Buddhism/Meditation General

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I'm not a Buddhist but I cut out vidya and porn and I feel better than I did. Remember you either do it or you don't. There is no try. I reworded what yoda said just so you know this shit is legit.

I don't usually like calling things 'memes', but I think the explosion of popularity in meditation qualifies it as one.
Meditation is literally just sitting down and not consciously thinking. It isn't some wonder drug, it won't make you smarter, it won't make you 7'11" with a 12 inch dick.
It's what you do when you look out the window on a rainy day. It's that 'spaced out' feeling when you're waiting for your coffee to brew.
It's not bad, I enjoy the relaxation and calmness it provides but I mean, I've seen people quite seriously recommend it for depression. I don't understand how that would work.
Then again I'm not a monk so what the fuck do I know.

>>26367429
Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
(originalcomment dumbfukked)

those things don't add any real enjoyment to your life. as well, advice cuts both ways, you can use it as a way to better your life or rationalize future failures.

these ideas are enough to put a bad taste in your mouth in relation to the activities.

you watch porn? you're getting off watching other people bone.

you play videogames? your character is the one honing skills, you're just providing the inputs and guiding them along the rails of their story.

imagine sitting in front of your computer, while it's off, and just tapping your keyboard and mouse, for four hours. this is what you, the person, are doing.



guilt and dread is a very typical christian mentality, however, and even worse people get hung up on it and keep making the same mistakes anyways.

these things bury their hooks into us. be the first to shake them off so you can help those around you. lead by example.

>>26368294
Thanks anon. I'm aware that Buddhists tend to change the way they view things rather than push them away as Christians do, which just gives those things even more power.

>>26368294
>you watch porn? you're getting off watching other people bone.
I frequently stop watching porn for a while and either write erotica or just imagine stuff and get off to that and honestly, I don't see the difference, it's just alternate sources of roughly the same thing, how is watching porn objectively worse for you than just dreaming it up in your head instead?

>you play videogames? your character is the one honing skills, you're just providing the inputs and guiding them along the rails of their story.
Perfectly true, but whether or not it provides "real enjoyment" is completely subjective.

>imagine sitting in front of your computer, while it's off, and just tapping your keyboard and mouse, for four hours. this is what you, the person, are doing.
"Imagine sitting with a book, with blank pages and just every minute or two you flip the pages. This is what you, the person, are doing."

"Imagine sitting down and writing, with a pen that's empty, just scraping the pen across the page and every so often turning a page. This is what you, the person, are doing."

You can take any activity involving information and very quickly make it sound very stupid. Just because the things you're doing involve the creation/transfer of information you can't obviously see (either in the computer or in your brain) doesn't mean you're not doing anything.

>>26367313
isnt this the sort of thread that triggers the autist who is absolutely against buddhism?

Funny things. I come here now after some time to share my experience but there was already thread about it.
When I was 14 like anyone else I looked for everything what I can do with my life. I found some book about zen-buddhism. Read it, try to practice and actually sitting zazen to my 17.
But high school is high school and I start going on shows, start drinking alot, start smoking, try some drugs, have a girl and completely forget about it.
After some time doing this I found myself deeply dont satisfied with my life. Dont have a girl anymore, just drink with my friends ( I dont meet them anywhere else than a pub ).
So that was time when my depression come and when I start beeing here on /r9k/.
After few years of it I read that book again, read it more, stop reading and start sitting again. And keep at it. Now Im the same person like before, get angry, get sick, get bored, still the same friends but I got something else, that special look on it. See a life more like it is than like i thing it is. With this technique what zen provide my life is still the same and thats the magic in it.
I dont thing Im getting somewhere, or anywhere. I dont want to reach anything in this technique just keep it and save it for any time Im gonna need it.
There is nothing magical or special on zen, on some point of view is the most boring thing on the world
give it try anon, you are already bored anyway

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>>26367680
>so what the fuck do I know

Sit and breathe paying attention to your breath for 60 seconds, putting no judgment on the process or anything in your life.

>>26368788
I'm eagerly awaiting his arrival to be honest.

>>26369077

Horrible grammar but excellent post.

Meditation doesnt 'transform your life' into something better or different, it just lets you see things for what they are with less biases and judgement on everything.

>>26369166
I think he died from a tostitos overdose

Ever since I started meditating back in the day when I got interested in Buddhist practices, I've been developing this inner calm, and it's getting stronger. It's at the bottom of my very self, and my life has become better because of it. It literally prevents me from being depressed.

