Advise For Beginners

[Xpansion]

Many people who are new to meditation dive in head first with not much knowledge or understanding of what they are doing or why they are doing it. A lot of people have seen images in the media of some calm blissful person sitting cross legged floating  in some beautiful environment so they have a particular perspective and may think that it's all about feel good experiences.    

The truth is that it can and does induce very tranquil and peaceful states but that it's not all feel good at all and for many it's very emotionally painful and difficult as a lot of suppressed 'stuff' begins to emerge. If you don't know what is happening at this time it can lead to an attempt at spiritual bypass. Depression and anxiety can be exacerbated and for susceptible people psychotic episodes can be triggered.

The video in the link below explains very well of the dangers and why it's important to have some guidance especially on retreats.  In my own experience the first retreat I went on I cried uncontrollably all day everyday for 8 days. I didn't have any idea why but realised later it was a lot of unprocessed grief coming up.   It was exhausting and I am glad I had a very good teacher to help me through it.

Dangers of meditation - advice for beginners

 

Edited October 24, 2016 by Xpansion

[Azrael]

Very important subject. I underestimated how bad the journey will fuck in the beginning and went through a very rude awakening. In the end I was lucky to have such a phase because it was simply too much for my head so it had to reorganize at a higher understanding, but in retrospect I would argue that there are a damn lot of people who just can not stand this and will end up in therapy or even worse in a mental hospital because they don't know whats happening. Seems dramatic, is really just an understatement of how crazy it can get.

How will you react when you are still rooted in a false self when you experience how you have no free will, how you have no control over thoughts and actions, how your whole world view collapses. Will you embrace it and dive into it or will you go crazy. I would suggest that a good handful of people will at first go crazy and then if they're lucky and wise can shift that into awakening. But you really gotta be wise to see through all that.

[Prabhaker]

@Xpansion

Whenever someone begins meditation, he will become aware of many things of which he was not previously aware, and because of that awareness he will suffer. This is how things are, and one has to pass through them.

So if you start meditation and you do not suffer, it means it is not meditation, but just a hypnosis. That means you are just drugging yourself. You are becoming more unconscious. With a real, authentic meditation you will suffer more, because you will become more aware. You will see the ugliness of your anger, you will feel the cruelty of your jealousy, you will now know the evidence of your behavior.

Now, in every gesture, you will begin to feel where a hidden animal in you, and you will suffer. But this is how one grows. Growth is a painful birth.

Anything that makes you more aware of your suffering, and which helps you encounter it without escaping, is religious. That is not escaping from any suffering, but remaining there and living with it with full awareness. If you do not escape, if you remain there with your suffering, one day suffering will disappear and you will have grown into more awareness. 

Suffering disappears in two ways. You become unconscious; then suffering disappears for you. But, really, suffering remains there. It cannot disappear. It remains there! Really, your consciousness has disappeared, so you cannot feel it, you cannot be aware of it. If you become more conscious, in the meantime you will have to suffer more. But accept suffering as a part of growth, as a part of training, as just a discipline, and then one day, when your consciousness has gone beyond your suffering, suffering will disappear not just for you – it will disappear objectively. Use suffering as a stepping-stone; do not escape from it. If you escape from it, you are escaping from your destiny, from the possibility of going beyond knowledge by using suffering as a device.

[LaucherJunge]

I luckily did not have much trouble with stuff coming up because I had The Completion Process, it literally solved all of my suffering that was coming up during meditation for a year in just 3 sittings for 20 minutes since then i did not have any kind of suffering which i could not resolve by just being with it for a few minutes and accepting it as it is. The best thing about knowing this process actually is that you know there is no way you will have serious suffering again because you can always use it so automatically you dont have fear of suffering which leads to not resisting it even if something strong came up again its easy to deal with.

[Kserkkj]

 

[Prabhaker]

@Kserkkj

Osho said that

“I don't speak to teach something; I speak to create something. These are not lectures; these are simply a device for you to become silent, because if you are told to become silent without making any effort you will find great difficulty.”

" My words keep you awake, and just between the words I give you gaps. And those are the real, essential things. Waiting for another word, you have to listen to silence."