Simply Sitting

[Avocado]

I prescribe everybody just to sit and nonjudgementally absorb one's surroundings. Doing nothing, you will soon feel yourself dissolving into the wallpaper of existence. Just be. Don't do. Life is too short to stress. Deal with things as they occur in the course of proper mindfulness.

(Why do people constantly clamor to change things when they can just sit and be here? Conserve our world.)

 

[Avocado]

As a matter of fact, I can stay perfectly stable in my inner world so long as I limit my contact with other people. I haven't spoken to anybody outside of work in about a year and I've grown more at peace. Its nice just to detatch and observe what is around you and not think too much.

If money were no object, I would do this all the time.

 

[Kas]

Do you see it as something close to meditation? I sometimes like to sit like that as form of relax, observation, understanding or maybe form of meditation for somebody who has no idea about meditation

But I couldn't detach so much to limit contact with people. They matter too much to me. And observing them and making social interactions is as important to me as observing anything else.

 

[Tellenbach]

One of my favorite activities is just lying down on a bed and not doing anything.

 

[Dreamer]

I really like this post [MENTION=18694]The Wailing Specter[/MENTION]! I don't think I'd have the resolve to just sit somewhere and do absolutely nothing. I get pretty antsy if I do nothing for too long. But! I do greatly enjoy laying on the bed in the dark, with my headphones on and getting lost in my music. Absorbing only what I take from the notes and colors taken from the music. I also like to sit in public places and just absorb my surroundings, but again, with my headphones on haha. I really am very receptive to music, so even when I'm out trying to absorb my surroundings, it's with the added flavor of whatever music I have playing at the time. But the idea of what you propose, is extraordinarily valuable. Too often are people in a hurry to do things or to "change the world". It really is important to just take time out for yourself once in a while and to just exist, and soak in all the beauty that is the present moment. I tend to "live" in the future so much that I will often times think it's literally the next year and write that down rather than the current year when I'm not paying attention LOL.

 

[Avocado]

Do you see it as something close to meditation? I sometimes like to sit like that as form of relax, observation, understanding or maybe form of meditation for somebody who has no idea about meditation

But I couldn't detach so much to limit contact with people. They matter too much to me. And observing them and making social interactions is as important to me as observing anything else.

Well, I am inspired by the Zen method, and have improved my meditation method in accordance with Zen principals, but I've put my own twist on it. I focus more on gratitude and my surroundings than my breathing, and that is a way it is different from true Zen. However, I still respect Zen and if you did true Zen, I could see similar results. So, yes, it is a form of meditation.

 

[Kanra Jest]

I've tried that Zen thing. Very difficult for someone who constantly thinks and analyzes every second of the day. And if I try and stay in one place doing nothing I get antsy, bored, restless. Have to do something. I need constant stimulation whether it be the laptop, phone, games, people, studying, or actual phsyical activity(though i far prefer mental stimulations). Like the empty mind thing that's suppose to be possible, which I can't seem to accomplish. Sure, I can take pills, but any time I've done that I've felt more dulled.

Closest thing I can get to it is sitting outside and just take in the environment. Or try to. And focus on that. But my mind will still drift to thoughts, just calmed a little.

I can maybe somewhat meditate for 10-20 minutes and then I need to either get up or hope to fall asleep. I can't comprehend how some can meditate for an hour, let alone hours.

 

[Avocado]

I've tried that Zen thing. Very difficult for someone who constantly thinks and analyzes every second of the day. And if I try and stay in one place doing nothing I get antsy, bored, restless. Have to do something. I need constant stimulation whether it be the laptop, phone, games, people, studying, or actual phsyical activity(though i far prefer mental stimulations). Like the empty mind thing that's suppose to be possible, which I can't seem to accomplish. Sure, I can take pills, but any time I've done that I've felt more dulled.

Closest thing I can get to it is sitting outside and just take in the environment. Or try to. And focus on that. But my mind will still drift to thoughts, just calmed a little.

