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shminux comments on Training Reflective Attention - Less Wrong Discussion
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Weird, I tried the first exercise: closed my eyes and waited for the first thought to emerge. Nothing (as far as I could tell) happened for a few seconds, so I tried paying more attention. Then I noticed that, as soon as a thought started to form (always in a non-verbal and not-visual way, more like a mental nudge), it got almost instantly dismissed, apparently without any conscious effort on my part beyond the initial "let's relax". After a minute or so the new thoughts got farther along, as if my inner whack-a-thought'er got tired or something. Is this the opposite of the standard reaction, or do I misunderstand something?
I'm not sure of how common the thing that you're describing is, but I would just point out that "nothing seems to be happening, I'll try paying more attention" is a thought.
I guess it is a thought. Does it mean that I am not doing this meditation thing right?
Well, I wouldn't consider myself qualified to say what is or isn't doing meditation right, but to me it mostly suggests that you're not yet very sensitive at actually recognizing thoughts as thoughts. That's normal early on, though: my experience with meditation is that I've gotten better at noticing more and more subtle thoughts as I've gotten more practice.