Add pain in strong determination sitings

[Jordan94]

So I defintly find it a great value to have strong determination sittings, and right now i'm meditating 2 times 1 hour daily and I want to have sometimes strong determination sittings as well

But the problem is, even if i don't change posture and open eyes/legs/hands during one hour, I don't really feel much pain due to not moving, I meditate on a sofa or bed with a pillow so it's too soft to hurt after one hour (in vipassana retreat after 45m it definitly hurts quite a lot on their meditation setup)

And if i meditate on a pillow on the floor, it hurts a bit but in a weird way and I feel like my blood doesn't flow in a way that might be bad long term, so I don't love this option neither

 

So basically i'm looking for another option that would add some pain for sitting one hour without changing position, so that it is somewhat painful in the end of the hour

[PsiloPutty]

When most people do SD sits, it's the mental pain that makes them end a session. If you can sit for an hour without mental or physical pain, go for 2 hours. If you can do 2 hours, go for 3. Everyone has their breaking point, and that breaking point is the gold nugget of SD sitting. 

[Jordan94]

Yea that would definitly be a working option

But planningwise i'd rather stay mostly with one hour sittings (twice a day), so a way to make 1 hour sitting more painful would be better still

[Akuma]

@Jordan94 Have you tried ice baths?

If you have a bath at home you can meditate whilst in a cold/ice bath.

DO NOT go for more than 5mins at first and DO NOT put ice at first!

Try with moderately cold water and build your way up.

But that's a for sure way to add pain to your meditation. 

[PsiloPutty]

@Jordan94   I understand what you're saying. I've done a few things in the past to ramp up the psychological suffering. Before doing my sit, I've put pieces of tape on my face, neck and arms. I've stuffed dry leaves down my shirt. I've put sharp thistle underneath each hand where they rest on my knees. I've put hard objects underneath my butt before I sit. I don't do it much at all anymore. 

[lmfao]

@Jordan94 whenever I meditate (I just do 1hr a day) there's always plenty of shit for me to focus on and work on. Emotions, pain, mind wondering, monkey mind, etc.

If you're looking to spice things up, you could maybe meditate when you're slightly dehydrated and/or hungry? Meditating upon new flavours of suffering and misery might work. 

[Cocolove]

eat a really spicy food, lay down, and meditate

[Rilles]

Get up at 5am... and do it outside in the cold...naked

[okulele]

Yes. Cold is the way.

 

[Hellspeed]

On 19.12.2018 at 6:18 PM, Jordan94 said:

So I defintly find it a great value to have strong determination sittings, and right now i'm meditating 2 times 1 hour daily and I want to have sometimes strong determination sittings as well

But the problem is, even if i don't change posture and open eyes/legs/hands during one hour, I don't really feel much pain due to not moving, I meditate on a sofa or bed with a pillow so it's too soft to hurt after one hour (in vipassana retreat after 45m it definitly hurts quite a lot on their meditation setup)

And if i meditate on a pillow on the floor, it hurts a bit but in a weird way and I feel like my blood doesn't flow in a way that might be bad long term, so I don't love this option neither

 

So basically i'm looking for another option that would add some pain for sitting one hour without changing position, so that it is somewhat painful in the end of the hour

Oh you don't know what you saying  Pain will come if you really advance, and it will be more stronger than any pain you have experienced in life. 

[Jordan94]

Thanks for the answers some good stuff

Cold might be a good option, i could meditate shirtless now in winter or put AC cold when i'm in thailand/whatever, i usually don't do that because I don't want to sneeze and get my nose cloged, but i might try

On 20/12/2018 at 3:05 AM, PsiloPutty said:

@Jordan94   I understand what you're saying. I've done a few things in the past to ramp up the psychological suffering. Before doing my sit, I've put pieces of tape on my face, neck and arms. I've stuffed dry leaves down my shirt. I've put sharp thistle underneath each hand where they rest on my knees. I've put hard objects underneath my butt before I sit. I don't do it much at all anymore. 

That's kind of the type of stuff i'm looking for, in the end what did you find most interesting between all of what you tried

 

On 22/12/2018 at 3:07 AM, lmfao said:

If you're looking to spice things up, you could maybe meditate when you're slightly dehydrated and/or hungry? Meditating upon new flavours of suffering and misery might work. 

I don't really like the idea because it happens sometimes that I meditate tired for example, and it's really bad for focus so I don't feel like it's good meditation, dehydrated might be kinda similar, hungry is a bit different could be good but i'm really not that sensitive to hunger pain (to a moderate extent)

 

On 22/12/2018 at 6:02 AM, Cocolove said:

eat a really spicy food, lay down, and meditate

Could be pretty good actually thanks, I'm really weak at spicy food as well so it might be really effective actually, and should not be too difficult to find/buy some cheap spicy little food (especially when it's really fast too spicy for me)

 

One other thing I've been thinking is to sit 1 hour in full lotus position, I definitly do have pain if I do that for one hour so that's perfect, but I'm not sure about mid/long term harm for bones/ligaments/whatever, I've seen somewhere that the position is actually quite harmfull for the body if done too much/often, not sure if it's bullshit or not, somebody knows more about that ?

[PsiloPutty]

In the end, I decided to abandon the imposed pain and just let time takes its toll on me as I do SD sits. Drags it out, but the slow buildup of tension is sublimely nice, sicko that I am.