I feel as if I'm meditating wrong

[EternalForest]

I do have OCD, and throughout the day, if I get into one my little "cycles", then thoughts may have trouble leaving my mind. Yet strangely, meditation gives me no real struggle. I can easily sit and just relax my mind. There is no clearing my mind. I might be the minority, but I can easily sit for an hour in an empty room and quiet my mind. I may look at the clock a few times, and sure, any more than an hour and it may become a challenge. But there's no monkey mind as far as I can see. If I try to focus like it's taught in certain meditation methods, it makes me over-focus because I already feel focused, yet relaxed, Thoughts may arise in my mind, but I can choose to entertain or to not entertain them at will. The worst that can happen for me during meditation is falling asleep!

At the same time though, I feel no real need to make it a daily habit to sit down and meditate. When I do it's nice, but I don't get very much from it outside of some extra relaxation. I've had more spiritual experiences through astral projection or lucid dreams on a real-life level of vividness. Those experiences take me somewhere beyond myself, but meditation does nothing of the sort for me. One theory I have is that I'm not meditating correctly, there's something I'm doing that's keeping it from being what its supposed to be.

Edit: I'd like to add that my favorite meditation sessions have been done in extremely large rooms, out in nature, looking at the trees around me, or looking out the window of a tall building from the 8th floor at the city below. Those have given me more enjoyment than sitting in a normal room, but it had nothing to do with the meditation itself, it had more to do with me enjoying the environment. Sessions in an environment I enjoy I could even see myself doing for 90 minutes. But even these experiences feel shallow to me. It feels like I'm sitting there doing nothing! And I know that's what it's supposed to be, but its an hour of "This feels nice." without any real lasting draw for me to return.

Edited September 13, 2019 by EternalForest

[Jordan94]

If you don't get benefits/progress out of meditation with 1 hours+ siting daily for 6+ month, yea there might be something incorect

Check that post, maybe that's your case too, especially since you say your biggest problem would be falling asleep, which is extreme dullness, it seems to corespond with the case described

https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/comments/8ee9dt/practice_dead_ends_on_the_meditative_path/

Edited September 13, 2019 by Jordan94

[EternalForest]

@Jordan94 Dullness? In the context of meditation and spirituality I've never heard that term being used. It seems to be counter-intuitive, since I always thought that maintaining an empty mind during spiritual practices was a goal that Leo pointed to in his videos, especially the earlier ones (not trying to stop thoughts, but discarding them).

The article you linked to suggests that I become temporarily more neurotic to counteract this? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see how that will help.

Tell me more about this "dullness".

Edit: I've never maintained a meditation habit for an extended period of time. Not that I don't want to, but I haven't yet.

Edited September 13, 2019 by EternalForest

[Enlightenment]

@EternalForest You're probably meditating in a deeper state of sustained subtle dullness

How straight is your posture while you meditate?

To counteract subtle dullness you have to increase the power of the mind by using intention to perceive details of the breath less conceptually (more as a raw sensation) and more vividly. You most likely using subtle concepts like "exhale" and "inhale" to follow the breath right?

Focus more of the raw sensation rather than concepts. Maintain a straight posture without back support. 

[EternalForest]

@Enlightenment Wouldn't that turn the meditation into a concentration practice? Or are you referring more to meditation with labeling?

[enderx7]

@EternalForest sounds like you have some concentration but it slips towards dullness. If you enjoy meditation as a major feature of your path check out the book: The Mind Illuminated. It's like a meditation bible with 12 stages and clear steps for what to do at each stage. You sounds like your stage 3 maybe 4 by the books measurements.

[Wlangr]

Have you tried concentrating on the heart? It's the gateway to the higher self. 

Like concentrating on the breath it renders the mind blank and gets you on different stages of cousciousness. The difference is that you can retain knowledge from the higher self while concentrating on the heart, that can be difficult but possible as long as the power of concentration is developed. 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Wlangr

[Enlightenment]

10 hours ago, EternalForest said:

@Enlightenment Wouldn't that turn the meditation into a concentration practice? Or are you referring more to meditation with labeling?

Building stable attention and powerfull awareness is meditation 

[ActualizedDavid]

2 hours ago, Wlangr said:

Have you tried concentrating on the heart? It's the gateway to the higher self. 

Like concentrating on the breath it renders the mind blank and gets you on different stages of cousciousness. The difference is that you can retain knowledge from the higher self while concentrating on the heart, that can be difficult but possible as long as the power of concentration is developed. 

 

 

Yes. i do this too sometimes. if you can do this . you can drop into the heart and let the mind quieter.

try it

[Jordan94]

On 13/09/2019 at 1:09 PM, EternalForest said:

@Jordan94 Dullness? In the context of meditation and spirituality I've never heard that term being used. It seems to be counter-intuitive, since I always thought that maintaining an empty mind during spiritual practices was a goal that Leo pointed to in his videos, especially the earlier ones (not trying to stop thoughts, but discarding them).

The article you linked to suggests that I become temporarily more neurotic to counteract this? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see how that will help.

Tell me more about this "dullness".

Edit: I've never maintained a meditation habit for an extended period of time. Not that I don't want to, but I haven't yet.

It's a term used in the book "The Mind Illuminated" that someone else suggested, if you're serious about meditation get the book and it's gonna be the biggest turn in your meditation path (there's a online version available as well if I'm correct)

 

If you want a little preview of what dullness is, let's say it's the amount of clarity/precision/richness of your perception (that would be no dullness), so dullness would mean when you're sensations/perception is less rich/clear, typically for example before you fall aspleep, another comun example would be when you're driving or doing something on autopilot, sometimes the mind gets so dull that we don't even remember what we were doing

 

There's a little corelation in that reducing dullness and geting a more clear/rich perception might increase the mind distractions, but in your case it seems that the way you want to go if you have little to 0 distractions but dullness

Edited September 14, 2019 by Jordan94

[mandyjw]

@EternalForest The last element of this video is an important one to bring into meditation. It took me a long time to understand it and I'm still practicing it. Like you if I'm out in nature, then BOOM deep love arises quickly. 

Also if you don't mind my asking, how does your OCD play out? Do you hear voices in your head or get impulses? I had OCD that I got over for years and it reappeared before I had an awakening and I saw that it was tied to intuition and my shadow side. Just an interesting perspective on it, if it helps you to have an open mind about it always being a negative thing, though I fully appreciate and understand its potential to cause suffering. 

 

[Nahm]

@mandyjw That is amongst the most honest things I have ever read in my entire life. 

[Nahm]

@EternalForest It’s because you are not realizing how sneaky you are. You have mastered the ‘whys’ of not meditating ever single morning. Now, master meditating, every single morning. Master yourself & emotions, organically, along the way. This is self discovery. 

[SoonHei]

Advice to a young friend who’s feeling distant from God, and having trouble with meditation:

The Real suffuses everything. Goodness is constantly emanating from The Real. It flows through you in this very moment. There is no distance from The Real. It is impossible to be apart from The One Reality. You are within Goodness. You arise from Goodness. By Goodness you are sustained. And when you die, it will be into Perfection.

Meditation is not about controlling your thoughts and feelings. It is about seeing them, attending to their arrival and departure, and accepting them as they are. 

There is nothing you can do about your thoughts. You yourself are just a thought. If the thought of you was not there, you would not be there. You are not there until the thought “I am here.” arises. You do not create it. You ARE it. 

Watch the thought that is your presence. If you watch it long enough you will learn everything you need to know.