Meditation Vs Self Inquiry

[King Merk]

Seeking advice.

Realistically, I have one hour per day to devote to my consciousness practice.

For the last few months I’ve been doing 30 minutes of mindfulness meditation (using the note, label, savor technique) immediately followed up by 30 minutes of self inquiry.

Personally I find mindfullness meditation to be boring as shit. I have a hard time focusing and taking it very seriously. It’s definitely a grind to do mindfullness meditation for me.

This is a stark contrast to self inquiry, which I’m innately drawn towards doing. I love chasing the ox tail down the rabbit hole and trying to figure out what in the fuck I am and why I can’t seem to get to the bottom of it.

Ive been doing “standard” meditation practices for about 5 years now. I’m starting to think I’m advanced enough to drop my meditation all together and focus entirely on self inquiry and watching objects from a state of not knowing. 

So my proposition is shifting my practice to 60 minutes of straight self inquiry per day. The goal is Truth realization and I feel that self inquiry will be more likely to get me there than simply meditation.

Is this a reasonable change to make in my practice? Or am I diluting myself simply because I don’t like mindfullness meditation? What do y’all think? 

[Forestluv]

Self inquiry is an advanced practice. It’s more about deconstruction and transcending intellect than figuring things out through reason. 
 

If you have momentum with self inquiry and your intuition says to dive in deeper, go for it and see how it goes.

[Nak Khid]

Self-Enquiry & Mindfulness Meditation ~ Shinzen Young

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i288Lnb7NOk

[erik8lrl]

They are both important. Follow your intuition and do what feels right. They will always lead to each other naturally. Enough inquiry will always lead to the need for meditation and VIC Versa. 

Edited November 14, 2019 by erik8lrl

[ADD]

Meditation will get easier by practice, it's very simple you just don't get the thing about it at start. I struggled with it the first time i started 4 years ago, i was constantly picking up my phone and watching the clock "ugh when will this end". Now if i'm doing guided meditation and it ends i'm like "wtf nooo, that was 30 minutes already? felt like 5" and then i continue by myself. The point is, it starts to feel so good to be in that state that you don't want to stop. For me it feels that self-inquiry is more fruitful when in meditative state.

[Eu Sint]

In my opinion self inquiry should be done all the time, not only within a certain time frame chosen for it. Self inquiry is not a substitute for meditation, but on the contrary, by practicing meditation, peace and mental calmness are installed as a necessary background for self inquiry. Both practices complement each other. If you do not like mindfulness, you can try for example abstract meditation with the object of meditation emptiness, or listening the silence.?

[flume]

@King Merk I actually got really fed up with meditation a while back. I found it boring as hell to sit down and it got to a point where I almost resented it.
Then I allowed myself to just mentally let go of my rigid schedule. What do you know, just some days later I was meditating again, whenever I felt like it, about as much as I did before. 

Being at war with yourself is really just feeding the mind. It loves to make a problem out of everything.

And it’s not like you’re just starting out, you won’t loose much just by going by your intuition for some weeks and see what happens. I actually read from a lot of people that powerful awakenings happened because they got a strong intuition to let go of their routines and everything that’s structuring their days. Schedules are in the mind. Intuitions connects you to being. 

Alternatively, maybe look up new kinds of mindfulness meditation. 

This path can be so messy, it’s not like anyone here can really tell you what to do. But wouldn’t it feel wrong not to go after that inkling? It’s really the only thing you’ve got. In the end, no one can show you the way but you.

All the best!

[ardacigin]

Your mind is experiencing a lack of unification towards meditation and this produces aversion, negative feelings, boredom and frustration. You are also negatively reinforcing this process of attentional training by constantly reacting with negative unwholesome states of minds like frustration and boredom.

Try the jhana practice taught by Leigh Brasington for awhile. Learn how to smile properly in meditation. Add and try to look for the joy and happiness (however you can find at this phase of your practice).

When the mind's negative momentum towards the present moment is partially undone, you will start to find stable attention more fun and rewarding. At this point, motivation will slightly increase and your practice will go deeper.

After stable attention, you'll add metacognitive awareness and whole-body awareness with meditative joy and things will go even deeper.

Then profound equanimity will start to develop and things will go even deeper than before.

 Then the mind will be able to do majority of the insight practices (including self-enquiry and many more) with relative effortlessness, joy and ease.

Mindfulness is more of a fundamental skill than self-inquiry in a state of mind wandering. Remember that self-enquiry is an advanced insight practice. It is not designed for people who have fixated thoughts in their minds. (and pervasive self-related negative emotions for that matter)

The problem is you haven't quite gone deeper into mindfulness as you potentially could in 5 years. Dropping and changing techniques like that will only make the process take longer and frustrate the mind even more. Find a mindfulness or yoga technique that works for you and develop the skills like stable attention, equanimity, joy and awareness.

But feel free to try self-inquiry as well. Hope it works out either way

 

Edited November 28, 2019 by ardacigin

[ardacigin]

Also, there is no such thing as 'being advanced enough that I can drop mindfulness and start self enquiry'.

Mindfulness can be infinitely deepened. Self-enquiry is done in a state of deep mindfulness. Peter Ralston is not thinking about what to eat for lunch or how boring contemplation is when he is doing self enquiry. He is in a state of profound presence. 

Try to change your assumptions towards what self enquiry and mindfulness is supposed to feel like. They all repeatedly direct the attention and awareness to the present moment. When an adept meditator does mindfulness and self enquiry back to back, the transition is barely perceptible.

You can't run away from mindful awareness. This is the essence of this work.

I understand your current frustration but you need to face these emotions head on rather than going for seemingly the easier path with self-enquiry. Neither path is actually easy.

You just need to rewire your existing negative mental reactions to positivity and joy just  enough with mindfulness so that present moment awareness is fun and enjoyable like a video game.

Self-inquiry won't solve this emotional issue for you unless you actually become awake. And even then, you will need to do deep emotional work regardless because not all craving and suffering will be eliminated in the initial stages of awakening.

So keep these in mind while making your decision.

Hope this helped

Edited November 28, 2019 by ardacigin