Challenges to Meditation

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

What challenges do you have with your meditation practice? We have many helpful suggestions here to meditating yet after we have meditated for sometime we recognize the challenges involved. This topic was brought up in the thread Concentration & the World Gets in the Way started by spiritimage. It relates to how worldly activities challenge us. We also have challenges that occur during practice that may not even be of a worldly nature. Both threads may be helpful to our practice.

[SpiritImage]

My challenge: controlling thoughts, trying to concentrate. I know this is normally called restlessness, but to me it's just thoughts.

I have read that almost everyone, including those that have done this for many many years, still have this problem.

Then, we try to nail down the cause. But even then that doesn't always provide a solution.

Some thoughts I just want to think about for a bit, clear them up as it were. When I know I could just concentrate.

But at the same time, meditation is a good time for contemplation. And asking questions. Waiting for answers.

I think we need to spend some of the time contemplating, then after we feel calm and peaceful, the thoughts seem to drift away more. It's physical (reduced heart rate, calmness) as well as mental. It just takes a little time to settle in to it, for me anyway.


Or, I could just not accept that and strive to fall into deep meditation instantly. That will never happen as long as I come up with excuses like the above drivel I just typed.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Who says there is only one way to meditate? We have to meditate according to our own physical restrictions. This was a flash I had-out of the blue-after my last meditation. Sometimes these thoughts that we 'channel' just emerge. If they do so with no apparent reason perhaps we should heed them. I believe this is one reason both Amma and Yogananda stress having silence after our practice.

[SpiritImage]

Who says there is only one way to meditate?

Right, for me there could be many parts, hong sau, kriya, om, contemplation, silence, etc.,

[SpiritImage]

I read somewhere that you should sit absolutely still, not move a muscle, otherwise you have to start all over again (I think someone from SRF said this).

I think I read also that God will not come if you are not still.

But sometimes I do move slightly, especially during kriya, maybe a little forward and back, also I count on my slightly moving my thumb across my fingers.

Or are we to sit like stone?

[mccoy]

My challenges are: sleepiness, mental restlessness, mainly. Mosquitoes during summertime. I don't move too much but sometimes it happens. I do not think we must be necessariy still like a rocky outcrop. I do not believe either that God won't come because we are not still. If it is the moment that God decides to come, attracted by oubursts of devotion or the cumulative good karma of years of lives of effort, he is going to make us still and come. No $h1t.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Well.... i have all the challenges mentioned by others plus a most peculiar one... my body tenses up.... i asked an SRF monk. He said it was karmic. Sounds like a ready made answer for questions that do not have a descriptive answer. I get this picture of being in a tight space. Locked in a closet or very small prison cell or tied up so I can't move. Anyhow many times meditation  is productive so we just have to be patient with ourselves and continually look for solutions to these challenges that inevitable arise.

[SpiritImage]

Have you guys always had these problems or would you say it's been getting worse over time?

Reason I ask is, I certainly hope it doesn't get harder. I would think it's not supposed to.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Have you guys always had these problems or would you say it's been getting worse over time?

Reason I ask is, I certainly hope it doesn't get harder. I would think it's not supposed to.

I think the important thing is this; What is the intent of the thread? So we could start another thread about the improvement over the years or our decline in meditation. This one is clearly about the challenges we have encountered and perhaps how to deal with them. Having said that I leave it to you spirit image to start another thread on progress to spiritual meditation. It is a topic in itself. This topic was not meant to discourage people but just to but rather, to work on solutions to challenges and recognize them.

[mccoy]

Have you guys always had these problems or would you say it's been getting worse over time?
Reason I ask is, I certainly hope it doesn't get harder. I would think it's not supposed to.

I would say something has definitely improved, but that depends on your specific circumstances.

For example, when I practiced Brahmacharya, sometimes I could not meditate because of strong sex impulses. I did not dissipate the impulses, so sometimes I remained in that state without being able to meditate. This has improved now because of age and because I'm married.

I also sometimes overindulged in food, which disrupts the ability to meditate. Now I'm much more disciplined or better, my efforts at dietary discipline have been at last fruitful, I eat little with minimum or no effort.

