Spiritual Portal

What challenges do you have with your meditation practice? We have many helpful suggestions here to meditating yet after we have meditated for sometime we recognize the challenges involved. This topic was brought up in the thread Concentration & the World Gets in the Way started by spiritimage. It relates to how worldly activities challenge us. We also have challenges that occur during practice that may not even be of a worldly nature. Both threads may be helpful to our practice.

My challenge: controlling thoughts, trying to concentrate. I know this is normally called restlessness, but to me it's just thoughts.

I have read that almost everyone, including those that have done this for many many years, still have this problem.

Then, we try to nail down the cause. But even then that doesn't always provide a solution.

Some thoughts I just want to think about for a bit, clear them up as it were. When I know I could just concentrate.

But at the same time, meditation is a good time for contemplation. And asking questions. Waiting for answers.

I think we need to spend some of the time contemplating, then after we feel calm and peaceful, the thoughts seem to drift away more. It's physical (reduced heart rate, calmness) as well as mental. It just takes a little time to settle in to it, for me anyway.


Or, I could just not accept that and strive to fall into deep meditation instantly. That will never happen as long as I come up with excuses like the above drivel I just typed.

Who says there is only one way to meditate? We have to meditate according to our own physical restrictions. This was a flash I had-out of the blue-after my last meditation. Sometimes these thoughts that we 'channel' just emerge. If they do so with no apparent reason perhaps we should heed them. I believe this is one reason both Amma and Yogananda stress having silence after our practice.

Right, for me there could be many parts, hong sau, kriya, om, contemplation, silence, etc.,

I read somewhere that you should sit absolutely still, not move a muscle, otherwise you have to start all over again (I think someone from SRF said this).

I think I read also that God will not come if you are not still.

But sometimes I do move slightly, especially during kriya, maybe a little forward and back, also I count on my slightly moving my thumb across my fingers.

Or are we to sit like stone?

My challenges are: sleepiness, mental restlessness, mainly. Mosquitoes during summertime. I don't move too much but sometimes it happens. I do not think we must be necessariy still like a rocky outcrop. I do not believe either that God won't come because we are not still. If it is the moment that God decides to come, attracted by oubursts of devotion or the cumulative good karma of years of lives of effort, he is going to make us still and come. No $h1t.

Well.... i have all the challenges mentioned by others plus a most peculiar one... my body tenses up.... i asked an SRF monk. He said it was karmic. Sounds like a ready made answer for questions that do not have a descriptive answer. I get this picture of being in a tight space. Locked in a closet or very small prison cell or tied up so I can't move. Anyhow many times meditation  is productive so we just have to be patient with ourselves and continually look for solutions to these challenges that inevitable arise.

Have you guys always had these problems or would you say it's been getting worse over time?

Reason I ask is, I certainly hope it doesn't get harder. I would think it's not supposed to.

I think the important thing is this; What is the intent of the thread? So we could start another thread about the improvement over the years or our decline in meditation. This one is clearly about the challenges we have encountered and perhaps how to deal with them. Having said that I leave it to you spirit image to start another thread on progress to spiritual meditation. It is a topic in itself. This topic was not meant to discourage people but just to but rather, to work on solutions to challenges and recognize them.

I would say something has definitely improved, but that depends on your specific circumstances.

For example, when I practiced Brahmacharya, sometimes I could not meditate because of strong sex impulses. I did not dissipate the impulses, so sometimes I remained in that state without being able to meditate. This has improved now because of age and because I'm married.

I also sometimes overindulged in food, which disrupts the ability to meditate. Now I'm much more disciplined or better, my efforts at dietary discipline have been at last fruitful, I eat little with minimum or no effort.

Sleepyness is hard to fight, very hard since when you meditate you close your eyes and daydream automatically. I would say if you didn't sleep enough it's almost impossible to win.

Restlessness is more sneaky, after years you learn how this devil behaves and sometimes you cut meditation short when you realize it's not the right moment, the devil is too rambonctious, whereas you make it longer when you realize that devil is asleep.
 
Steve, we can always expand this concept in another thread but I would say to SI i would not get too much discouraged since I have reached this conclusion that only the really very evolved or extremely evolved devotees have an easy meditation, full of spiritual experiences and superconsciousness. For the Others it's mostly just grinding away.

And do not let's forget the mental discipline we develop.

The intent of my question was not to discourage.

i think you are rite... there are times i am able to understand things at a deeper level through meditation and then contemplation. For instance; it gives me the ability to act on certain situations that come into my life.
This happens thru an inner motivation rather than an outer calling.

I've been thinking about this, I will ask God for help. After all, it can't hurt to ask.

Yes sometimes it takes a while to recognize how the past affects the present and where it originated. LIke fear of something or irritations on the body from past life episodes. Anyhow your suggestion is not going unheeded.

It is remarkable... sometimes I can have a real good meditation other days its pretty routine... Just practicing.
It doesn't appear that the days activities are always a determining factor. I believe there are astrological factors, social factors and environmental factors that can have effects.

