| That is a great description of the reality and mirrors my experience doing a lot of meditation for mindfulness in college. Three years ago, I picked it up again for about 18 months years and once again let it slip. It took me a long time to realize why, which is this: I have not found meditation to have been very useful in actual day to day life despite the multiple attestations from people that it brought them ... something. I got something out of meditation also, but unlike weightlifting, for me it has never been a continuing something. There's the eye-opening moment of really becoming aware of the ephemeralness of so many impulses that inflict us day-to-day. That is a great lesson and probably helped a lot with self control. It's like the first time you realize that you can change your mood - you don't have to ride the tiger, you can stop the process, it is subject to your conscious influence if you want it to be, but you don't need to practice this once you learn it. In practical terms, I think those impulses are actually very valuable because they tap into faster, broader lower-tier reasoning, and mindfulness, at least as I understood it and practiced it, ended up disempowering them in a way that was mildly negative, especially in interpersonal situations where the side-effects of added latency and inevitably reduced amplitude have consequences. YMMV, obviously. Possibly I am just lazy. |
I've been meditating for 13 years, and sometimes I meet people with 3 years of practice that seem decades ahead of me.
One time, I think after my 2nd or 3rd retreat, I practiced in such a way that instead of helping myself, I got into depression. Took me a few months to change course.
I don't thing there is a "standard experience" for meditating. YMMV seems like a good summary for it.
Could be a t-shirt.
"Your Meditation May Vary"