Ask HN: What's it like getting better at meditation?
What does the path to mastery look like for meditation?
At first, meditation was all about just coping with boredom and muscle pain (from sitting still) and trying to return to the breath while thoughts constantly kept emerging. This was not especially fun, but the sheer difficulty of just sitting still seemed to make it a good challenge, like I clearly had a lot to learn.
Even during this phase I usually felt better and more clear after meditation, so I liked doing it even though it wasn't really satisfying in the moment.
Then over months I started to see what it means to let go of everything except the focus on the meditation object, usually the breath but I also found it very interesting to meditate on the visual appearance of a small unicolored circle ("kasina").
And I learned about jhana/dhyana practice which really inspired me to take concentration seriously. Also I discovered the benefits for meditation of just being nice to people and animals and maintaining a good mood, clean house, etc—reducing ambient stress and "bad karma."
Eventually I started to actually get into those jhana states. It starts by getting very relaxed and concentrated and then starting to notice how there are some subtle pleasant sensations around your bodily perception, maybe your belly or palms or somewhere; then you shift your concentration to take that pleasure as its object, which causes it to increase and spread. It's no exaggeration that this can be a state of pervasive sensory pleasure, like your whole body is full of a kind of fizzy happiness. It's easy to get so excited that you fall out of the state, so the practice becomes to stay calm within it. And then the fizziness subsides into a more calm pleasure, and then it becomes not even really pleasure but just contentment like a peaceful lake without wind.
By the way concentration in these contexts shouldn't be understood as a kind of forceful and strained effort, rather the opposite. But you probably just have to learn through trial and error. I'd try to write more descriptively but it would probably get long and tedious.
I alternate between sound (mantra) and form, and sometimes formless as well [1].
Ke to do concentrative meditation can be summed up in one line (taken from [2]) “Exert when relaxed and relax when exerted.”
As one walks the path, one invariably goes through these nine states of awareness: http://omswami.com/2015/02/nine-states-awareness.html
The rewards of concentrative meditation are huge. But most of them requires intense effort eventually [3].
0: http://omswami.com/2011/10/depression-definition-cause-and-c... 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPL_eQKExN0 2. https://www.amazon.com/Million-Thoughts-Meditation-Himalayan... 3: http://omswami.com/2015/01/types-of-meditator.html
You’ll know you’re 100% ‘doing it right’ when eventually weird sensations called piti show up. Could take some months of practice or could be a week. It gets progressively crazier from there, but you’ll develop an intuition for what meditation is by then.
This is a 400 page book about sitting still and focusing on the breath that is known to work: https://www.amazon.com.au/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integr...
It helped greatly in my quest to understand and do it.
The more you get 'out' of your mind, the better you'd feel.
Stage 1: Being the river of emotions
In the beginning when emotions arose in my head, I was strongly attached to them. I identified myself with emotions I felt. My internal happiness and inner piece were strongly dependent on emotions I was experiencing. As a consequence, my internal happiness was volatile.
Stage 2: Observing the river of emotions
Through meditation I was able to become an observer of my emotions. Emotions are still present, but I don’t identify myself with them that much. Like an observer watching a river of emotions. I still feel joy, I still get aggravated, but the relationship towards emotions has changed. What’s present is curiosity towards my feelings coupled with a peculiar sense of detachment. It’s a great feature of consciousness to have, IMHO.
I feel more alive, I recognize my emotions more accurately and I think I have become more emphatic. I find myself feeling the present moment in every day common situations (e.g., commute). I can concentrate more on tasks at hand, I’m naturally in the flow. On top of this, my internal happiness has become deeper and constant, as the attachment to my emotions has weakened.
It took me 2-3 years. I experimented with various kinds of meditation (static, dynamic, breathing, etc.) and picked those that I found effective. I started with Headspace, for about a year. Then dynamic osho meditation + qi-gong standing meditations worked great. Also, targeting my attention to how I felt during everyday common activities helped tremendously (what I feel when having an argument, what I feel before a presentation, etc).
Stage 3: Who’s the observer?
Currently, I’m becoming more and more curious about the nature of the observer. Who’s the observer? Who’s feeling a feeling I’m feeling? If Stage 2 is a meta-level of thinking, stage 3 seems like a meta-meta level. I’m curious how that feels like. My hunch is that the internal happiness and calm becomes even more deeper. The question that is burning my consciousness currently is who will be feeling that calm then? :)
It seems to me we live in a world of abundant information and opportunities on cultivating one’s consciousness. I think that advanced levels of consciousness can be reached quickly and effectively, compared to people who lived hundreds of years ago.
Also, it’s a long-term game. I’m currently learning a 60-second free-standing handstand, starting from zero, and I know it’s a project for at least a year. I’m 6 months in. The progress is really really slow and highly non-linear. Sometimes the non-linearity is very discouraging, sometimes very encouraging. Nevertheless, I show up 3 times a week and do my one hour routine. Despite the slowness, I cannot believe my current skills compared to January this year.
If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer.
I'm currently learning how to draw, and it's quite different from handstands in that I can't see the progress until after I look back every couple of months, whereas with a handstand I assume you can sort of "feel" the improvement by how balanced you are.
I notice I don’t get distracted easily. For example, when a teacher stands next to me while I’m doing an exercise. I notice him, a thought arises in my head that he is looking at me. However, I’m not attached to that thought and can continue focusing on the drill at hand. I like this feature.
The non-linear nature of learning a skill has become less distracting. When learning isn’t progressing, I notice the thought. Since my internal state is less dependent on emotions, plateaus are less discouraging. It is still discouraging, but much less for me that it used to be.
