Meditating With A Gun To The Head

[Donald]

Hello to everyone 

I have been in meditating for almost 1 year now exploring with everything that's out there ( mantra , guided meditation , do nothing , breathing and so on ) and I will sit on the floor one pillow and crossed legs wich was extremely painful and stressful for 30 min ) .

So I tried strong determination sit and I stopped the clock at 53 min but I wanted to try something more exciting 

So for my next strong determination sit I decided to try something different , before my session I visualised a gun in my head wich would kill me if I moved before the alarm goes on and this time I aimed for 90 min and man did it work!!!!

Each and every time I had the sensation to quit throughout the session I thought of the gun pointed in my head . I was under stress and as the time kept on going I felt a deep connection with reality . Maybe because I was tricking my mind " surrender or die" so this caused my ego to accept the offer. 

Conclusion : Under stress our mind will do the most amazing things,  under stress our ego diminishes allowing us to come upon unique experiences 

[Azrael]

8 hours ago, Donald said:

So for my next strong determination sit I decided to try something different , before my session I visualised a gun in my head wich would kill me if I moved before the alarm goes on and this time I aimed for 90 min and man did it work!!!!

Haha nice trick. I think it is some kind of distraction though that doesn't get you the full thing. Here's why: When it comes to strong determination sits you don't wanna look so much on the time. It's not important whether you do 30, 60 or 90 minutes. If you begin take 30 or 60. What you try to accomplish here is to build up a staggering pain in typically your legs and you trying to let that go with mindfulness.

The body is forced to bring up high amounts of awareness automatically to keep down the pain. This is the goal here because this is the new set point of your practice then. Typically you do a few sits with unbearable pain, than with another one you are able so transcend the pain. And slowly you understand how to work with the pain so you are able to sit with it every time until it isn't there anymore.

I'd guess for a normal mediator it sounds like nuts doing that but from my own experience - I do that every day - it's the most liberating thing you could do. And once you looked into pain and suffering deep enough you become friends with it and it doesn't impose that fear on you anymore.

Nice experiment, though

[Leo Gura]

Quite neurotic.

Try instead loving yourself like a 5-year-old child next time.

Watch some Matt Kahn videos

By fighting with yourself during meditation, you strengthen the illusion of the self.

There is no one to fight with. All your struggles are illusion! There is no one is control!

[Flicker_boy]

@Donald oh boy, oh boy... do whatever you want to. eventually you'll find out that striving is the very thing that's unenlightening 'you'

[Donald]

@Lorenzo Engel Thank you for your feedback 

I think that one must experiment new things , after that experience my meditation sessions have become easier because I don't offer so much resistance .The imaginary gun gave me a sense of extreme resistance and I used that trick to see my limits . In my opinion only when you experience resistance you can accept it as a part of the equation and work on it .

[Donald]

@Leo Gura Thank you for your feedback. I will work more on compassion ?