Meditation - what to do if there are multiple objects of meditation?

I can meditate pretty good if there is only one thing to distract me. Say the washing machine starts spinning, I can make it the object of meditation like I read about. I can focus on it's noise and get really into it, and all is well. When there is no distraction, the breath can be the object of meditation. Sometimes meditation can be done without an object, but I can always go back to the breath.

What I can't do is once you have two distractions (which would make it necessary to have two objects, if you deal with distractions by making them the object), say the washing machine starts spinning, the heater cuts on, and a fire truck drives by. Or around people, they have a radio going and a few conversations in the background.

I find that in most of waking life, if it's only one distraction I can stay pretty meditative. What I need help with is dealing with more than one distraction at a time, I can't seem to bridge this at all on my own.

[edit on 16-2-2010 by Novise]

When it comes to meditation and distractions, I personally use the most prominent noise and use it as the object. Though it can sometimes be hard to focus with too much going on, try to cut out all other noise besides the object and focus intently on it. If this noise changes, then so to must the object change I would think. It's hard to switch from one noise to another and remain focused the whole time but doing so makes for an interesting experience.

I'm not saying it's the right way, just the way that works for me.

Originally posted by Novise
I can meditate pretty good if there is only one thing to distract me. Say the washing machine starts spinning, I can make it the object of meditation like I read about. I can focus on it's noise and get really into it, and all is well. When there is no distraction, the breath can be the object of meditation. Sometimes meditation can be done without an object, but I can always go back to the breath.

What I can't do is once you have two distractions (which would make it necessary to have two objects, if you deal with distractions by making them the object), say the washing machine starts spinning, the heater cuts on, and a fire truck drives by. Or around people, they have a radio going and a few conversations in the background.

I find that in most of waking life, if it's only one distraction I can stay pretty meditative. What I need help with is dealing with more than one distraction at a time, I can't seem to bridge this at all on my own.

[edit on 16-2-2010 by Novise]

Meditation will ruin your life.
Why bother?

reply to post by Novise


The question is who is being distracted? In deep sleep there is no "I" to be distracted nor no sense of space and time -- yet you obviously exist in deep sleep right? So who does not get distracted in deep sleep?

springforestqigong.com... is a great meditation practice.

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by RRokkyy


How does meditating ruin your life...?

Originally posted by RRokkyy

Meditation will ruin your life.

Why bother?

Wow. I don't know! When you ask it just like that. I could give you the laundry list of benefits meditation provides but I don't think that's what you are looking for. I just decided to start doing it, like taking a break, a breath of fresh air from the information overload of everyday life. It seems necessary to quiet the mind or else we identify with our thoughts too much, thoughts on top of thoughts. But I don't know.


Everyone else, thanks for the advice, it is all being taken in and will probably all be tried and tested.

Just know that there are no distractions, that all the things that seem separate and unrelated are all aspects of the same singular reality.

Basically I am asking you to deny the existence of distractions in your meditation. Which is not much to ask considering what I just said above is absolutely true.


Some "random" noise starts going off and "distracts" you, but really what all your senses are telling you is not random at all. An alarm clock, a passing car, washing machine. All of these things exist for a reason. A car passes, a washing machine is turned on, all for reasons. What are these "reasons"? They are simply reality expressing itself. There is only one reality. All of these things equally belong to that one thing.


So they can be no different from the object of your meditation. Because ANY object is a natural extension of this reality. Everything is. Naturally. If the object of your meditation is the absolute then nothing you can experience can ever be apart from it. You call them "distractions" but they are NOT distractions! They are simply some of the many faces of the absolute reality.


So like I said, just KNOW in your meditation that it is all the same. It is not a mundane experience to realize everything coming in from your senses, everything you think or feel or experience is all a part of the one thing, the singular, absolute reality.



You hear a washing machine? What washing machine? No, all you hear is absolute reality.

You hear a truck? What is a "truck"? Forget about it. It is nothing but absolute reality.

All of this exists, it is real, and thus it is all the same. It is all one and YOU are part of it too, wrapped up in it as the "observer." But don't even try "observing." Just dissolve into this reality and let your mind merge in oneness with your sense perceptions, and no longer discriminate this from that, that from this, this is that, that is this, oh no, that this is now that'ing... Just realize it is all every bit the same and no difference.


Even this now.. You think this is different but it isn't. It is just the same. Meditation and not-meditation, there should ideally be absolutely no difference. It is all absolute reality.


Tell me if I am not making sense to you...


