Told to drop meditation

[Patrick Lynam]

So I'm 22 and have been meditating on and off since i was about 18 from watching Leo's videos i did a 10 day vipassana retreat earlier this year and i enjoy meditation. recently i did a 10 day  breath work retreat where the people running it were also quite familiar with Wilhelm reich and observing bodies and how muscle tension affects personality.

They observed that i am quite disconnected from my legs and during a phone call after the retreat one of the facilitators said that his advice to me is to drop meditation for this part of my life and try to get into my legs weather that be through running or kicking etc. he said that he used to be vegan and meditate and that his life was getting worse and not better. I know that he is not experienced with psychedelics so I'm thinking maybe that is why his meditation did not work for him. I'm also not very experienced with psychedelics i have done LSD maybe 5 times and pretty much always had bad trips when doing anywhere near a full 100 mcg not sure if that is relevant thoe just thought i would add that. any thoughts ? it seems Leo is quite pro meditation for everyone so I'm not sure if i should keep doing it I feel I'm a good meditator but maybe its not helping me?  

Edited December 15, 2019 by Patrick Lynam
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[TrynaBeTurquoise]

Be wary when someone tells you something like this. Their experience is not yours. 

[Patrick Lynam]

@TrynaBeTurquoise <3

 

[Nak Khid]

37 minutes ago, Patrick Lynam said:

So I'm 22 and have been meditating on and off since i was about 18 from watching Leo's videos i did a 10 day vipassana retreat earlier this year and i enjoy meditation. recently i did a 10 day  breath work retreat where the people running it were also quite familiar with Wilhelm reich and observing bodies and how muscle tension affects personality.

They observed that i am quite disconnected from my legs and during a phone call after the retreat one of the facilitators said that his advice to me is to drop meditation for this part of my life and try to get into my legs weather that be through running or kicking etc. he said that he used to be vegan and meditate and that his life was getting worse and not better

1) So a facilitator at vipassana retreat said he used to be vegan and meditate and that his life was getting worse and not better.
So why would he be facilitating a meditation retreat?

2) How did they observe that your are quite disconnected from your legs?   Did you feel that you had any kind of leg problems before going to this retreat ?

It don't see how doing exercise with the legs corresponds with doing or not doing meditation
be on the lookout for this developing into a sales pitch for bioenergetic therapy (associated with Wilhelm Reich )

As for Vipassana, get a second opinion see if you can meet with somebody who had verifiable training in Theravada in South Asia or has trained under a Theravada monk.
And I advise not doing anything special with your legs unless you have had problems with them and a doctor has examined your legs

 

 

 

 

 

[Patrick Lynam]

@Nak Khid  it was the facilitator at the breath work retreat who said all of that, they said that i need grounding. I did not talk to the facilitators at the Vipassana retreat. 

I have been doing bio energetic exercises to get into my legs and for grounding like this one daily 

 

[Patrick Lynam]

@Nak Khid  perhaps i could be argued that meditation could be destabilising therefore making it harder to be grounded? im not super affluent with all of these terms like stabilising and grounding I guess I have not had enough life experience to have a solid understanding 

[Patrick Lynam]

@Nak Khid and they said they can tell that I'm disconnected from my legs because they have done allot of observing body's and training in other body based therapies. i have not had leg problems but i do have very skinny legs 

[Patrick Lynam]

@Nak Khid is there a reason i should be on the lookout for this turning into . a sales pitch for bio energetic therapy? i have been doing bio energetics for about 1 month now and it seems to be working?

[WelcometoReality]

@Patrick Lynam Instead of dropping it altogether maybe you can cut down on the hours you sit and start exercising aswell?

 

[Patrick Lynam]

@WelcometoReality  yes i already exercise and i try to make myself meditate atleast 20 minutes a day and somtimes more i feel like it  

[Consilience]

Personally I would never stop doing meditation unless it was by my own authentic authority. You said you enjoy meditation. If that’s the case, you probably get benefits from meditating so why stop? 