Sleepyness is hard to fight, very hard since when you meditate you close your eyes and daydream automatically. I would say if you didn't sleep enough it's almost impossible to win.

Restlessness is more sneaky, after years you learn how this devil behaves and sometimes you cut meditation short when you realize it's not the right moment, the devil is too rambonctious, whereas you make it longer when you realize that devil is asleep.
 
Steve, we can always expand this concept in another thread but I would say to SI i would not get too much discouraged since I have reached this conclusion that only the really very evolved or extremely evolved devotees have an easy meditation, full of spiritual experiences and superconsciousness. For the Others it's mostly just grinding away.

And do not let's forget the mental discipline we develop.

[SpiritImage]

I think the important thing is this; What is the intent of the thread? So we could start another thread about the improvement over the years or our decline in meditation. This one is clearly about the challenges we have encountered and perhaps how to deal with them. Having said that I leave it to you spirit image to start another thread on progress to spiritual meditation. It is a topic in itself. This topic was not meant to discourage people but just to but rather, to work on solutions to challenges and recognize them.

The intent of my question was not to discourage.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

My challenge: controlling thoughts, trying to concentrate. I know this is normally called restlessness, but to me it's just thoughts.

I have read that almost everyone, including those that have done this for many many years, still have this problem.

Then, we try to nail down the cause. But even then that doesn't always provide a solution.

Some thoughts I just want to think about for a bit, clear them up as it were. When I know I could just concentrate.

But at the same time, meditation is a good time for contemplation. And asking questions. Waiting for answers.

I think we need to spend some of the time contemplating, then after we feel calm and peaceful, the thoughts seem to drift away more. It's physical (reduced heart rate, calmness) as well as mental. It just takes a little time to settle in to it, for me anyway.


Or, I could just not accept that and strive to fall into deep meditation instantly. That will never happen as long as I come up with excuses like the above drivel I just typed.

i think you are rite... there are times i am able to understand things at a deeper level through meditation and then contemplation. For instance; it gives me the ability to act on certain situations that come into my life.
This happens thru an inner motivation rather than an outer calling.

[SpiritImage]

Well.... i have all the challenges mentioned by others plus a most peculiar one... my body tenses up.... i asked an SRF monk. He said it was karmic. Sounds like a ready made answer for questions that do not have a descriptive answer. I get this picture of being in a tight space. Locked in a closet or very small prison cell or tied up so I can't move. Anyhow many times meditation  is productive so we just have to be patient with ourselves and continually look for solutions to these challenges that inevitable arise.

I've been thinking about this, I will ask God for help. After all, it can't hurt to ask.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

Well.... i have all the challenges mentioned by others plus a most peculiar one... my body tenses up.... i asked an SRF monk. He said it was karmic. Sounds like a ready made answer for questions that do not have a descriptive answer. I get this picture of being in a tight space. Locked in a closet or very small prison cell or tied up so I can't move. Anyhow many times meditation  is productive so we just have to be patient with ourselves and continually look for solutions to these challenges that inevitable arise.

I've been thinking about this, I will ask God for help. After all, it can't hurt to ask.

Yes sometimes it takes a while to recognize how the past affects the present and where it originated. LIke fear of something or irritations on the body from past life episodes. Anyhow your suggestion is not going unheeded.

[Jitendra Hy-do-u-no-us?]

I think the important thing is this; What is the intent of the thread? So we could start another thread about the improvement over the years or our decline in meditation. This one is clearly about the challenges we have encountered and perhaps how to deal with them. Having said that I leave it to you spirit image to start another thread on progress to spiritual meditation. It is a topic in itself. This topic was not meant to discourage people but just to but rather, to work on solutions to challenges and recognize them.

The intent of my question was not to discourage.

It is remarkable... sometimes I can have a real good meditation other days its pretty routine... Just practicing.
It doesn't appear that the days activities are always a determining factor. I believe there are astrological factors, social factors and environmental factors that can have effects.

I have found that a change of routine often helps. Although I practice kriya and the SRF techniques daily;
I have also found that occasionally adding other techniques I learned years ago and using the 'IAM' technique Amma gave me also is very helpful. asked her about having Paramahansa Yogananda as a Guru and seeing her as well. She merely said: "All the same. All the same!"