Vipassana Meditation Open Thread

This is a place to discuss experiences and problems related to practicing vipassana meditation. This space can also be used to organize meditation events or retreats.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

It seems to me that you're practicing skillfully. A few comments:

I tried to summon up a feeling of mettā, which is hard to do without someone in particular in front of me to direct it towards.

While I'm not sure about this, I think mettā might be a form of P.J. Eby's Mmm Test, which aims specifically at reinforcing positive patterns of feeling about other people.

I reflected on my day, which had been quite pleasant, and thought about why the parts that had felt good and bad had felt that way (trying not to value the pleasant more than the unpleasant, but just to understand them).

So were these thoughts in the background as you kept centered on your breath?

(The ability to do that is not unique to meditation for me; I noticed a while ago that if I pay direct attention to e.g. pain I can't simultaneously be distressed by it.)

Interesting. This is more evidence for LWers having abnormally powerful reflection abilities, and possibly experiencing faster progress in meditation as a result. (See my comment here)

One question I have: I was expecting to become uncomfortable in the position I was sitting in after half an hour, but I didn't. Someone mentioned deliberately choosing a position that would be slightly uncomfortable. Is there a reason to do that if I'm not feeling uncomfortable anyway? Or am I only not because my sittings are still fairly short?

I don't think it's so important to do now. Later on you might experiment with longer sittings and see what observing pain can teach you.

While I'm not sure about this, I think mettā might be a form of P.J. Eby's Mmm Test, which aims specifically at reinforcing positive patterns of feeling about other people.

Yeah, I agree. It's sort of priming yourself to feel positively about people. That gives me a good idea: on days when I don't find time for a full vipassana session, I think I will try to still spend a few minutes on mettā just to reinforce those neural pathways.

Also, I just started cleaning my desk. XD I'd been meaning to do that for a while ...

0Relsqui16y

Thanks for the link to pjeby's video--I don't have time to check it out right now, but I will when I can. I forgot to mention that in my fourth sitting, I found that part easier (calling up mettā deliberately). I enjoy that part. [...] Sometimes. I would anchor on the breath and try to keep it there while thinking about other things. When I noticed that I was only thinking about the other things and had lost the breath, I would re-anchor, etc. From your comment quoting Oshaberi: [...] Ha, I've almost done this. I remember trying a new kind of cheese some time in elementary school (I remember where I was physically), and noticing that it had a strong and different flavor. I recall thinking consciously, "I could either like this or hate this--may as well like it!" and liked it. But that's the only time I've been able to do it, and I think it's because I was on the cusp. I haven't been able to choose to like other foods on purpose when I didn't before. (I also seem to be a fairly strong taster, though, which gives me strong preferences against certain kinds of taste.) [...] Sounds good. That was more or less my default plan: Keep doing the simple stuff while it's challenging, then try something harder when the simple stuff gets less challenging. There are a couple of regular group sittings in my area, and I think my short-term goal is to get comfy enough to try joining one of them, so I can get more feedback/discussion.

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Vipassana Meditation Open Thread

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Vipassana Meditation Open Thread

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