Is meditation a distraction from waking up?

[Jo96]

For context I meditate about 1.5 hours a day at this point. Off and on for most of my life. Recently I’ve been reading jed mckennas book jed talks #1. He says it several times that he believes that to turn off your brain and not think is the biggest tool of the ego. He claims that meditation or the path of no thought is yet another trap of maya to keep the self in bondage. 
 

I’m confused. On the one hand meditation seems to give me many benefits. I used to have severe anxiety and after meditating daily it completely Disappeared  as did a lot of my other problems and complains and qelms I had in daily life. 
 

but I can see his point. Am I not running away from the fear through meditation?  What happens if I allow my brain to turn on and think itself into oblivion ? Scratching every layer of the self away like a man picking at his blemishes until there is nothing left but everything. 

[gswva]

What if some benefits of meditation, mistakenly associated with mindfulness, actually came from restructuring your brain out of it's default anxiety-filled network? It should be the same thing metaphysically speaking.

I share the idea that the "just don't think" advice is ambiguous. We're actually thinking about the "lack of thought" here. The infinite struggle we make to move through the multidimensional state of the universe is something our ego chose to experience by itself, whether it leads to fear or happiness. Meditation reshapes you in a way that could be said as "I don't want to experience this anymore". I feel like meditation is about getting as close as possible to the state of death without completely ever reaching it. It's one way to experience life, but not for everyone, ironically depending on personal taste.

[Nahm]

 

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I’m confused. On the one hand meditation seems to give me many benefits. I used to have severe anxiety and after meditating daily it completely Disappeared  as did a lot of my other problems and complains and qelms I had in daily life. 

Relative to over thinking and misunderstanding feeling & emotion, meditation is certainly beneficial. Sounds like it has / is serving you quite well. Congrats on working through that stuff. That’s awesome man. Outside of you at any given time, feeling it will serve you...90 mins a day is an hour too much imo. That hour could be spent on dreamboard, life purpose, & inspecting direct exp. - especially now that you brought your mental state back to equanimity. 

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but I can see his point. Am I not running away from the fear through meditation?  What happens if I allow my brain to turn on and think itself into oblivion ? Scratching every layer of the self away like a man picking at his blemishes until there is nothing left but everything. 

The point about it being a tool of the ego is wrong, which is why you’re thinking you’re running away from fear through meditation. Never credit an “ego” with anything. It’s a write off. Instead, inspect thought, perception & feeling. Breakdown the direct experience. What you learn & realize there, you keep for ‘life’. When you feel that way (“fear”), realize the thought or belief in that moment is not true. Feeling will appear to resolve, as in you’ll feel just fine. There was never anything ‘wrong’ with feeling to begin with. It was the discord of the thought or belief. Feeling has your back, so to speak. Never label it “fear”, never attribute it to an “ego”. That’s outright nonsense. ? The body responding in ‘fight or flight’ is perfect infinite intelligence in a fight or flight situation. 

Your brain’s not going to ‘think itself into oblivion’. “Brain” is a thought, and a thought can not think a thought. (That would be another thought).  I would be inspecting your beautiful self, not “scratching it away”. Choose thoughts that are aligned with your dreamboard, with what you want, which feel good to you. 

[UnbornTao]

Contemplate and go for the Truth, your concern is hardly relevant. I’d stop intellectualizing too much and go directly after the truth. Direct is the way to go, and contemplation is probably the most straightforward method for that.

Meditation can be beneficial, but waking up is about the Truth. Do not conflate the search for Truth with beneficial mind states.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Arzola

[Jo96]

16 minutes ago, Arzola said:

Contemplate and go for the Truth, your concern is hardly relevant. I’d stop intellectualizing too much and go directly after the truth. Direct is the way to go, and contemplation is probably the most straightforward method for that.

Meditation can be beneficial, but waking up is about the Truth. Do not conflate the search for Truth with beneficial mind states.

How? 

[UnbornTao]

Wonder, question. Ask: What am I? Become in touch with the sense that you don’t really know. And keep contemplating until you get it at deeper and deeper levels. Psychedelics might open your mind and inspire you to go all in. 

[mandyjw]

Meditation is both self love and Self Love, awakening is Self Love. Our thoughts can cut ourselves off from Love, other thoughts can help propel us in the direction of it. We can tell the difference between how they feel, and meditation makes us more sensitive to how we feel, so thoughts improve meditation and meditation improves the quality and feeling of our thoughts, each build upon one another. 

[Commodent]

Meditate because you find joy in it. If not, then don't. There is no should.