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I said too much
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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Buddhism
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No you didn't
Depends a lot on your motivation, the "why are you meditating" and how serious you are on your practice. And also how serious you want to learn.
Based on this your result will vary a lot. Nobody here can promise you anything without knowing you. I could tell you that it will make you "calmer" but if you go with some expectations and doing minimum effort it could make you actually more nervous, and be one of those who later tell everyone "I tried but it didn't work, it's just a scam" :')
Maybe better tell us why do you want to meditate?
I think that “why are you meditating” doesn't matter at all.
Diligence matters, yes.
But the goal you hope to realize, no. Goals, and all other ideas, big important ideas and otherwise, are put aside when you meditate.
I mean it requires some effort and can be a very boring task that your mind could go crazy if there is not some proper motivation to convince the mind to sit instead of watching Netflix or to do whatever you like most.
Seculars would take another approach on why they meditate but since we are in the Buddhist sub, in my tradition the reason to meditate is to achieve a very high degree of mental stability which will be used for other more advanced things, at least in this context there is definitely a "why".
What I wanted to communicate from the start is that you either take it seriously or don't even try, because the only thing that it will do for you is waste your time.
Which tradition are you from?
I follow Tibetan Buddhism, more specifically the Gelug tradition.
You suggest that a person take it seriously before they have experienced results. That seems unreasonable.
You suggest that a person take it seriously
What they meant is to approach the practice sincerely, genuinely and seriously. They didn't mean presume correctness or put unreasonable faith in anything.
Okay so I checked your profile and found that from what you've said in other posts seems that you're already an experienced meditator. A bit weird now, can I ask what is the purpose of this post?
- Help you be less reactive
- Make you feel like you can think more clearly
- Give you some pretty cool experiences
What style of meditation are you doing?
It's been a bit since I've been regular about it, but historically, "a little bit of everything."
Most regularly metta, self-inquiry, "do nothing"/zazen, vipassana noting (particularly Shinzen Young's brand), anapanasati (I got into Culadasa for about 5 minutes before the revelations came out, not that I stopped doing anapanasati when that happened or anything, but yeah), and white skeleton. A tiny bit of kasina and jhana practice. I've probably been most influenced by a mix of Shinzen Young, Daniel Ingram, Joseph Goldstein, and the Kuan Um school of Korean Zen.
That's cool you have gotten to experience a various of meditations :)
I gotta raise my eyebrow at #2.
🤷 It did for me.
For you specifically, I think it may destroy your life.