How do you guys maintain present moment awareness when you're in the world?

[lmfao]

Standing up from my meditation, I take out my ear plugs and hear people mildly arguing. In this particular instance it doesn't off centre me much. There is the conditioning to act or distort a certain way in social situations, and the pattern is active before you even know it is. You have to alert to catch it. 

Critiques of my living situations and life decisions aside which I already know, one doesn't keep their meditative state when active in the world usually. But I'm wondering if anyone has, and if there's any method to it. When I concentrate in meditating, all I do is attempt to keep the deliberating mind on one thing, the breath. Other people and things can throw you "off centre", and the only thing I'm trying right now is just vigilance/alertness.

Maybe I'm a bit too taut trying, who knows. But it's all trial and error anyway 

I know someone might try to start a dialogue to point me towards transcendence which takes the angle of poking fun at and deconstructing the idea of practicing and meditating. I'm fine with that if you do 

So I suppose I'm just contemplating "How can I keep that state?". "Do I just have to keep remaining alert and vigilant?", thoughts like that. 

The obvious thing to do is just meditate deeply and regularly. 

Has anyone here managed to keep their meditative or high concentration states in the world? 

[Carl-Richard]

1 minute ago, lmfao said:

Has anyone here managed to keep their meditative or high concentration states in the world? 

Yes but it's terrifying so I stopped doing that  

[lmfao]

Just now, Carl-Richard said:

Yes but it's terrifying so I stopped doing that  

 ? ? ? ? ?

[Carl-Richard]

19 minutes ago, lmfao said:

 ? ? ? ? ?

I don't want to die — what can I say? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

23 minutes ago, lmfao said:

"Do I just have to keep remaining alert and vigilant?"

Entertaining these types of thoughts is the very thing that keeps you away from it.

 

23 minutes ago, lmfao said:

The obvious thing to do is just meditate deeply and regularly. 

This is why I keep hammering it in again and again that all your meditation sessions should only happen within a designated spot of your day where you dedicate 100% of your attention to meditation and nothing else, and then when you're done with that, you STOP! — meditation session over. If it didn't work for you that day, come back tomorrow.

If you instead spend your day looking for free moments to do short spontaneous meditations, your mind will never stop producing these thoughts of "oh maybe I'm not present enough" or "maybe now I got some time to boost my presence". The only place where you're going to fix that is in your meditation session, so worrying about it during the day is pointless and will only keep fueling the monkey mind.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Carl-Richard

[mandyjw]

Easiest thing is to appreciate people, and look for things to appreciate. If you're annoyed with people at the moment and not engaged in conversation look for something in your surroundings to appreciate. 

This is hard to explain, but notice when you look at something, that you have no idea what it actually is. It's a complete surprise. Don't think about this, it happens on it's own when you really, really look at something. It's sort of like when you listen to hear something really closely, as if you were listening for an animal in the woods, you become completely quiet and open. Only you do with seeing. Or what the heck, do it with hearing if you want,  focus on one sense is just a gateway anyway. There are more gates than just the breath, but that one feels amazing too.

[lmfao]

1 minute ago, Carl-Richard said:

I don't want to die — what can I say? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I only jest 

1 minute ago, Carl-Richard said:

That is what keeps you away from it, and there is nothing you can do about it. Can you accept that?

What keeps me away, my lack of vigilance or my worrying about vigilance? 

3 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

This is why I keep hammering it in again and again that all your meditation sessions should only happen in a designated spot in in your day where you will dedicate 100% of your attention to meditation and nothing else, and then when you've done that, you STOP! Meditation session over. If it didn't work for you that day, come back tomorrow.

If you instead spend your day looking for free moments to do short spontaneous meditations, your mind will never stop producing those thoughts of "oh maybe I'm not present enough" or "maybe now I got some time to boost my presence". The only place where you're going to fix that is in your meditation session, so worrying about it during the day is pointless and only keeps fueling the monkey mind.

Yes having the dedicated spot and ritual is very important. Doing 1 thing there and nothing else. I see what you mean about not obsessing over the thought outside of the session yes, good point 

[Carl-Richard]

11 minutes ago, lmfao said:

What keeps me away, my lack of vigilance or my worrying about vigilance? 

What keeps you away from it is entertaining these types of thoughts ("Do I just have to keep remaining alert and vigilant?").

 

11 minutes ago, lmfao said:

Yes having the dedicated spot and ritual is very important. Doing 1 thing there and nothing else. I see what you mean about not obsessing over the thought outside of the session yes, good point 

The key is essentially to do whatever it takes to gain enough trust in yourself to not go around worrying that you're not good enough. If you do 1hr every day where you put in 100% and there is no way you could've done any better, then you know that you atleast did your best and that you can try again tomorrow. If you instead choose to drag every insecure thought about meditation into every moment of your day, you're royally self-sabotaging yourself. Deal with your insecurities about meditation when you're actually meditating.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Carl-Richard

[lmfao]

6 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

This is hard to explain, but notice when you look at something, that you have no idea what it actually is. It's a complete surprise. Don't think about this, it happens on it's own when you really, really look at something.