Also, I think my learning itself goes quicker. My hypothesis is that my mind is getting used to non-standard states of consciousness (through meditation), which increases its “flexibility” and adaptability. Learning a new skills, in a sense of directing the mind into new territory (of yet to be learnt material), seems to go quicker.
The downside is that I cannot do tasks with 50% focus. I’m either in the flow or I’m not doing anything. This starts to apply to almost any daily activity. I’m slowly getting used to it.
Hope this helps.
I'm quoting a few extracts from an excellent book on meditation by a currently living enlightened monk: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Thoughts-Meditation-Himalayan...
>>> Four Stages of Mental Stillness
The truth is that the mind is always talking. It is never silent. On the path of meditation the transformation of mind from a restless monkey to a docile cow happens in four stages. Experience of sustained and deep silence is not simply about feeling the bliss of quietude. It’s much more than that.
One of the most amazing things you discover is a radical change in how you see the world around you – nothing provokes you any longer. This is one of the greatest rewards of right meditation – a state of no provocation. People, their statements, their responses, your own thoughts, reactions, emotions and desires – none of it will be able to provoke you.
Imagine you live in a metropolitan city and you have taken a sabbatical to spend some time in peace in a far off location – in a small, quiet, countryside town close to a seashore. Your journey involves a long drive and your goal is to get away from the hustle-bustle of the city life to the peaceful seaside. That calm seaside is the ultimate stage of meditation – infinite, expansive, oceanic. However, before you settle in such state and beyond, you will invariably go through the following four stages:
1. Constant Activity – The Motorway
This is the first stage. Mind is always talking and most people remain unaware. When they want the mind to be quiet, like before sleeping or when they are depressed, and it does not shut up, that is when they realize how talkative mind is. There is constant activity going on in the mind. During this stage, when a meditator sits down to meditate, his mind does not quieten beyond sporadic short periods lasting no more than a few seconds. All that the meditator hears is chatter. The more he tries to quiet the mind, the louder it becomes. Thoughts from everywhere continue their onslaught, discouraging the practitioner. At the end of their 30-minute long session, they get up more drained and tired. Some mistake it for relaxation but in reality it is no more than a short nap.
...
The first stage of mental stillness is like the traffic on a major highway. Traffic is always flowing in both directions. The meditator is on the highway of thoughts. When you are on a highway, you have no control over the traffic around you. There are multiple lanes, there will be cars in front, in the left lane, in the right lane, behind you. Some are going slower than you, many are going faster than you, others are at the same pace as you. There is traffic flowing in your direction and in the opposite direction. People are not honking so nothing abruptly disrupts your cruise mode or distracts you, but you are aware of the traffic around you and you know this is normal on the freeway. You have to drive carefully, you cannot afford any mistakes while changing lanes. A meditator in the first stage has no control on the flow of thoughts. They are on a motorway and it is the peak hour. The only thing you can do is drive with utmost caution and eventually you will get off the freeway.
2. Frequent Activity – Suburban Road
In this stage, the flow of thoughts is frequent but not constant. A meditator experiences easiness and many quiet stints lasting several moments where they get a glimpse of a mind free from thoughts – a no-mind state, a heightened state of consciousness. Your ability to meditate for longer period increases by a few minutes. If in stage one, you could meditate for 30 minutes, now you can meditate for 45 minutes. Most people are unable to maintain their concentration beyond a few seconds.
...
Think of this stage as driving on a suburban road. The thoughts in your mind are no longer traveling in 16 lanes in both the directions. The speed has come down by half. There is still a degree of constancy to them, they haven’t come to a halt yet nor have they disappeared. Your thoughts are travelling at a slower speed now. The traffic is more manageable. Your attentiveness increases noticeably as you get to this stage.
...
3. Occasional Activity – The Countryside Road
...
The third stage is the countryside road. You can drive for several miles before you come across any other vehicle. Green fields, meadows, pastures, pristine air, blue sky, expansive views, beautiful landscapes, quiet surroundings, no rush – ah, the pleasure of countryside driving! You can go slower or a bit faster, you choose your own pace. The conditions permit you to do that. A meditator who has reached stage three learns to harness and channelize his thoughts. Most of their sessions comprise spans of quiescence and bliss with occasional thoughts emerging here and there, on and off. They don’t get up all relaxed from their meditation, for relaxed they already are, otherwise it would not have been possible to get to this stage. Instead, they get up feeling supercharged, refreshed and alert. A great meditator is always alert. Alertness is not only the reward but an essential ingredient for good meditation. A stage three meditator can easily sit unmoving for three hours.
4. No Activity – No Thorough Fare
Even though I have called it a stage, there is really no going beyond this stage. Intellectually, we may define an infinite number of stages. In all practicality though, stage four is the outcome of crossing the three stages successfully. It comes with great, persistent, prolonged, intelligent, alert, intense and correct practice. Please carefully note all the seven adjectives in the previous sentence. You miss on any of these and there is no hope. A stage four meditator can sit unmoving, like a rock, for as long as he wants.
At this stage you experience extraordinary absorption and understand the reality of things unknown and inconceivable by the ordinary mind. Buddha said, “The one who knows the reality of one thing knows the reality of everything.”
The fourth stage is enlightenment.
On your long drive to selfrealization, think of this stage as a private property, a large villa, an exclusive chateau. It has a path, a road but it is no thoroughfare – a large gate and a high fence block noise, traffic, people and any unwanted visitors. You have your own garden, comfort and peace. Any visitor will either have taken prior appointment which means you are aware of their arrival beforehand or you will have the choice to let them in or not. A stage four meditator is an adept, a siddha. He can stay on a thought for as long as he so chooses. The awareness is so crystallized that he can decide which thought he wants to entertain and which one he wishes to let go. There are no surprises.