Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation?
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Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation?
Hi everybody. Are there anyone else who have mental illness? Did you attained deep concentration? When i was 20 or 21 years old i started regular meditation. Later i gave up and start again. Now i am 23. I have two serious mental illnesses. Schizophrenia and anxiety. I take medications but as i know serious schizophrenia is hard to cure. I still experience hallucinations sometimes. I found that i can not really calm my mind with anapanasati. I didn't attained long samadhi or jhana. I can make only few short samadhi in one hour anapanasati meditation. What i found - my mind just wandering and wandering and it is very hard to concentrate on the breathing. I gave up. I decided to try vipassana with noticing. I found it easier than anapanasati. My mind become more calmed. So i decided to follow vipassana teachers and i hope that i will attain deeper samadhi and the vipassana jhanas. I simply gave up anapanasati. What i found in my mind during anapanasati - that was just a lot wandering and my mind was like a wild horse. Maybe i will have more success with following vipassana teachers. But i have no so much hope to attain the vipassana jhanas. Most of healthy peoples attain jhanas hard, then peoples with mental illness must need extra time to attain the jhanas or it is simply impossible. Before you kindly advice - i tell you i already tried a psychologist. I shared my life with her. She helped only little.
We found the teaching of the Buddha. Be grateful for it... We can meditate... Be grateful for it... We know that this universe is the samsara. Be grateful for it... We have THE CHANCE TO ATTAIN NIBBANA. Be grateful for it...
- JamesTheGiant
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Remember this is a many-lifetimes project. You dont have to ace everything in this life.
There are many aproaches to the dhamma, and hard-core meditation and jhanas is just one, practised by very few. Very few who actually attain the jhanas, that is.
Relax, don't stress. You have plenty of lifetimes ahead of you to master this.
There are many aproaches to the dhamma, and hard-core meditation and jhanas is just one, practised by very few. Very few who actually attain the jhanas, that is.
Relax, don't stress. You have plenty of lifetimes ahead of you to master this.
Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
A lot of people have anxiety, and yes, it takes more effort, but can happen. Not sure about schizophrenia, but from what I heard, some of the time, especially with medication, the mind works relatively normally.
But it's not that you have to practice Jhanas (not all "normal" people do), if Vipassana works for you, that's great.
Very few people are able to achieve high sustained concentration, not sure if that's 1% or 5% (or less), but certainly very few.
And not all approaches to psychological treatment are the same, if one doesn't help much, you can try another one. Some are helpful for certain people, but not other people.
I am not sure what kind of psychological treatment you have available at the place where you live, you can only get advice for choosing a psychologist from people that live around your area. If that is difficult for you for financial and other reasons, I suggest you keep trying, maybe you will find some support either through state health care or some non-profit group.
I know you mentioned once that you talk to a psychologist through e-mail. That's may be not enough, especially in the beginning (at least you'd need skype or some real time communication).
What may be worth trying is from the cognitive therapies (CBT or REBT), which may help more or less for hallucinations, but certainly for anxiety, and also helps you manage the stress in your life.
This therapy isn't based on "sharing your life" (even if your personal history is discussed during the first few sessions), by working with your thoughts and emotions in order to improve various aspects of your life.
That is similar to Vipassana in the sense that you are encouraged to look at your mind events as they occur, in the present moment, instead of sharing stories with your psychologist.
I am not sure how helpful will be for you to understand how this therapy works, but try searching on Youtube for "cbt role play" - this is people acting like they are doing a counseling session, usually 2 people, one acting as the therapist, the other one acting as the patient.
That's everybody's problem, just don't rush things. To my knowledge, there is no magic here, if the mind wanders 1000 times, you remind yourself of the breath 1000 times.What i found - my mind just wandering and wandering and it is very hard to concentrate on the breathing.
But it's not that you have to practice Jhanas (not all "normal" people do), if Vipassana works for you, that's great.
Very few people are able to achieve high sustained concentration, not sure if that's 1% or 5% (or less), but certainly very few.
Not all psychologists are the same. Ideally, you would want to find a therapist specialized in your type of problems. And I don't even mean to say that one is a good or bad psychologist, it's possible that between some people, the bridge of communication and understanding doesn't work properly.Before you kindly advice - i tell you i already tried a psychologist. I shared my life with her. She helped only little.
