Ask HN: Do you meditate? How? Results?
Question inspired by this comment on the currently top post on HN about attention spans:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36853689
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36853689
Related: since I went from coffee to tea to no caffeine (also very little alcohol, like a drink a month, for three years), my dreams are back, I generally sleep through the night, and I'm less grumpy. I let my mind wander in a "just noticing" way when my head hits the pillow (before quitting videogames my mind would spin with replays and possibilities from the game), and I fall asleep quickly again- similar, as with dreams, to how I remember my childhood and teenage years.
Simply taking a slow deep breath and sigh-ing it out and then pausing until I'm ready for the next breath is one of my favorite meditations. Started doing this after watching my dog do it.
My approach is pretty simple. I go sit somewhere comfortable (usually at home on the floor with a pillow, but sometimes at the beach or on a tree stump nearby) and just breathe deep and slow. I close my eyes and keep breathing. Eventually all the noises around me turn into white noise and I feel quite blissful.
Maybe I’m just getting high on oxygen, but whatever it seems to help me out. The hardest part is when I think about something else and lose focus on my breath. However with practice and pure intent to meditate, it sorts itself out.
Results wise? I’m a human. I am emotive and prone to speaking what’s on my mind. Meditation just helps me deal with the ramifications of living life, because I don’t feel that I should try to be someone I am not. I need to just be happy with who I am and I know I am not a bad person.
You might discover that the world is not what it seems...
I confess I have no direct experience with anything I've ever had the impulse to call "spiritual". This makes me wonder if I think the word means something different than most, or am I missing some kind of subjective experience others have?
I assume spiritual doesn't literally mean spirit, like the whispy ghost that floats up when you die in the cartoons. I assume it means something like a negative definition. Take everything we know and can understand about empirical reality, then whatever remains is "spiritual".
There are other forms of meditation as well, but this one and it's variants is probably most common.
Very mercifully, I've never had visions in meditation. But recently I've been feeling a lot of weirdly physical pleasure in my head and shoulders from the samadhi--concentration or calmness--that comes from my practice. I've also had more "insight," which just means I notice more internally and externally. In Buddhism, we talk about how concentration and insight are the goals and results of meditation.
It's important when talking about meditation, however, to mention sila, or morality. Sila for a common person means following the five precepts--not to kill any living creature, not to steal, not to commit sexual misconduct (rape, adultery, etc.), not to lie, and not to take intoxicants like alcohol and cannabis (caffeine is okay). Many teachers often say that if you summarize Buddhist practice, it's just sila, samadhi, and pañña, which means morality, concentration, and wisdom. If you want results from your meditation, also practicing the five precepts is a good idea.
I suppose the final result for me is that after studying Buddhism in college more than ten years ago and then spending several years in Thailand in my 20's, I'm taking steps now to seek ordination as a Buddhist monk. I'm in the very early stages of turning my life upside down, but those are my results right now.
So if you don't want to give up your worldly possessions and pick up the robe and bowl, don't meditate. Lol. I kid.
Mindfulness can sound esoteric (and it certainly feels esoteric once you engage in that lifestyle), but ultimately it's about being present with every single moment, and taking the time to notice everything that's happening both within and around you.
Now, there are many different ways and techniques for you to do this. A really popular way is to literally slow down what you're doing and really observe the movement and sensation within your body.
In terms of maintaining mindfulness, a practical way to achieve this is to evaluate your day based on how mindful you were. I think where a lot of people go wrong, is they continue to evaluate themselves based on what they achieved or what happened during the day. As long as your focus is in that area, it because almost impossible to maintain mindfulness as a state of mind.
And what I have found that over the years it's much easier to "meditate" anywhere and anytime. I don't have to sit in any particular way, don't have to listen to any music and in fact can do it in a busy noisy place too.
This particular meditation, which I just think of as "thinking nothing" is as refreshing to me as a nap.
I'll do it before I have to present something to someone. I'll do it between tasks to clear my mind. I'll do it before I work. I'll do it between my "idea creation time" and "doing time"
Could be as little as 30 seconds or as much as a few minutes.
I would say beyond the health and strength /mobility benefits, it’s a great brain defragger allowing you to focus on a non technical thing and subconsciously mull things over. I find I think clearer when I am in a good habit of going climbing.
I also asked the question because I was talking with a friend about attention spans just recently, and also have been observing and hearing about this issue over some months.