the video on meditations on steroids he was already doing 1 hours of meditation per day... so he was already doing meditation on steroids all the time (and so I "already done" some long meditation with my daily session)? 

-straighten the spine, swallow, relaxing the jaw, recenter the attention when I'm falling asleep etc... are "acceptable" movements right? (silly question, but I want to be sure ahah) 

- there is a really big difference between a chair position and a crossed-legs position? like what are the benefits of a crossed legs position except that the pain it's bigger so you must face a bigger challenge? 

- You guys do Burmese Posture, Quarter Lotus ahah... what crossed-legs position would you suggest me to start with? And what "tools" do you use? like pillow, covers...? 

- @ZenDog a cool way to increase would be do a Viapassana! I will do one on the summer

Thank you for the time, much love for all the people on the forumm <3 ahah

- strong meditation sitting it's basically just a long session (more than 1 hour) of a meditation technique (without moving etc... of course)? like when Leo published the video on meditations on steroids he was already doing 1 hours of meditation per day... so he was already doing meditation on steroids all the time (and so I "already done" some long meditation with my daily session)? 

Yes, but it is way more intense than just doing a normal 1 hour meditation session. It forces your mind to going into ultra focus mode. Because if you cant keep your concentration and focus, you're done and you will move. I do it combined with mindfullness meditation + self inquiry, so when I fx am focusing on sound and pain starts to come up I have to greatly increase my focus on the sound in order not to fail and move.

 

-straighten the spine, swallow, relaxing the jaw, recenter the attention when I'm falling asleep etc... are "acceptable" movements right? (silly question, but I want to be sure ahah) 

Yes all automatic bodyfunctions are acceptable. Just as long as your not moving in order to get out of pain.

- there is a really big difference between a chair position and a crossed-legs position? like what are the benefits of a crossed legs position except that the pain it's bigger so you must face a bigger challenge? 

personally for me the only difference is the pain challenge, when i didnt do strong determination sitting i always used chairs too. 

 

@ZenDog a cool way to increase would be do a Viapassana! I will do one on the summer

Yeah I applied for one here in germany, but i didnt get in  

I ll apply for some other ones around Europe too, and hopefully get in. 

[Guest]

@Arik How did you friend lose tasting powers?

[Azrael]

On 21.3.2016 at 1:34 AM, FocusOnTruth said:

How did you friend lose tasting powers?

He didn't lose them - he just said that he isn't capable of differentiating tastes as well as before.

[Guest]

@Arik Yeah, that's what I mean.

[Guest]

I'm thinking of starting to set aside an 8 hour period every week to do nothing but SDS, perhaps a weekly all-nighter. Not sure if that's healthy, maybe better to just have a day off from obligations every week.

[nbolt]

8 minutes ago, FocusOnTruth said:

I'm thinking of starting to set aside an 8 hour period every week to do nothing but SDS, perhaps a weekly all-nighter. Not sure if that's healthy, maybe better to just have a day off from obligations every week.

damn eight hours? report back with your experience