I have found that a change of routine often helps. Although I practice kriya and the SRF techniques daily;
I have also found that occasionally adding other techniques I learned years ago and using the 'IAM' technique Amma gave me also is very helpful. asked her about having Paramahansa Yogananda as a Guru and seeing her as well. She merely said: "All the same. All the same!"

Just in case you misunderstood me, I meant I will ask God to send help to you.

Thanks spiritimage. I knew what u meant but it is also my responsibility.  Sometimes it is good to ask and pray for understanding ourselves as well. There are many unusual experiences we have in life; some can only be explained by the mystery of past life episodes.

But don't u also recognize those thoughts do not have the same grip on us they had at one time. Those emotions and attachments r just not as strong anymore... there is more and more flow in life.... more and more acceptence... more and more wonder.

True.

The physical practice of calmness, and that peaceful serenity you can get during meditation, seems to affect that mental grip, Bruce Lee advanced his spiritual self fantastically with his physical regimen.

Or is it the other way around, super strong will power controlling the physical body.

Super strong will power can control the body but may still have problems with the mind. I know that because I used to apply it. I used to force myself to hours of meditation. It dind't work. Maybe I gave up too soon, but speaking of a ten years' effort in my case brute will power did not solve the restlessness problem.

Yes controlling the mind is most difficult. I still struggle with some anger, frustration, etc., I should be able to control it.

Why is it so difficult to control when I can plainly see it's not something I want?

Why does it come back when I have specifically decided that I don't want or need it?

We didn't create the cosmos, and we didn't ask to be created. Why then must we be hounded by the karmic wheel?

Possibly the question needs to be posed in a different way. As God why did I decide to divide myself up into all these multifarious forms and to thus suffer until I dissolve every thing back into myself - where nothing exists accept me?

Or, why do we get bombarded with situations that can literally drive you nuts?

One possible answer is that the ones who can master the mind are only the most evolved ones, a very small minority. All other people who are struggling to dominate the mind are accumulating karmic momentum, until the Mastering will arrive.

Since not all devotees may be willing to admit their present state of failure in this endeavour, the real number of devotees with a restless mind may be underestimated.

Yes but to be created as an image, which should also include mastering of the mind, then to fall from that only to find that the only destiny is to be back where you started, seems like, well, I dunno, if I had the power to create would I do that? May never know since I do not have that power.

I just blew off some steam earlier this week and it was a big mistake.

Who was it that said we must go thru difficulties in order to advance?

The most plausible explanation to anthropogenesis I foudn is in Yogananda's writings.

God really created us in his image, demigods, nearly perfect spiritual beings with powers we cannot imagine. But he chose to give free will to us and to all the created intelligencies. that's why he let Lucipher, his rebel lietenant, alone. And when God decided that he could not intervene against his creatures' free will, he had to accept an imperfect cosmos and the presence of a force (Maya, Satan, Evil) which is doing its best to keep us from evolving spiritually.

I would rather say we are entitled to blow off steam occasionally, it may be a mechanism which helps to keep our mental pressure below the safety treshold.
Until it's done in a non-violent way it' sperfectly all right.

Well I dunno. The very definition of God is anything and everything is possible.

That would mean God would know the outcome of such a creation beforehand.

SI, according to Yogananda's explanation, God created the universe to be perfect, Lucifer rebelled and made the unioverse imperfect, so God retired it.
But afterwards he thought it back, rebooted everything and let the universe be imperfect, since he chose to leave free will to the individual intelligences he created.

Still, He knew Lucifer in and out, after all, He is God.

Hope your meditation has been good. I have had multiple disturbances from the outside that have challenged my practice recently so they cut short what may have been a longer meditation. Environment is an important factor.

Environment does help. Quality over quantity. I just read from Being Peace, to have a dedicated breathing room. Even 10 minutes is good, if you can anchor your awareness back to the present moment. Meditation happens naturally as Gurunath says, what we're doing is concentrating. Concentration on the breath, even if just 10 minutes, is enough to have a rewarding experience.

Lately I have questioned my role with living in a house hold where our way of life is so different from one another. I love my family dearly and although have our differences, I believe it is my job to assimilate understanding while I am incarnated into this lineage. I am extremely grateful they house me or else I would be homeless. I try to serve with this understanding that they Love me. My desire is to increase understanding for my Father, who is the financial backbone of our family and drinks regularly- My Mother who is the emotional rug that people have walked upon and my Sister who is overtly fiery and takes criticism as personal attacks. The noise factor is that the TV runs 24/7 and the dogs are let out first thing in the morning, barking before the sun gets up. My room is positioned in a way that I get the brunt of their noise. I live in a neighborhood that seems to be constantly, "under construction." Even so, there's so much LOVE and beauty to be found both in my family and my community. My family has the biggest heart I know.

Understanding is Love, and once you understand someone- there is no need to debate them or try to use words to show them where you disagree. It is better to use loving action. Now my family knocks if my door is closed and speaks softly. They understand, by having time to my self, I respond better to an agitating environment. I do the same for them if I see they need time to themselves. There is a time for everything. Learning your environment and how to respond to it... It is possible to transcend your environment to be more conducive towards mindful action and overall peace felt energy.