Should I even be meditating yet?

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Circle5
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Joined: Wed May 31, 2017 2:14 am

Re: Should I even be meditating yet?

Post by Circle5 »

Meditation is the 8th step of the 8thfold path. Starting with meditation is, like someone else also pointed out, "an amateurish approach". It's like trying to build the roof of a house before building the house. Plus, one can never be sure weather he is practicing correctly. This is why one should always start with the 1st step of the 8thfold path - namely Right View. One should first start with reading the nikayas.

A good topic on the subject: viewtopic.php?t=23716
justindesilva
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Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2016 12:38 pm

Re: Should I even be meditating yet?

Post by justindesilva »

2600htz wrote: Fri Jun 01, 2018 8:32 pm Hello ScottPen:

You received good advice.

This is just like everything else, if you want to play tennis without learning proper technique, you can do it, and you will learn a lot just by playing and personal experience, but eventually you will hit a ceiling with your progress. And thats where the disadvantage of not having the basics kicks in, because you start having doubt about what you are doing, and become frustrated, or pay attention and put your effort into secondary stuff. Eventually when decide to learn the proper way, you have to undo the months, years, or decades of having bad habits, and re-learn.

So yeah, get the basics right, but don´t forget the goal its to play.

Regards.
This reminds me that I too started as a first step during a sermon by Rev. Narada thero, when I was sbout 10 yrs.
The meditation was metta meditation. But he requested us to do it daily. So we did and found it easier as time passed years to come. This helped us in getting to anapana meditation. What I mean here is that we should learn swimming in shallow waters and get to deep waters with practise. When one is aquainted with the practise one can get to profound devistions with samatha or vipassana.
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TamHanhHi
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Re: Should I even be meditating yet?

Post by TamHanhHi »

You don’t have to wait until your ethical conduct and generosity is perfect, but ideally you would be observing at least the five precepts (and the ten courses of wholesome action) and cultivating your meditation practice at the same time. If you just meditate, you may find certain unwanted themes popping up in your mind and that your progress is blocked.

If you choose breath meditation, just stay with the breath. If you choose Metta meditation, develop that. Then when you perfect those, you can move on. I’d recommend consulting a Dhamma teacher you trust.
"Just as a large banyan tree, on level ground where four roads meet, is a haven for the birds all around, even so a lay person of conviction is a haven for many people: monks, nuns, male lay followers, & female lay followers."AN 5.38
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