Has your baseline consciusness change since you started meditating?

[aadesh96]

Let´s share how this journey has change our baseline consciusness/personality. What is your meditation background? Are you more compasion now that before begining? Are you more aware of the tricks of the mind now? Can you concentrate more on your tasks? 

 

Here´s my contribution:

My meditation background is 2012-2019 I meditated once in a while (basic samatha). 2020 I take it seriousley and I meditated 1 to 5 h every single day  (main techniques: do nothing without moving, mahasi vipassana, Culadasa meditation and one point concentartion on a metronome).

To be frank, I think I haven´t experience any clear baseline shift. Maybe I am more aware now but it is something sutle. Morever, my anxiety and rage problems haven´t reduce much. Still much work to do. What is a clear change is that I am more sunk into nihilism, which is something positive to this journey, but I don´t know if it is due to meditation.

[stillpointdancer]

I got into meditation in the 1990's as a way of experimenting scientifically with my own perception of things. Nothing to do with Buddhism, just curiosity to see what would happen. Much to my own amazement things happened and it eventually led to me to becoming a Buddhist. Change is mostly gradual, so you don't see it yourself. Those around you are most likely to see any changes long before you do.

[Matthew]

Meditation changed my life, and changed me too. Maybe it's the other way round .. maybe a bit of both.

I'm softer, calmer, more peaceable, more reflective, more aware, less reactive, more in touch with my feelings, more able to be non-attached with no sense of loss. I am more able to be in the present, more able to be present for others, and have no fear driving me to hide from myself.

The potential 'me' without meditation, perhaps may be less aware than the one writing this. Whoever that may be.

[Middleway]

Nice look on your profile pic Matthew!  😎

[Matthew]

Nice look on your profile pic Matthew!  😎

Thanks - I'm able to laugh at myself more too Middleway 😉

[dharma bum]

I don't get into fights any more. If something undesirable happens, I recover my balance quicker than I used to. I don't get depressed the way I used to when I was younger.

Not all of these changes have to do with sitting in meditation. I don't actually spend a lot of time sitting but I do try to practise awareness during the course of the day. A lot of the changes have come with age, change of circumstances, better sleep management. I owe many thanks to talks on youtube by some monks.

[Dhamma]

I owe many thanks to talks on youtube by some monks.

And so do I. 

Some people learn from sitting more; others learn more by applying wisdom gained from teachers, etc. It's all good.

Love and enlightenment to you.

The Buddha taught:

Be good, first of all; refrain from defilements; purify the mind; and then go beyond good and bad. This is the Buddha's teaching.

[dharma bum]

Some people learn from sitting more; others learn more by applying wisdom gained from teachers, etc. It's all good.

Thank you for your wishes Dhamma. I wish the same to everyone.

There is a lot of benefit to sitting as well. For me, the benefit comes from just the fact of sitting when there are many temptations to get up and do something else. I don't do it very often though.

But also, I find benefit in 'letting go' during walking. I have experimented by letting go in different situations such as
1. looking at flowing water - pay attention to 'small' changes like bubbles, sunlight reflecting on water, reflection of trees in water
2. even looking at a single plant or tree and being aware of small changes like leaves moving in the wind.
3. one time i was meditating in the courtyard of a buddhist temple and it started to rain. so i was looking down at my feet and practised awareness of the water drops falling on the ground and getting absorbed into the ground.

It seems like being aware of any sort of subtle changes can bring about relaxation and 'letting go'.

The hard problem is bring it into normal life.

[mobius]

Some people learn from sitting more; others learn more by applying wisdom gained from teachers, etc. It's all good.

Thank you for your wishes Dhamma. I wish the same to everyone.

There is a lot of benefit to sitting as well. For me, the benefit comes from just the fact of sitting when there are many temptations to get up and do something else. I don't do it very often though.

But also, I find benefit in 'letting go' during walking. I have experimented by letting go in different situations such as
1. looking at flowing water - pay attention to 'small' changes like bubbles, sunlight reflecting on water, reflection of trees in water
2. even looking at a single plant or tree and being aware of small changes like leaves moving in the wind.
3. one time i was meditating in the courtyard of a buddhist temple and it started to rain. so i was looking down at my feet and practised awareness of the water drops falling on the ground and getting absorbed into the ground.

It seems like being aware of any sort of subtle changes can bring about relaxation and 'letting go'.

The hard problem is bring it into normal life.

I do this a lot! Especially when I don't have much time for sitting or am unable to for whatever reason; I find this 'informal' meditation to be helpful. Sometimes I try to meditate when taking a shower for example; if its the best you can do. But being out in nature is more fun