All I am saying is these things that distract you are not distracting. They are not different from the object of your meditation. Either the object of your meditation is arbitrary, relative, and trivial, or it is absolute, absolute, and absolute. If all your mind is filled with is absolute, you don't hear a washing machine, you don't hear a dog barking, you don't hear a truck. You only hear absolute. Because that is all there is. This is oneness. You merge with it. Subject and object become one. You only experience absolute. Your entire mind and body are filled with nothing but absolute. With one thing. And nothing is any different.

I am trying not to be abstract but you realize this is hard to avoid when the entire experience you seek is not mundane.

If you soak it in and embody it, it will cure your predicament.

reply to post by bsbray11


That does make sense, thanks for sharing. Always good to hear your advice.

Thanks everyone else too, I just wanted him to know I was following what he was saying. I'll be making use of all this advice.

All of the mental exercises are certainly beneficial and can help, but really, it is way more superficial than that. The state of mind in which you can simply avoid distractions is an advanced state. That means that each time you meditate you must advance to that state where it is possible to simply not acknowledge or not even be in a state to be affected by distractions.

Our spiritual philosophy can only do so much. We must be pragmatic at the same time. Appreciate the philosophical and metaphysical advice but also think realistically in order to achieve profound experience. I suggest, as I believe one other person did, that you use good headphones with some steady, monotonous sound going through them. Even static on the radio works well but the best would be binaural beats or some form of brain entrainment audio. If the distracting sounds are still too much you can acquire very cheaply some good earplugs. Wear the earplugs and listen to audio through the headphones....If this doesnt work then all I can say is practice practice practice.

Good luck

A lot of people in the West think meditation is a fairly mindless or at least non-conceptual activity that involves "thinking no thoughts." It is true that this is one aspect of Buddhist meditation and is a particuarly strong feature of Zen. But there are many other types of meditation within Buddhism and other traditions.

For example:
-Vipassana or "insight" meditation

Shingon esoteric meditation

Mahamudra techniques

Gongyo techniques

Vibhajjavada analytical meditation

Nembutsu meditation

There are other examples as well. And then there are Taoist and Hindu meditations that I know little about but also involve different types of practice.

There is also a rich tradtion of Christian meditation and contemplation going back hundreds of years. I'm pretty sure the other Abrahamic traditions have similar techniques although I don't know too much about them.

So if "Zenning out" or trying to empty your mind isn't working for you, perhaps consider a different type of meditation.

All those I've listed above are time-tested and at least 500 or 600 years old or older. Personally I don't trust anything that doesn't have a multi-century history. This may be close-minded of me, but time is a great filter for separating the wheat from the chaff.

Originally posted by bsbray11



Tell me if I am not making sense to you...


All I am saying is these things that distract you are not distracting. They are not different from the object of your meditation. Either the object of your meditation is arbitrary, relative, and trivial, or it is absolute, absolute, and absolute. If all your mind is filled with is absolute, you don't hear a washing machine, you don't hear a dog barking, you don't hear a truck. You only hear absolute. Because that is all there is.

If you soak it in and embody it, it will cure your predicament.

You are not making sense.
You are describing where you are,not how you got there.
You dont actually know how you got there.
Spiritual parables are incomprehensible except to those who already understand them.

Originally posted by Whyhi
reply to post by RRokkyy

 

How does meditating ruin your life...?

Meditation is Death.
Samadhi means bliss, Samadh means tomb.

The birds have their nests,the foxes their dens, the Son of Man
hath no place to rest His head.-JC

Originally posted by Novise

Originally posted by RRokkyy

Meditation will ruin your life.

Why bother?

Wow. I don't know! When you ask it just like that. I could give you the laundry list of benefits meditation provides but I don't think that's what you are looking for. I just decided to start doing it, like taking a break, a breath of fresh air from the information overload of everyday life. It seems necessary to quiet the mind or else we identify with our thoughts too much, thoughts on top of thoughts. But I don't know.

Meditation is not necessary. What you are doing is Concentration. Once you Grasp the Nature of Meditation you cannot go back,everything changes.
Buddhist saying:Better not to begin the Path, if you begin it,better to finish it.
But few can finish it.

And the Bentley driving Guru is putting up his price
Anyone for tennis ,wouldn't that be nice?
Fate is setting up the chessboard
While death roles out the dice
Anyone for tennis, wouldnt that be nice?

Originally posted by RRokkyy
Spiritual parables are incomprehensible except to those who already understand them.

