Will aiming for emptiness instead of awareness of breath help attaining meditative absorption states?
Upvote:1
Your thoughts aren't going to go away. Not for a very long time. Right now, you're comparing yourself to the pinnacle of practice. You're beating yourself up for not being able to obtain something that's only available to people who have been sitting for hours a day and for years.
You can't force samadhi just like you can't force a flower to grow by tugging on it. All you can give it is the causes and conditions for success. If I could recommend a technique for you now, it would be simple breath counting. Just count your exhalations 1 to 10 and then start again at one. Just count. Don't worry about anything else that happens in between the numbers. Nothing that arises, positive or negative, is of any importance. Just keep counting, over and over. Get bored. Get antsy. Struggle with doubt. Get annoyed your racing mind. Let all of that happen, but keep counting. And try your best not to fidget. Start with fifteen minutes. Over time, try to add a few minutes until you can last for an hour.
If this practice frustrates and annoys you, if it makes you feel like you want to jump out of your skin, then it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. When you reach that place of frustration - what one koan calls "the foaming billows" - persist, persist, persist.
Return to this place again and again. Over time, you'll start to grow exhausted with all your thinking and your doubting. One day, your mind will simply abandon these things itself. When that happens, then you've reached "just sitting". But for now, don't try to force it. For now, just make friends with frustration.
More post
- π Losing in thought and autopilot kicked in
- π The Law of One Form
- π Thought-sending in Tibetan Buddhism and other traditions
- π Is Venerable Mahakashyapa still Alive?
- π Should I decrease the amount of time I practice concentration meditation?
- π Personal practice regarding meditation
- π How did Buddhism and Hinduism differ in their approaches to sex work
- π What are the Four Noble Truths?
- π Disenchanted with Buddhism
- π Can you criticise or improve Ven. Bodhi's description of Mahayana
- π Killing neighbours dog
- π State between Equanimity and 1st or 2nd or further path
- π What leisure activities did the Buddha partake in?
- π Mahayana view on why Theravada's anatta is insufficient to uproot ignorance?
- π do you know consciousness?
- π Should one literally think "I am breathing in long, I am breathing out long."
- π How to practise without having aversion towards life?
- π Dilemma about Money
- π Is the new "Spread Mind" philosophy actually Buddhism?
- π How to prevent the development of insight to become ignorance anew?
- π Is dhammakaya a synonym of 'real nature of things'?
- π How Atheism and Buddhism are different?
- π Devas: offerings and merit sharing
- π Where is the sutra source of Buddha[s] (plural) existing and blessing peoples minds?
- π Budhist monastery rituals
- π Are there NDE known where Buddha is met?
- π Recognizing the loss of fetters
- π Can a puthujjana have unshakable faith in the Buddha-Dhamma?
- π Is eating fish eggs the same as killing?
- π How to avoid the dangers of gain and honor (lΔbhasakkara)?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π Will aiming for emptiness instead of awareness of breath help attaining meditative absorption states?
- π Logic of Emptiness still unconvincing. Please help explain
- π Will working for a company that engages in animal experimentation to alleviate suffering of humans be wrong livelihood?
- π What does the Buddha mean by this quote? "There is no punishment for anger. It is the anger which will punish you."
- π Is attaining to Jhana possible for me?
- π Reference request: no rest for those with ill will
- π Is realizing anatta, will it help meditation?
- π Will mindfulness help me in observing patterns and learning to keep away from a toxic person?
- π Desperate for help about intent and my fears
- π Possible for "Hungry Ghosts" to gain path? Possible to help them out?
- π Will parents full of Dhamma attract good minds for their babies?
- π Looking for help for Practise / Method to overcome distubring external sounds
- π Please help me to better understand the simile of the turner for the first part of the anapanasati instructions
- π Can advances in neuroscience help attain enlightenment? Will it make Buddhist traditions obsolete?
- π Where did the Buddha say: "What a person considers and reflects upon for a long time, to that his mind will bend and incline."?
- π I only know that I will know nothing: can that ever have any currency for Buddhists?
- π Will 10,000 hours of Vipasanna be enough for Enlightenment?
- π Did Gudo Wafu Nishijima claim that there will be no pain for anyone after death?
- π Will an electronic gadget designed on reward/punishment mechanism of brain help improve meditation?
- π Will sentient beings go to hell for abandoning the Holy Dharma?
- π Looking for a canonical reference: everyone who attains jhana will be a god of that realm in the next life
- π After attaining Nirvana will I remember that I was once without Nirvana?
- π Is Nirvana the goal for all Buddhist?
- π Where does a person go after attaining Nirvana?
- π Is a belief in rebirth a necessity for Buddhist practice?
- π Chronological or other sequence for beginners
- π Are actions in computer games bad for karma?
- π Is Buddhism just Hinduism stripped for export?
- π Isnt the desire for giving up the desires, a desire?
- π If I start doing Vipassana now, how long will it take me to achieve Nirvana?