Some Typical Meditation Mistakes

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While doing meditation one of the biggest errors one makes is trying to use meditation as a means to an end. One wants to feel better and thinks if I sit “well” enough then I would find peace. A meditator initially fails to realize that this mind that is trying so hard to find relief from suffering was the same mind that had created sufferings.

Often people spend a lot of time spinning wheels trying to find the right formula to quieten the mind. They think if they concentrate hard enough and focus on the breath the right way, or limit external noises and distraction then the mind would quiet down and they would find the truth. The mind was the one constantly looking for the right formula, the right path, the right insight.

However, one has to realize that no matter what the mind decides if the method came from the mind, it would prevent him from relaxing into the silence beyond the mind.

This was just one of the many mistakes people make. Putting too much emphasis on how long one sits in meditation, trying to recreate blissful feelings, trying to determine if they were enlightened or not, all contributed to perpetuating their monkey mind.

If you’ve had comparative dissatisfactions with your meditations, don’t be disheartened. Try not to stop. There’s no incorrect method to meditate because all “botches” just serve to worsen our anguish, and consequently increment our sincerity to return to attempt meditation once more. Life is truly adept at setting in safeguards against our uncouthness.

If you’ve started meditation and halted, started and halted, let months and years go by, initiated again and halted, be assured you’re in good company. It’s easy for anyone to get frustrated and quit a few times before developing good practice. In actuality, one must stop “attempting” to meditate before one begins to awaken to what meditation is all about.

So let’s go into a bit more detail on these mistakes we want to avoid…

Trying to quiet the mind

As addressed before, the main explanation we sit in meditation is that we urgently need to quieten the asinine gab inside our brain. Our monkey mind is very tenacious. It resembles the Terminator: “It can’t be bartered with. It can’t be prevailed upon. It doesn’t have sympathy, or regret, or dread. Also, it completely won’t stop, ever, until you are… ” profoundly stirred.

So is there any good reason why we shouldn’t attempt to calm the mind?

The most ideal approach to answer this is to ask: Who is attempting to quieten the mind? Take as much time as necessary and look at this. What you will discover is that your mind is attempting to calm itself. How could what it is the underlying driver of the issue be a solution to it? It can’t. It won’t tune in to our craving to be liberated. It’s just keen on promoting its progression and expanding its noteworthiness.

Our mind needing to calm our mind makes extra inward clash. This internal clash gives more fuel to the mind, thus our endeavour to reflect and calm the mind has just prompted more battles and dissatisfaction.

To evade this predicament, we should “never really do anything. Just sit and see whatever thoughts travel whichever way. Persistent, inactive, non-responsive perception is your superpower. Whatever musings emerge, let them come. Whatever considerations go, let them go.

It may require some investment to subside into onlooker mode, yet once we understand it’s conceivable to sit and watch the mind from a state of unbiased mindfulness, the mind’s rule of fear is drawing close to an end.

Sitting too long too soon

I consider numerous of us plunk down in meditation imagining a change into a Zen Master on the very beginning. We’ve heard that an hour of meditation is a great contemplation, so we choose to sit for 60 minutes.

Inside the main moment, we’ve remembered each humiliating occasion in our life from preschool up to until this current second. We sit and grapple with our considerations. We’re thrown around like a cloth doll in this psychological octagon by our brain. Beaten to a ridiculous passionate mash. Our will is broken…

We quit the following five minutes and pledge to never sit in meditation again

Try not to do this to yourself. Start moderate! Meditation is the same thing as lifting loads. On the chance of you attempting to do an excessive amount of it too early, you will just wind up harming yourself.

 Start with doing a couple of minutes for the initial week or two. Increase a minute or two consistently after that and attempt to gradually stir your way up to twenty minutes every day.