In my experience, meditation is one of the most grounding practices I do. I remember one of the biggest insights I had from my last mushroom trip was that meditation is extremely grounding and stabilizing for the mind. “Grounding” essentially meaning it keeps me in touch with what my mind is up to and builds an incredible infrastructure towards pretty much all facets of my life. Meditation is like a meta skill that has carry over into any activity requiring focus, which... is basically a requirement towards any activity ?

So I say if you’re enjoying it, keep going. Meditation can be very grounding but also destabilizing in the sense that it is a tool for reaching insights. But I honestly dont even see meditation being all that useful for discovering insight; it’s more about slowly transforming the mind overtime and grounding oneself in their baseline state of consciousness (vs psychedelics which are incredibly destabilizing to one’s baseline state of consciousness.) 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Consilience

[Patrick Lynam]

@Consilience  thankyou thats very helpful !  

[WelcometoReality]

43 minutes ago, Patrick Lynam said:

@WelcometoReality  yes i already exercise and i try to make myself meditate atleast 20 minutes a day and somtimes more i feel like it  

That doesn't sound like to much to me. Is there something I'm missing?

2 hours ago, Patrick Lynam said:

I feel I'm a good meditator but maybe its not helping me?  

You could stop meditating for a week or two and see if it's benefiting you or not.

[Patrick Lynam]

@WelcometoReality perhaps its isolation i spent almost no time with friends and has been that way for the past year as i live in a very low blue/ orange part of the world in a town with only about 80,000 people in australia quite isolated 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Patrick Lynam

[Nak Khid]

@Patrick Lynam  

I'm not going to say that mediation is necessarily benefiting you, it may or may not
however,  this thing about the legs smells like  bullshit.  It sounds like the facilitator of the breath work seem to be just trying to get you away from what he or she sees a as a competitive spiritual system, meditation. 

I like the William Hoff method of breath works well as  a nice lead into  Vipassana meditation in my opinion
and the mediation adds a nice grounding to it.
You could merely not tell this breath work facilitator you are doing mediation and continue to do it.  He may have just said that based on your legs looking skinny to him rather than getting a divine inspiration about it.
If he also has a degree in physical therapy it might be more worth paying close attention to and then getting a second opinion to verify it

Edited December 15, 2019 by Nak Khid

[electroBeam]

3 hours ago, Patrick Lynam said:

@WelcometoReality perhaps its isolation i spent almost no time with friends and has been that way for the past year as i live in a very low blue/ orange part of the world in a town with only about 80,000 people in australia quite isolated 

dubbo hahaha.

Look, it's very possible to get attached to meditation and to fall in love with the practice instead of the intention to know truth.

You could have this idea of what enlightenment is(which is delusion by default) and be chasing that and focusing on using meditation to get to that, going on a wrong path. 

You could also use meditation as a way of boosting your spiritual ego if you have one.

I would also be weary of people who say they would never quit meditation. Meditation is a tool like nuclear energy. If you are scared of dropping it, chances are your practice is distracting you from integrating what's 'under' that fear, and the counter intuitive approach would be TO drop meditation and rather fully surrender and be present on what that fear is. 

So not saying for you to drop meditation, but wanted to give an opposite perspective to what others here are saying.

[Lento]

@Patrick Lynam

You need read between the lines.

They told you to stop meditating because meditation is usually done in a sitting position, but your legs need exercise, so you shouldn't sit for long periods of time, but rather spend more time on strengthening them.

The alternatives are simply like they suggested, try walking meditation, or free running. Sports in general are a spiritual practice for someone like you, i.e. a good meditator. You can meditate while kick-boxing, others can't, they simply aren't gifted.

[Aaron p]

@Patrick Lynam sounds like some bullshit to me homes. I recommend, meditating your ass off 

[Patrick Lynam]

@Aaron p @Nak Khid  THats really interesting and fucking creepy to think about, i feel like i already have trust issues too haha. i paid like $2700 for this breathwork retreat and to think it was a bloody scam or that i was taken advantage.. dammn,  allot of the post i have put on this forum have been about me not trusting people who want my money weather it be therapist or even leo with the life purpose course. i have only really been able to trust psychedelics to help me find truth i feel like i might be stage blue and just looking for the teacher with the most credibility or something

[Patrick Lynam]

45 minutes ago, electroBeam said:

dubbo hahaha.

Rockhampton hahaha a very special place