Even if that is true (I don't at all believe it is -- you are basically saying parables are useless), I think it can be forgiven because I wasn't talking to you in the first place, and the person who I was addressing claimed to have made sense out of it anyway.

Don't tell me you are here to preach the gospel. Because I'm afraid that I have absolutely no respect for evangelical Christianity. Just send me to hell already. It's probably full of evangelicals too.

Originally posted by silent thunder

So if "Zenning out" or trying to empty your mind isn't working for you, perhaps consider a different type of meditation.

All those I've listed above are time-tested and at least 500 or 600 years old or older. Personally I don't trust anything that doesn't have a multi-century history. This may be close-minded of me, but time is a great filter for separating the wheat from the chaff.

What time has shown us is that all of these "methods" are incomprehensible
to the beginner.
The New Teaching has been Given.

My quiet space backs onto a fairly busy street. In a fairly noise apartment. If you make the distractions a point of concentration, kudos. Thats very hard to do. I had a long battle with all the distractions and finally overcame that huddle.
I tend to listen to the "breathing" of the noise. Its all noise, there could be pots banging and people coming and going, cars honking, but if you listen closely enough you'll hear the slow rhythmic quietness of it all. I could compare it to listening to the silence in music, Its there you just have to listen for it.
Once you get past the demand of your attention, you are perfectly aware of all the sounds around you, but you are able to disregard it.

Originally posted by bsbray11

Originally posted by RRokkyy
Spiritual parables are incomprehensible except to those who already understand them.

Even if that is true (I don't at all believe it is -- you are basically saying parables are useless), I think it can be forgiven because I wasn't talking to you in the first place, and the person who I was addressing claimed to have made sense out of it anyway.

Don't tell me you are here to preach the gospel. Because I'm afraid that I have absolutely no respect for evangelical Christianity. Just send me to hell already. It's probably full of evangelicals too.

OK!

Someone asked Yogananda if there is a Hell. His response,"Where do you think you are?"

IMO Jesus was a NonDualist Teacher whose teaching is very similar though with a Western emphasis (the sacrifice of the heart) to that of Advaita Vedanta.

Originally posted by RRokkyy
Someone asked Yogananda if there is a Hell. His response,"Where do you think you are?"

That's a very empowering thought. Does that make me the Devil?

IMO Jesus was a NonDualist Teacher whose teaching is very similar though with a Western emphasis (the sacrifice of the heart) to that of Advaita Vedanta.

So here I was just expounding repeatedly on there being nothing but one thing in existence, one reality, and you claim I am making no sense, and then immediately afterwards mention the denial of dualism.

So what does "non-dualist" mean to you?

Originally posted by RRokkyy


What time has shown us is that all of these "methods" are incomprehensible
to the beginner.
The New Teaching has been Given.

No offence and nothing personal, but this strikes me as one of the most insanely close-minded statements I've ever read on ATS. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of your posts, but this statement...wow.

In one corner, we have dozens of traditions used over literally thousands of years by hundreds of thousands of people...and in the other corner we have the statement, made without any backup evidence whatsoever, from "RRokkyy" of ATS that "time has shown us" all these people and all their efforts were useless.

Hmmm...which to believe, which to believe...

Originally posted by silent thunder

Originally posted by RRokkyy


What time has shown us is that all of these "methods" are incomprehensible
to the beginner.
The New Teaching has been Given.

No offence and nothing personal, but this strikes me as one of the most insanely close-minded statements I've ever read on ATS. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of your posts, but this statement...wow.

In one corner, we have dozens of traditions used over literally thousands of years by hundreds of thousands of people...and in the other corner we have the statement, made without any backup evidence whatsoever, from "RRokkyy" of ATS that "time has shown us" all these people and all their efforts were useless.

Hmmm...which to believe, which to believe...

And the winner is:


On Parables
by Franz Kafka

Many complain that the words of the wise are always merely parables and of no use in daily life, which is the only life we have. When the sage says: "Go over," he does not mean that we should cross over to some actual place, which we could do anyhow if the labor were worth it; he means some fabulous yonder, something unknown to us, something too that he cannot designate more precisely, and therefore cannot help us here in the very least. All these parables really set out to say merely that the incomprehensible is incomprehensible, and we know that already. But the cares we have to struggle with every day: that is a different matter.

Concerning this a man once said: Why such reluctance? If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid yourself of all your daily cares.

Another said: I bet that is also a parable.

The first said: You have won.

The second said: But unfortunately only in parable.

The first said: No, in reality: in parable you have lost.