There isn’t anyone you have to compete. You don’t get any honours for continuing through conditioning’s or afflictions. Appreciate the excursion. Take as much time as you feel like

Quitting too soon

So what happens when you start sitting up to twenty minutes a day. We’ve sat for twenty minutes for a week now and we feel…. everything is the same, nothing has changed. The mind is still lost. The monkey mind is still in charge, still fooling us around, and we get frustrated.

The mind is whispering that this all is some big wastage of precious time which you could have spent sleeping or relaxing and you’ve fallen for just sitting idle again! How long are you going to follow your guru who is having no work for himself and can’t give you any material success? Of course, he stays at peace as he doesn’t ever do anything…

Don’t give in to such thoughts of mind…

Meditation is like wandering in the dense fog. We don’t get to know much of anything that’s going on, and then we realize that we are soaking wet. If the mind begins to feed in us about just sitting and not seeing any results, then just observe such thoughts.

There is no set time frame for the mind to calm down, but if you are patient you will begin to experience “periods” of silence in the mind. These small periods are a good indication that the mind is getting used to not getting any reaction out of us. So, be relaxed and patient. Take a pledge that you will sit until your last day without thinking  about  the results

Trying to recreate meditative phenomena

The Peace! Give me some greater amount of that peace. Can never have enough peace! Any individual who has come to encounter the sentiment of euphoric peace in meditation has unquestionably attempted to reproduce it. If you state that you haven’t, you’re lying.

Anything that happens inside the meditative contemplation is wondered. Delight, lights, hues, airs, sounds, pictures, dreams, out-of-body encounters, hyper vision, getting messages, full-body orgasmic elation, outsider contact, blessed messengers, numbers, time travel, space travel… It’s all equitable marvels and it has no genuine role in the path to self-realization.

On the off chance that in case you become beguiled by wonders, this implies the brain has gotten charmed by marvels. The purpose of mediation is to unwind into the attention to life moving. The consciousness of life moving incorporates attention to mind moving. If we “fall into” the part of the mind attempting to reproduce our reflective experience, at that point we’ve in all probability dropped out of the unbiased observer job.

A decent standard to recollect is to unwind and permit whatever comes to come and permit whatever goes to go. Nothing should be made. Nothing should be taken out. Simply unwind with what is…

Holding any expectations about your practice

It’s normal to start a meditation practice since we need to feel good and at peace. Our mind is giving us inconvenience. Our connections never work out. We are exhausted, we never finish things in time, and are completely buried in chunks of pressure. We are lamenting over misfortune. We are drained. We sometimes just feel to surrender. It’s like having too much on one’s plate.

Once more, who needs to feel at peace? Who is holding this desire that meditation is the fix the total of what that we’ve been hanging tight for? The Mind! The mind is keen on feeling good, so once more, we are making more internal clashes. The mind doesn’t care for how life is moving, it needs to improve life. We are playing back-and-forth within ourselves…

Any desire for getting something out of meditation defers getting anything from meditation. If you don’t need anything, at that point you will get something. That something is genuine feelings of peace and serenity.

Genuine feelings of peace and serenity emerge with the developing of attention to what is. At the point when we sit in meditation without desire, the mind’s internal clash breaks down. There’s no fuel added to the mind when we don’t anticipate getting anything. Unwinding without desire is how the mind starts to calm down.

Thus, to sum up….

Try not to attempt to calm your mind. Try not to attempt an excessive amount of meditation too early. Try not to stop too early. Try not to attempt to reproduce a pleasurable meditation meeting. Try not to hold any desires.

Simply sit. Unwind, relax and be with what is……

Submission by: Capt.(Retd.) Vaishnav Dutt

Capt (Retd.) Vaishnav Dutt is a perfect blend of urban and traditional value systems. He finds joy and fulfilment in examining and studying Indian spiritual traditions and applies himself mindfully and in devotion to his inner pursuits. His connection to the depth and enquiry of human existence is in perfect balance with his conduct and dutiful conduct in daily life. He can be reached out at vaishnavdutt.sharma@gmail.com