I find emotions and thoughts self reinforcing. If one is not in a great emotional space, does that first have to be rectified to prevent getting "sucked in"? I find my mind exerts a stronger pull on my awareness, when there are strong underlying emotions like sadness or anger.
Hello! A question, if I may - disidentification with the thinking 'I' and the contents of the thought does not mean we cannot use thinking as a practical tool, correct? Like, to map out a plan of a lecture, or recall a list of groceries? I understand that the problem of 'to whom does the task of making groceries occur?' is not really a problem that would impede a necessary practical task, even though we might have discovered that there is no 'I' who thinks this thought? But still, there is a human 'I' to be taken care of, fed etc., correct? How to reconcile this? Convention vs. 'reality'?
I appreciate you, and this is a great video. I have practiced meditation (mindfulness, spiritual, focused, mantra, and loving-kindness meditation) for 15 years now. Moreover, during the last 24 months, I have developed a very strong awarness of my Self (by staying in my inner world much longer rather than before while hardly focusing on the outter world). Nowadays, I hardly go into automatic thinking/auto-pilot at all as I am able to filter every thought passing through the mind. This feeling of freedom in this delicious quietness is simply beyond words. It's simply Epic! Many times I can clearly feel my body (mind) as no longer being the real me (the Self) for several hours, and it has done wonders... My question to you is; can this eventually lead to a much prolonged out of body experience? How deep can I go on this path? Best regards - Cesar
Thanks for sharing this, and for your kind words. There's no need to go "deep." The key insight - there is no separate self - is right on the surface. The key is to spend more and more time existing without the false sense of self. Ironically, once we recognize that there is no separate "me" in our heads looking out, there's nothing more we can do. The trick there is to simply notice that the "me" is not there and then drop any further effort and allow things to be as they are. If we catch ourselves identified with thoughts again, we can simply repeat the process of looking for the "me", not finding it, and dropping any further effort. Some interesting experiences result when we spend prolonged periods of time with no false self present, but these experiences aren't of much use other than being interesting. The true gift is the body / mind reflecting our true nature more often, which results in greater peace of mind for the practitioner and everyone around her/him.
Thanks for an interesting video. In your experience, how does meditation sessions influence our ability to being present/mindful during the day? Is meditation the best way to increase the amount of time we are mindful?
My pleasure. When practiced correctly, the sitting still practice (what I think you are referring to as "meditation sessions") allows us to deepen our wisdom of being the awareness that knows the mind instead of being identified with the mind and its activity. This wisdom is what gradually reduces the habit to identify with the mind and its contents, allowing us to be less distracted by the activity of the mind and more present. Also, it is very helpful to practice mindfulness during daily activities as well. Here's a video that gives a quick-start guide to doing that - th-cam.com/video/SNg1P8hY0mY/w-d-xo.html
As an experienced practitioner of mindfulness how many percentage of the day would you say that you are mindful? How often do you roughly catch yourself being lost in thought during an regular hour?
Hi Anders. These days there are very few times when I'm lost in thought, maybe once per day. Please don't set this as a goal though. A better goal is to notice with curiosity each time you are lost in thought and see if you can observe the last thought that occurred with objective awareness. As long as your goal is to be curious about what's happening in the mind/body, regardless of whether there's a lot of thinking or not, you'll find you experience a lot more peace.
Good morning ☀️ captain 👩✈️ hope u and ur family are well ... we are all the time busy with our thoughts 💭 thoughts of work family the inner dialogue God and His wonderful work concerning creation reading good thoughts evil thoughts... so the mind is pretty busy ... well how does mindfulness fit in and what it the ultimate goal of being mindful?
Hello Muhammad. Here's a video that may answer your question - th-cam.com/video/Ki7gEAWhewA/w-d-xo.html . If you have further questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. I'll do my best to help.
Your background is beautiful...
Thanks! We really enjoy our space.
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I find emotions and thoughts self reinforcing. If one is not in a great emotional space, does that first have to be rectified to prevent getting "sucked in"? I find my mind exerts a stronger pull on my awareness, when there are strong underlying emotions like sadness or anger.
Hello! A question, if I may - disidentification with the thinking 'I' and the contents of the thought does not mean we cannot use thinking as a practical tool, correct? Like, to map out a plan of a lecture, or recall a list of groceries? I understand that the problem of 'to whom does the task of making groceries occur?' is not really a problem that would impede a necessary practical task, even though we might have discovered that there is no 'I' who thinks this thought? But still, there is a human 'I' to be taken care of, fed etc., correct? How to reconcile this? Convention vs. 'reality'?
I appreciate you, and this is a great video. I have practiced meditation (mindfulness, spiritual, focused, mantra, and loving-kindness meditation) for 15 years now. Moreover, during the last 24 months, I have developed a very strong awarness of my Self (by staying in my inner world much longer rather than before while hardly focusing on the outter world). Nowadays, I hardly go into automatic thinking/auto-pilot at all as I am able to filter every thought passing through the mind. This feeling of freedom in this delicious quietness is simply beyond words. It's simply Epic! Many times I can clearly feel my body (mind) as no longer being the real me (the Self) for several hours, and it has done wonders... My question to you is; can this eventually lead to a much prolonged out of body experience? How deep can I go on this path? Best regards - Cesar
Thanks for sharing this, and for your kind words. There's no need to go "deep." The key insight - there is no separate self - is right on the surface. The key is to spend more and more time existing without the false sense of self.
Ironically, once we recognize that there is no separate "me" in our heads looking out, there's nothing more we can do. The trick there is to simply notice that the "me" is not there and then drop any further effort and allow things to be as they are.
If we catch ourselves identified with thoughts again, we can simply repeat the process of looking for the "me", not finding it, and dropping any further effort.
Some interesting experiences result when we spend prolonged periods of time with no false self present, but these experiences aren't of much use other than being interesting. The true gift is the body / mind reflecting our true nature more often, which results in greater peace of mind for the practitioner and everyone around her/him.
Thanks for an interesting video. In your experience, how does meditation sessions influence our ability to being present/mindful during the day? Is meditation the best way to increase the amount of time we are mindful?
My pleasure. When practiced correctly, the sitting still practice (what I think you are referring to as "meditation sessions") allows us to deepen our wisdom of being the awareness that knows the mind instead of being identified with the mind and its activity. This wisdom is what gradually reduces the habit to identify with the mind and its contents, allowing us to be less distracted by the activity of the mind and more present. Also, it is very helpful to practice mindfulness during daily activities as well. Here's a video that gives a quick-start guide to doing that - th-cam.com/video/SNg1P8hY0mY/w-d-xo.html
As an experienced practitioner of mindfulness how many percentage of the day would you say that you are mindful? How often do you roughly catch yourself being lost in thought during an regular hour?
Hi Anders. These days there are very few times when I'm lost in thought, maybe once per day. Please don't set this as a goal though. A better goal is to notice with curiosity each time you are lost in thought and see if you can observe the last thought that occurred with objective awareness. As long as your goal is to be curious about what's happening in the mind/body, regardless of whether there's a lot of thinking or not, you'll find you experience a lot more peace.
Good morning ☀️ captain 👩✈️ hope u and ur family are well ... we are all the time busy with our thoughts 💭 thoughts of work family the inner dialogue God and His wonderful work concerning creation reading good thoughts evil thoughts... so the mind is pretty busy ... well how does mindfulness fit in and what it the ultimate goal of being mindful?
Hello Muhammad. Here's a video that may answer your question - th-cam.com/video/Ki7gEAWhewA/w-d-xo.html . If you have further questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments. I'll do my best to help.