Things like criticism, disease, old age, death, rejection, stagnation.. It covers all of it. So my advice for letting go of habits is to build this inner sense of calm and direction. For me, I used to fap and binge eat to cope with life's hardships. Now I can rely on myself. I could eat or fap, but accesing that inner calm is literally more efficient. All I need is 10 minutes of sitting down and I am at peace again.

www.dhamma.org

>blox

>>26369430
>Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation.

I'm not taking meditation advice from a nation that needs fucking Unicef to tell it to poo in the loo.

>>26369598

Your choice

May you be peaceful, happy, liberated

>>26369598

They may shit in the streets, but they are generally happy people who dont strive for much outside of the basic necessities and being with their family and friends

Compare that to the average american living in a nice coushy home on a nice coushy couch watching HD television drugged to their eyeballs on painkillers and antidepressants because they are so fucking miserable

>>26369821
>They may shit in the streets, but

There is no ''but''. They shit in the streets, period.

Even if they are happy their culture is too different for their advice to apply to your life.

You have nothing in common with them, they cant help you.

>>26369869

Im pretty sure people have been pooping outside a lot longer than you expect, bud

>>26368662
>You can take any activity involving information and very quickly make it sound very stupid.

this is how i see it for myself

if i learn nothing don't let it change my life, yes, that is exactly what i'm doing. i enjoy the increased hand-eye coordination provided to me by videogames but i think my life would be much better if i had focused on creating music and exercising instead.

the difference between the book and the videogame is that the videogame is a controlled, narrow experience, built around bursts of dopamine or accomplishment. books aren't like that at all. nothing's in control. there are stories of betrayal, addiction, loneliness, sorrow, tragedies, hypocrisies of behavior.

you take a lesson or an interesting piece of information out of it. at least one. and you apply it to your life, or someone elses life. or you have a mythology in your life now, something that doesn't normally exist, people you can relate to, even if they're imaginary or dead, suddenly you have standards to live up to, you don't want to feel hopeless.

for example, i keep thinking of catch-22 and the guy in the hospital, spending all his time staring up at the ceiling being bored because he hates being bored, and when he hates being bored time slows down, so in a way he's living longer. i think the whole book's a very buddhist experience, in a way. i haven't even mentioned non-fiction.

of course, you can forget the information. you can remember it but not apply it effectively. in that case, at least you're on your way to being able to speed read. buddhists think this is all bologna, wisdom isn't in books but in your head.

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>>26369166
>>26368788
this was the only reason i came into this thread tbqh family (to be quite honest family(slang term referring to friends who you consider as close as family(not that i am close to my family, or that they even fuck with(slang term for "associate with", meant as a positive expression, ie: i fuck with you my homie(slang for friend)) me)))


on a related note: i used to talk about meditation like it was a miracle drug, but it really is a meme. after you try all this shit and stupidly tell your friends you discovered "the answer" but remain the same loser sperg with a shit life year after year, you give up on all this stuff. on the bright side, at least you're not some faggot posting yoga pictures on normiebook or telling people you opened your third eye through a new form of tantric fuckhead bullshit

- namaste ("goodbye" for cunts)

>>26367680

I agree with this. Staring out the window on the bus is not some huge discovery its just life.

>>26369077

Replace zen with any other feel-good religious bullshit, copy and paste.

I could never be buddhist.
Ultimately I see it as a betrayal of western culture to become buddhist.
The only people who look good in buddhist monk robes are really dark burnt-looking thai guys.
Finally, buddhist literature is not very good. I'll take a hindu text over a buddhist one any day.

>>26367680
That's not what meditation is

>>26372879
it's a fair first step into the "mysteries" of the meditation scam

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>>26367313
Buddhist here, and also former video game/weed/alcohol/cigarette addict.

>>26368294
this guy know what's up and I don't have much to add really. With all of those things you're sacrificing long-term happiness for instant gratification. With addiction, between the time that you're jerking off or playing video games or whatever and between the next time that you're doing those things, you're absolutely miserable and only thinking about doing those things.


Not that you should throw your computer in the ocean and move to a shack in the woods or a cave or anything. There's nothing wrong with occasionally whacking off and playing Mario Kart 128 or whatever, just as long as you learn to live without them.

>>26372950
>>26367680

It has proven health and mental benefits.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/meditation-health-benefits_n_3178731.html

If you're seriously fully clinically depressed, it can help along with other forms of treatment and therapy.

>>26373140
ok cool. now remove meditation from buddhism and there you have all the value you need.

>>26373238
Sure you can do that if you want, meditation isn't even exclusive to Buddhism.

>>26367313


Maybe read a book on the topic? Try meditating yourself? Go to a Buddhist temple and ask questions?
>asking serious questions
>on a Vietnamese sound board
>MFW