I can maybe somewhat meditate for 10-20 minutes and then I need to either get up or hope to fall asleep. I can't comprehend how some can meditate for an hour, let alone hours.

At most, I can do 10 minutes without interruption, but I used to only be able to go a few seconds. It gets easier with practice.

 

[Galena]

Meditation has already been recommended for me, and I'm doing badly at keeping to it. Visualization/writing exercises are much more my thing, but I think I ought to still give this another, more effortful try, too.

Also, peace and stability come from within. If they are conditional upon avoiding contact with others, you haven't attained them yourself. When we make contact cannot always be on our terms; you can become a master at keeping your distance, but at some point others will come to you. Are you confident that you could stay "stable" then? If so, that's when you've finally got it.

IMO the whole point of training oneself in mindfulness is so that we can keep our heads even when we are in the very least peaceful of external circumstances, especially when others will be affected by our decisions.

 

[Kanra Jest]

At most, I can do 10 minutes without interruption, but I used to only be able to go a few seconds. It gets easier with practice.

I can only do it with music too. In silence I will start filling space with thinking or wanting some other sounds to latch onto to distract my chattering mind. So any time I do so I require some sort of binaural beats, atmospheric or ambiences.

Also, peace and stability come from within. If they are conditional upon avoiding contact with others, you haven't attained them yourself. When we make contact cannot always be on our terms; you can become a master at keeping your distance, but at some point others will come to you. Are you confident that you could stay "stable" then? If so, that's when you've finally got it.

IMO the whole point of training oneself in mindfulness is so that we can keep our heads even when we are in the very least peaceful of external circumstances, especially when others will be affected by our decisions.

I am not the most peaceful considering my stress, lately. I haven't any idea how to achieve any sense of true "inner peace" or how that is even possible. I find those Monks that meditate all day to be wasting their physical existence. But I find moments of meditation to be useful even though I can't get much from it, but brief moments of calmness which doesn't last long at all. Causing my mind to find it fairly pointless from observation.

 

[Avocado]

Meditation has already been recommended for me, and I'm doing badly at keeping to it. Visualization/writing exercises are much more my thing, but I think I ought to still give this another, more effortful try, too.

Also, peace and stability come from within. If they are conditional upon avoiding contact with others, you haven't attained them yourself. When we make contact cannot always be on our terms; you can become a master at keeping your distance, but at some point others will come to you. Are you confident that you could stay "stable" then? If so, that's when you've finally got it.

IMO the whole point of training oneself in mindfulness is so that we can keep our heads even when we are in the very least peaceful of external circumstances, especially when others will be affected by our decisions.

Around others, there are few circumstances that really get under my skin, and if something does hit a nerve, I can outwardly remain calm despite becoming slightly irritated on the inside.

 

[Typh0n]

“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.”


― Bruce Lee​

 

[Cellmold]

I like to lie on the landing carpet and just look through the ceiling.

I've found I can do this for hours and it is incredibly relaxing.

Become one with the great frey at the end of the thread of reality!

 

[Kilgore Trout]

This reminds me of zazen. One sits, spine erect, legs in lotus. Breathing in, out, in, out. Naturally. Being awareness, no judgement. Watching as stories come, go, washed into themselves like ripples of wave. In, out, in, out. All is awareness, beyond those fleeting impressions, feelings, all thoughts, everything. Time melts, identity loses its binary. You are experiencing.

Other techniques: (1.) Shifting your awareness to different parts of your body, noticing. (2.) When thoughts/feelings arise, label them. You can even say, "Thought about X, thought about Y." Some people refer to themselves in third-person in meditation to lessen their identification with their ego. (3.) Focusing your attention on one point in the room such as a candle flame, a dot, a wall. (4.) Say a mantra, even alternating with the breath of fire, every couple of minutes. (4.) Say a koan, not for an answer. Let it become you.

What matters to me is not only sitting, not only being in the ideal atmosphere, but being still in relation. Being relation. When talking, be still. When listening, be still. When all experiencing, be still. Everything is a teacher.