Meditation Tips on Taming the Monkey Mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2T2gzPrIFo&app=desktop

Here is a really fabulous video on Meditation. It's focused on technique.

Remember, insight meditation (meditation that centers on self-awareness and connection to the Force) has no subject. There is no object in the meditation. No purpose. No problem to be solved. Check out Alan Watt's Meditation youtube videos.

Connor L. wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2T2gzPrIFo&app=desktop

Here is a really fabulous video on Meditation. It's focused on technique.

Remember, insight meditation (meditation that centers on self-awareness and connection to the Force) has no subject. There is no object in the meditation. No purpose. No problem to be solved. Check out Alan Watt's Meditation youtube videos.

Great video / post, thanks! I agree that there's no subject / purpose / objective in meditation - but there usually is an object (of contemplation). There are some techniques involving periods of meditating without an object, but those are usually for advanced meditators or are done after the mind has already calmed down (through object meditation).

Our senses and our mind aren't designed to run "empty". As soon as sensory reception dies down, the brain begins to busy itself with useless thoughts. I find, for example, that during my meditation sessions, old memories start popping up - stuff that I hadn't been thinking about for decades. From a scientific point of view, I find this to be an interesting phenomenon. After having let go of the most pressing thoughts, my brain seems to activate long-term memory. I like to compare this to hard drive de-fragmentation. Once I've stopped faffing about with whatever keeps my mind (needlessly) busy at the moment, my brain finds time to process things from the past, perhaps suppressed memories or regions of the cortex that haven't been accessed in a long time. In reflection, this tells me that while the act of meditating doesn't have any specific aim (except for, perhaps, enjoyment of the act itself), it's not without its effects. It's scientifically proven that meditation has a calming effect after a few months of regular practice. It aids concentration and even reduces the total amount of sleep required in advanced mediators (which, again, points in the direction of meditation having a purging effect on the brain, not unlike deep sleep).

There actually is a point to it all. The problem is, once you attempt to reach it, your ego has defeated any chance at obtaining it.

I have reached one of the highest stages of Samadhi years ago. The English language cannot possibly define it or do it justice in describing it. The reason I have not reached that level since, as I keep trying lol.

That is why Watts suggests there is no point to it all, as you have to lose yourself in order to find yourself, and if you know what your doing the ego says "aha, I found it!" Tries putting enlightenment in a jar and screws up the entire process...lol.

Connor L. wrote: Remember, insight meditation (meditation that centers on self-awareness and connection to the Force) has no subject. There is no object in the meditation. No purpose. No problem to be solved. Check out Alan Watt's Meditation youtube videos.

I would disagree here, because I think it has the best subject and solves the greatest problem. This type of meditation is us going looking for ourselves both inside and outside of our own spheres of influence. That doesn't mean we should focus on something other than our "goal", but I don't believe that goal-less meditation is possible, much less helpful, because we (as humans) are self-interested enough to undertake only those things that we have a reason to, and usually only for the reasons we do them.

That said, thanks for posting this video! Terribly informative.

I think it usually starts off that meditation has a "goal", simply because at the time, that is how our typically active minds initiate motivation to do it, and we are not normally inclined without that approach. But as we practice it enough, we might start to realize, a goal is no longer needed. The meditation itself is an experience that reintroduces us to the present moment, where any goal would already be had. That said, the directive of the most direct meditation tends to be the habit of "paying attention to yourself paying attention". As long as I practice paying attention to my attention, I create a naturally fortifying loop in my awareness, which gradually gets stronger with each session, and is nurtured by proper day-to-day natural routines (sleep, diet, exercise, etc). Now, instead of my awareness getting caught up in thoughts (which travels away from my awareness), thoughts themselves are what get caught into my loop of awareness, and as long as that loop is maintained, the thought gets slung back out of the loop. But its just a matter of practice and yes - it is possible, as evident by people who do it on a regular basis and teach others how as well.