What are your problems with meditation techniques?
Posted on October 15th, 2009 by Steven Sashen
What are the biggest challenges, or obstacles, problems or questions you have when it comes to meditation? (or with finding a way to relax, de-stress, expand awareness, etc.)
Leave a comment with your answer and, in a few days, I’ll post not only the top 3 problems/questions (I’ve asked this question to thousands of people), I’ll also post the solution and answers according to the Path of Recognition.
Tags: meditation // 24 Comments »
It is difficult to me to concenterate when I try to meditate. When I close my eyes and I try to leave my mind in blank and focus in my breathing, the melody and lyrics of songs appear in my mind. Also, I feel a need to count the numbers, maybe to count how many times I´m breathing.
At this point I find meditation of primary use on two levels:
1. Managing day to day stress
2. Keeping a helathy pace to life…not letting life get ahead of me.
I have been an inconsistent user of meditation….and want to become a more “disciplined” user….
Procrastination! I want to meditate, I have meditated (11 hours for 10 days in a row) but I seem to find every excuse for why NOW is not the time to do it. Maybe eyes open awareness meditations done throughout my day would be better for me at this point….
The first time I meditated was with TM and I was shown states of mind of such intense peace, bliss, and expanded awareness that any practise after that was always going to be a disappointment.
Thanks, everyone, for your answers. I’ll be putting together an audio or video with responses soon.
These are all familiar problems that everyone has described above, so I’m not sure if I really have anything unique or special to add. I guess what it all boils down to is that I have never had a successful “discipline” or “practice” of any kind in my life unless it was easy. The most successful and enjoyable practice I had was between, oh, about 1987 and 1990, when I had this really great yoga instructor who was the perfect balance of gentle and firm, whose approach was very straightforward and bullshit-free, and every class just felt full of love and light…..nothing I’ve ever shown up for once a week that was so beneficial has ever felt so….I have to use the same word again…..easy. What I want to know is, how do I make a practice easy on my own, without somebody holding my hand every step of the way?
Hi Erik,
You can’t *make* a practice easy. You find a practice that’s easy for you. And there are various conditions that contribute to an easy practice:
If having your hand held works, then why reject that method? Why not look for a hand holder?
All of this, though, points to a “question beneath the question” about WHY we should practice, WHAT we expect to get from doing so, and whether our practice (whether it’s meditation or basket weaving) is, in fact, a reliable way to get what we want (assuming that our goal is even attainable).
the need to meditate…. for me…. stems from the day to day stresses….,which lead to a mild form of almost helpless depression,…. which inturn results in confusion and mental cloudiness.. as to clarity of thought ……it,s insidiously cyclic,…. because the lack of mental clarity…. compounds the day to day stress….. & it all seems to feed on itself….. the only thing that has ever really worked ….to any meaningful degree… has been meditation… and to date ,for me …” IAM “is the most spiritually soothing by far.
I am enjoying the meditation a lot as i did a lot of TM in the seventies so i do find the meditations really easy to do so i do not have a problem with the meditations at this time i do get to have lots of experiences such as raised awareness exteriorisation and knowingness on a regular basis i do really enjoy the experiences i am getting as a result of the meditation prectices i do on a regular basis thanks for the opportunity to post my replies and ideas thanks
For me the biggest problem is tension.
I find there’s always some intention (for a particular outcome – even if the intention is to have no intention!).
So really letting go can be difficult. I find whenever there is an idea of doing anything the opposite is not far from my mind ( e.g. relaxation and tension or concetration and distraction).
Actually I seem to be finding the repairing and releasing receiving exercises useful with this….
I agree, Mike… the idea of having no intention is pure fiction. And any specific intention is, in essence, battling with its opposite. The I AM practices you mention, especially Repairing The Universe, are designed to meet those “battling opposites” in such a way that we can naturally and effortlessly step out of the stress caused by the battle. In fact, the reason there are 10+ I AM Practices is that some of the more common state of stress, pain, upset, disconnection, etc. are the starting points which lead to a deep meditative experience, which means no particular state of mind is an obstacle or enemy to meditation (or life, really).
My only problem with meditation is distraction. While overseas, I was able to find locals which either offered a quiet atmosphere or one of total urban hum. Now, at home, whether Summer or Winter, the sound of the A/C or heater cycling throughout the day disrupts my relaxation. I’ve turned it off only to find the discomfort of temperature change so noticeable that I’m trying to decide if I should turn it back on, which I usually do to the detriment of my practice.
“Distraction” is a fascinating issue. For two reasons:
1) Can you remember a time where you were so engrossed in work, or a book, or a TV show (or anything) that you didn’t notice what would otherwise be a distraction? Of course… everyone has.
2) Ever remember a time when you were in a really good mood and what previously was a distraction (or nuisance) didn’t bother you? Almost everyone I ask can remember one of those times, too.
Well, what does this have to do with meditation? In my experience, everything.
See, the meditation practices from what I call “the Path of Purification” aren’t that engrossing. I mean, really, how interesting is it to watch your breathing come in and out?
In fact, the whole principle behind those practices is to do whatever you can to narrow the focus of the mind (which is NOT easy)… in a way, to simulate or deliberately create a state of being engrossed (again, NOT easy).
What if, instead, the object of your attention in a meditative practice was interesting enough that it could more easily hold your attention? Clearly that would make concentrating, or focusing, much simpler.
