[nefitty]

You said you participated in that years ago. In my recent past I accumulated hundreds of hours of meditation.

Do you see any lasting benefits from your experiences? I personally still struggle with focus and attentiveness, especially when the demand is external. I haven't concluded whether I wasted my time, or if I need to get back to meditating. It's time-consuming!

[mynameisash]

From the meditation, no. Unfortunately, that was during the season of my life when I had very young kids, and I was dedicating myself to work. Consequently, I struggled with devoting time to sitting and not thinking. I was trying to bootstrap a good practice, so Zen retreats were a great way to force myself to do it. It wasn't sustainable, though: where I lived, there was no local group (the retreats were >1hr away). So I didn't actually do a ton of meditation.

However, I feel like the retreats were a positive for me, albeit not in the same way that meditation might be. Sitting, walking, and doing "work practice" (the term they used) mindfully gave me a great perspective shift. I found doing dishes truly enjoyable and worth my effort even if it wasn't changing the world.

Maybe I enjoyed it so much because of my personality. Or maybe the retreats helped me appreciate silence and downtime, thereby changing my personality. I can stand in line at the grocery store without needing to be entertained by my phone, which is a herculean effort for many people I know. It's too hard to say :)