And not all approaches to psychological treatment are the same, if one doesn't help much, you can try another one. Some are helpful for certain people, but not other people.
I am not sure what kind of psychological treatment you have available at the place where you live, you can only get advice for choosing a psychologist from people that live around your area. If that is difficult for you for financial and other reasons, I suggest you keep trying, maybe you will find some support either through state health care or some non-profit group.
I know you mentioned once that you talk to a psychologist through e-mail. That's may be not enough, especially in the beginning (at least you'd need skype or some real time communication).
What may be worth trying is from the cognitive therapies (CBT or REBT), which may help more or less for hallucinations, but certainly for anxiety, and also helps you manage the stress in your life.
This therapy isn't based on "sharing your life" (even if your personal history is discussed during the first few sessions), by working with your thoughts and emotions in order to improve various aspects of your life.
That is similar to Vipassana in the sense that you are encouraged to look at your mind events as they occur, in the present moment, instead of sharing stories with your psychologist.
I am not sure how helpful will be for you to understand how this therapy works, but try searching on Youtube for "cbt role play" - this is people acting like they are doing a counseling session, usually 2 people, one acting as the therapist, the other one acting as the patient.
- lyndon taylor
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
If you hear voices, meditation can make voices worse and more controlling of your life, if this happens I would recommend not meditating and concentrating on the other aspects of the 8 fold path. I have a mental illness and mediation makes things worse for me, so I don't practice meditation.
18 years ago I made one of the most important decisions of my life and entered a local Cambodian Buddhist Temple as a temple boy and, for only 3 weeks, an actual Therevada Buddhist monk. I am not a scholar, great meditator, or authority on Buddhism, but Buddhism is something I love from the Bottom of my heart. It has taught me sobriety, morality, peace, and very importantly that my suffering is optional, and doesn't have to run my life. I hope to give back what little I can to the Buddhist community, sincerely former monk John
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Thanks. "Remember it is a many lifetimes project." I will keep your words in my mindBhante Lucky wrote:Remember this is a many-lifetimes project. You dont have to ace everything in this life.
There are many aproaches to the dhamma, and hard-core meditation and jhanas is just one, practised by very few. Very few who actually attain the jhanas, that is.
Relax, don't stress. You have plenty of lifetimes ahead of you to master this.
We found the teaching of the Buddha. Be grateful for it... We can meditate... Be grateful for it... We know that this universe is the samsara. Be grateful for it... We have THE CHANCE TO ATTAIN NIBBANA. Be grateful for it...
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Thanks. But i don't believe in psychologists. The psychologist who tried to help to me is a buddhist. Her advice is practice metta, karuna, be compassionate.... very serious bad things happened in my earlier life and i have a lot anger in my heart toward these peoples who did these things. I think a psychologist can not cure my anger but practice metta and karuna can help much more.Pinetree wrote:A lot of people have anxiety, and yes, it takes more effort, but can happen. Not sure about schizophrenia, but from what I heard, some of the time, especially with medication, the mind works relatively normally.
That's everybody's problem, just don't rush things. To my knowledge, there is no magic here, if the mind wanders 1000 times, you remind yourself of the breath 1000 times.What i found - my mind just wandering and wandering and it is very hard to concentrate on the breathing.
But it's not that you have to practice Jhanas (not all "normal" people do), if Vipassana works for you, that's great.
Very few people are able to achieve high sustained concentration, not sure if that's 1% or 5% (or less), but certainly very few.
Not all psychologists are the same. Ideally, you would want to find a therapist specialized in your type of problems. And I don't even mean to say that one is a good or bad psychologist, it's possible that between some people, the bridge of communication and understanding doesn't work properly.Before you kindly advice - i tell you i already tried a psychologist. I shared my life with her. She helped only little.
And not all approaches to psychological treatment are the same, if one doesn't help much, you can try another one. Some are helpful for certain people, but not other people.