Or what if you could easily shift into a state where ANY sensory input — sound, smell, sensation, visual image, etc. — was PART OF the practice and not something, was PART OF the object of attention? Obviously, then it couldn’t be a “distraction.”
In other words, “distraction” is never a problem… it’s a symptom of something else. And, for me, that “something else” was noticing that the Path of Purification practices didn’t fit with my life (or anyone else’s that I knew, other than my friends who were monks). And that led me to the “Path of Recognition” practices, where the objects of attention are interesting, and where anything that arises in the mind is part of the practice… that’s what allows you to do these practices — and experience meditative states — almost anywhere, any time.
hi,my main problem is when i sit down to meditate every problem of mine would come in to my mind and i just can’t stop thinking ,this problem would get worsen when i’m angry or something like that,in that case i cant do anything at all.let alone meditating
I find it difficult to relax, I find it difficult to have the urge to meditate or to have the motivation for it.
I have set high goals that NEED meditation to be done at its highest levels.
Without urge and motivation I will continue being a failure.
That is why I need correct techniques and motivation and/or urge somehow…
What I find most difficult, is quietening my mind. There is so much going on that even focussing energy on one thing seems impossible or rather unatainable. I want to be able to get to a point where I can be still and have no thought whatsover for a given time…How do I get this right?
So, we have at least 2 themes brewing: quieting the mind (a.k.a. stopping thoughts), and motivating oneself to meditate. Interesting.
What I can tell you is that both of these are highly misunderstood, at many levels.
For example, lets say you like chocolate cake (I do). Do you need motivation to eat it if it’s available (and you’re not trying to de-motivate yourself because you’re on a diet)? No, of course not. Do you need motivation to watch your favorite television show? Nope.
The issue here is that you can’t fake motivation (at least not for long and not without having to re-motivate yourself over and over with new techniques). Further, if you explore the very reason WHY you even want to motivate yourself you may find some beliefs about yourself, about meditation, about what you imagine meditation can do for you, etc. which may be… let’s see, how to say this… inaccurate. And trying to believe something inaccurate is actually de-motivating!
Similar thing with “stopping thoughts” (also known as: getting the mind to do something it doesn’t naturally want to do). The only reason we want to stop thoughts is because: a) We don’t like the ones we’re having, and; b) We think it takes getting rid of them, therefore, to find peace. Ignoring for a moment whether it’s even possible to stop thinking for an extended period of time, or even for a short time whenever we want (FWIW, meditations whose goal is stopping thoughts were developed to be used by reclusive monks), let me ask this question: What if you didn’t perceive any thought as problematic or stressful? Would you then find the need to get rid of it?
No. Why would you? If no thought were a problem, where’s the stress? Gone, that’s where. Suffice it to say, it’s MUCH easier and faster to learn how to understand and see your thoughts in a way that they don’t cause problems than it is to stop your mind from doing what it was built to do.
The point of the techniques in the Instant Advanced Meditation Course is to discover this new way of relating to the mind, which produces rapid and easy changes: from stress to peace, confusion to clarity, effort to ease. And it can be done anywhere, any time. So you don’t need to motivate yourself to go sit in a corner, because you can do the practices whenever and wherever you are.
For me, meditation in the beginning is not a problem. The problem is that after about 10+ minutes goes by and the chatter starts to ‘cripes’ in. Normally, they are either things happened prior or on the day before which later analyzing them have no prevalent to anything at all. The saboteur does its best to be there loud and clear — to STOP me from having my healing moment. (Yes, I call meditation, the healing).
To this day, I just smile if there is someone with me or laugh loudly if I am in the room by myself. Seem like that move the energy pretty quick. All the pain and suffer that the saboteur bring would get release quickly out of my space.
Whenever I sit to meditate, past memories spin in front of me and I easily get diverted. Also daily chores and stress of what I need to do in a day catches up- almost like saying “you are sitting and wasting your time- catch it”
Very recent pleasant and not so pleasant memories tend to crowd up my mental space when I try and sit.
I always keep meditation as a thing to be done when I have nothing more important to do.
I have heard alot about TM. I have no access to a training centre for TM. Is there anywhere I can get free info on how to practice TM
Hi!
I used to live mostly in a blissful and expansive state of awareness. I used to practice quite a lot, perhaps 2 or 3 hours a day. The more I practiced, the more expansive and blissful I became and easier it got; and the more I wanted to practice. However, this took me away from ‘normal’ people. I felt estranged from society. So I practiced less, drank more, got involved in dramas. Consciousness became constricted and neurotic like normal.
Less practice, more drama, reduced ability to have a successful practice of touching on that which is eternal and intrinsic to us.
Now it is difficult to get back to where I was. Normal life is unsatisfying; spiritual life is just out of reach.
My problem is inconsistent outcomes in meditation and difficulty in spiritually satisfying practice while living in the world. How to know the eternal while living in it here and now in the world?
Thanks!
Concentration is my main problem. It seems as if I just cannot get my mind still. I keep coming back to focus on crud in my mind.
My biggest difficulty is my lack of ‘presence’-I tend to live primarily inside my head! I want to live in a state of awareness and consciousness THROUGHOUT my day. I want to be able to live in the moment without wishing I was not who I am! I want to be in touch with knowing who I am and what I want. I want to live in a state of harmony with myself, others and the Universe and I wish I knew how!
my problem with meditation is that it costs too much money to learn anything that I think really will work!! I am on disability and looked into TM it is 1500.00$ cant afford that so I have been trying to find someone who is decent that can share what they know for free…because I would …..kev