@mandyjw Wow, very true words. That rings some forgotten bells. Hmm, now I feel some sadness and regret that I used to have such wonder and awe but not now. 

11 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

It's sort of like when you listen to hear something really closely, as if you were listening for an animal in the woods, you become completely quiet and open. Only you do with seeing. Or what the heck, do it with hearing if you want,  focus on one sense is just a gateway anyway. There are more gates than just the breath, but that one feels amazing too.

Hey, whatever works, works. Lol 

[Onecirrus]

Always helps me

[lmfao]

6 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

What keeps you away from it is entertaining these types of thoughts.

The key is essentially to do whatever it takes to gain enough trust in yourself to not go around worrying that you're not good enough. If you do 1hr every day where you put in 100% and there is no way you could've done any better, then you know that you atleast did your best and that you can try again tomorrow. If you instead choose to drag every insecure thought about meditation into every moment of your day, you're royally self-sabotaging yourself. Deal with your insecurities about meditation when you're actually meditating.

@Carl-Richard That makes a lot of sense actually, yeah. Just pour yourself into that session and have no regrets about it. I don't think that will be easy for me, but at least I've heard it now so thanks. 

Not being relaxed and worrying will get in the way perhaps of it manifesting 

Edited April 26, 2021 by lmfao

[mandyjw]

3 minutes ago, lmfao said:

wonder and awe but not now. 

 

Wonder and awe are only ever now.  Would you still "hear" the sound of the forgotten bells (feel the resonance) if they were really forgotten? Nope.

You is wonder-full

 

[lmfao]

2 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

Wonder and awe are only ever now.  Would you still "hear" the sound of the forgotten bells (feel the resonance) if they were really forgotten? Nope.

You is wonder-full

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Yeah 

Storms off running

I am quite the pseudo zen koan intellectual now, so proud of myself 

Edited April 26, 2021 by lmfao

[Carl-Richard]

2 hours ago, lmfao said:

Not being relaxed and worrying will get in the way perhaps of it manifesting 

I mean let's say your goal is to manifest non-dual baseline awareness in your daily life. If this should happen, should you start actually going about your day like normal or should you fill it with 50 meditation sessions and 250 thoughts about how, where and when to do them?

You already know that meditation works. So meditate, go about your day, and don't worry about it

Edited April 26, 2021 by Carl-Richard

[Godishere]

Awaken deeper, realize what the present moment actually is; then go from there. Mediation will not get you there alone. Meditation is just about observing what appears in conciousness. So what I'm saying essentially, as you awaken deeper and realize the survival games you are playing, the less you will care about frivolous crap. ?

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Godishere

[Breakingthewall]

meditation is the key. when you meditate forces the mind to slow down. If you reach absolute void, great, but if you don't, and only cut the activity to half, you will have done something. I prefer to do several sessions, and in different places, since I cannot afford the same silent place. Several sessions work better for me since the second is easier than the first, and the third even more. I would like to get to about three hours a day, or at least 3 sessions of 45 min each one, it does not seem too much, the matter is important, anything that is not a free mind is shit. For now I'm doing the half , the benefits are big but it isn't enough

[Consilience]

I use Shinzen Young's See Hear Feel technique pretty frequently while I'm bopping around life taking care of business. It's an extremely effective technique for life practice and also really effective for silent formal practice. I've tried following the breath 24/7 throughout the day or like just trying to stay openly aware, never works. Systematically noting experience though does actually have a carry over effect to formal meditation as well as just increasing the fulfillment and happiness of life. 

Also doing more formal meditation practice will naturally carry over into your life and make everything more meditative. Practicing 1 hour will have a different effect on life than 3 hours, for example. 

[Nahm]

Why do you want to? 

[Kshantivadin]

I deduce that the aim of your meditation is to raise your consciousness overall. Vision and hearing are two huge parts of experience - having earplugs and keeping your eyes closed is practicing under different and "easier" circumstances. No wonder you can't maintain awareness post-meditation relative to formal sitting.

[blankisomeone]

3 hours ago, Carl-Richard said:

I don't want to die — what can I say? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

?????

What does being alert/concentrated/centered in the world have anything to do with dying?

I’ll be MORE alert, not dumbed down to the point where I’ll cross the street without looking both ways

Edited April 27, 2021 by blankisomeone

[BipolarGrowth]

I am the present moment, so it’s kind of hard not to... 

Do you find yourself in the future moment or something? I’ve never ran into such an experience before.