Pain From Doing "Nothing" When Meditating

[TeamBills]

I've been meditating for an hour on and off for over 2.5 years. Recently I've noticed meditation extremely painful. I have this immediate urge of wanting to do some activity or project after my meditating because just sitting and doing "nothing" is too painful. Do you think trying to distract myself with activities is bad? Should I be trying to embrace this pain? Sometimes I try to embrace the pain because it ends up being less painful, but recently I have found more comfort in trying to distract myself by keeping busy.

Off topic, has anyone thought about creating an official meditation topic instead of all these separate topics about meditation cluttering up the forum?

[dorg]

@TeamBills I presume you are doing strong determination sitting.

I found it made a lot of difference once I realised that I am awareness (nothing) and remained as that whilst watching the pain. In due course the pain goes.

 

[dorg]

It goes because there is no longer anyone to experience it. (Merely being aware of it is not experiencing it).

[Leo Gura]

@dorg TeamBills is not talking about physical pain, but the pain of boredom.

@TeamBills Of course its boring, that's the ego dying and wanting to escape its death.

Try doing a week-long retreat and going deep into the boredom. That's where the real gainz are at.

[Solace]

Enlightenment dosen’t have to be painful, it can be very joyous. Yes your mind will resist the present moment initially; and it will require effort. That’s apart of the journey. 

After a period of time that’s different for everyone, you will start to want to be in the present more than inside your mind; and that’s when the grace, joy, and happiness starts filling your reality; and the minds resistance may come up in waves which purifies your mind of all limiting beleifs. 

Many people follow spiritual paths rooted in suffering and seperation. Thankfully there are paths that take you directly to your source as awareness and love combined from the beginnning. That’s why the present moment is where we begin and is where we end.

May you find the love you always wanted, that has always been right here and right now.

[Torkys]

The next time you feel this, try to feel into the emotion. What does it try to communicate? What Resistance are you encountering? 

Nothing is wrong with distracting yourself. Just remember that the pain won't go away until you stay unconditionally present with it. 

[TeamBills]

When I said pain I was referring to worrying/stress/depression not physical pain. I made a mistake on my first post, I meant to say a year and a half not 2 and a half years.

@dorg Thank you for the response. I don't do strong determination sitting. I sit in a regular chair. I have not realized the state you are talking about. Are you referring to enlightment? It sounds like stuff I have heard about enlightment.

@Leo Gura Thank you for the response. Boredom? Hmm that is an interesting take that I have not thought of before. I'll think about that some more. I did a week long nonstop retreat last November. I learned a few valuable things.

1. I was not bored and did not crave stimulation for one second. I was blown away by this. The thought of boredom did come up maybe once or twice but then I realized immediately that I was having plenty of fun doing what I was doing and laughed off the notion of being bored. I still can't believe I never craved stimulation for the full week. 

2. I think there is an older video you did about how meditating could be more fun then even the greatest video games, tv, sex etc. I was very skeptical when you stated that. But there was a period of that week where I realized what you were talking about was true. It was a period of "being", I'm not good at explaining it in words. It is something you would have to experience for your self to understand. 

@Solace Thank you for the response. I like what you mentioned about it being a journey. Sounds a lot like Leo's recent video about life being a maze.

@Torkys Thank you for the response. I will try to look more into. I think distracting yourself sometimes gets a bad rep in the self help field. I think it is something good, as long as you keep the amount of time you are doing it under control. A benefit I have noticed from distracting myself is that it lets me escape what I don't like about the present moment and reminds me of the joys of life.

 

Something that I picked up on when I was meditating today was to be indifferent about the quality of the present moment. I don't want to get my hopes up because I have come up with little tricks before that didn't end up really doing anything, but this "thought" that I came up with today has seemed to calm me down and has helped me relax some more. I know that I am very neurotic about wanting the present moment to be of better quality, and when I stop demanding it to be a certain quality, and instead become indifferent to the quality, I notice myself relax more.

Edited August 28, 2018 by TeamBills

[Faceless]

This pain-conflict arises from reaction, which is a doing. This pain is the result of perpetual nourishment of the escape from what is, and the pursuit of the abstraction, (what should be). (Psychological time).

There is a movement of division in motion. The meditator goes into the “do nothing” meditation sitting with a motive in mind. This implies from the very beginning, that this false division is being nourished by the application of time,(identification with thought), or all movement then is influenced by the false division between the experiencer and the experienced. As long as this false division is in motion, (experience, knowledge, memory), or (THOUGHT), then followed by action, there will inevitably be this reaction-conflict. This is incomplete action or “a doing”. Doing nothing is very misunderstood, but is well worth inquiring into indeed

[TeamBills]

@Faceless Thank you for the response.

2 minutes ago, Faceless said:

There is a movement of division in motion. The meditator goes into the “do nothing” meditation sitting with a motive in mind.

That was a problem I had, and the "do nothing" meditation technique that Leo did a video about has helped me get over "accomplishing" something when meditating. You make a good point with examples about doing nothing being misunderstood. I never thought about it like that. Also, your avatar is badass.