I am not sure what kind of psychological treatment you have available at the place where you live, you can only get advice for choosing a psychologist from people that live around your area. If that is difficult for you for financial and other reasons, I suggest you keep trying, maybe you will find some support either through state health care or some non-profit group.
I know you mentioned once that you talk to a psychologist through e-mail. That's may be not enough, especially in the beginning (at least you'd need skype or some real time communication).
What may be worth trying is from the cognitive therapies (CBT or REBT), which may help more or less for hallucinations, but certainly for anxiety, and also helps you manage the stress in your life.
This therapy isn't based on "sharing your life" (even if your personal history is discussed during the first few sessions), by working with your thoughts and emotions in order to improve various aspects of your life.
That is similar to Vipassana in the sense that you are encouraged to look at your mind events as they occur, in the present moment, instead of sharing stories with your psychologist.
I am not sure how helpful will be for you to understand how this therapy works, but try searching on Youtube for "cbt role play" - this is people acting like they are doing a counseling session, usually 2 people, one acting as the therapist, the other one acting as the patient.
Last edited by lotus flower on Sun Jan 24, 2016 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We found the teaching of the Buddha. Be grateful for it... We can meditate... Be grateful for it... We know that this universe is the samsara. Be grateful for it... We have THE CHANCE TO ATTAIN NIBBANA. Be grateful for it...
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Sure, if things will be worse i will stop meditation.lyndon taylor wrote:If you hear voices, meditation can make voices worse and more controlling of your life, if this happens I would recommend not meditating and concentrating on the other aspects of the 8 fold path. I have a mental illness and mediation makes things worse for me, so I don't practice meditation.
Last edited by lotus flower on Sun Jan 24, 2016 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We found the teaching of the Buddha. Be grateful for it... We can meditate... Be grateful for it... We know that this universe is the samsara. Be grateful for it... We have THE CHANCE TO ATTAIN NIBBANA. Be grateful for it...
Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Of course, it is your right not to visit a psychologist.But i don't believe in psychologists. very serious bad things happened in my earlier life and i have a lot anger in my heart toward these peoples who did these things. I think a psychologist can not cure my anger but practice metta and karuna can help much more.
Cognitive psychology doesn't directly "cure" emotions like anger, but rather "cures thoughts".
They have scientific research showing that emotions are caused by certain thoughts which go through our mind second by second (and sometimes they come and go so quickly through our mind that we don't even notice them). So a certain thought arises and next moment there is an emotion happening (maybe to use the example you gave, the thought can be a memory of the past, and that memory triggers an angry feeling).
Once somebody sees which thoughts are causing some negative emotion, they can learn methods to replace these thoughts with other other thoughts that are not causing that negative emotion.
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
There are no thoughts who could not causing that negative emotion. For example: Metta and karuna just make the negative thoughts weaker. There is no magic. Psychologists also can not make magic.Pinetree wrote:Of course, it is your right not to visit a psychologist.But i don't believe in psychologists. very serious bad things happened in my earlier life and i have a lot anger in my heart toward these peoples who did these things. I think a psychologist can not cure my anger but practice metta and karuna can help much more.
Cognitive psychology doesn't directly "cure" emotions like anger, but rather "cures thoughts".
They have scientific research showing that emotions are caused by certain thoughts which go through our mind second by second (and sometimes they come and go so quickly through our mind that we don't even notice them).
Once somebody sees which thoughts are causing some negative emotion, they can learn how to replace these thoughts with other other thoughts that are not causing that negative emotion.
We found the teaching of the Buddha. Be grateful for it... We can meditate... Be grateful for it... We know that this universe is the samsara. Be grateful for it... We have THE CHANCE TO ATTAIN NIBBANA. Be grateful for it...
Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
No, I don't think psychologists can make magic.
And to be honest, sometimes, I do believe in magic. But it doesn't always work
And to be honest, sometimes, I do believe in magic. But it doesn't always work
- Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
I believe in the miracle of instruction, but that does not always work either. It has to be the right instruction, and given at the appropriate time.
However severe the mental instability may be, it can only be reduced or removed entirely through practice. Directly observing the restless wandering mind using the vipassanā method is highly effective, but loving-kindness meditation or recollection of the Buddha's qualities may also be very helpful.
However severe the mental instability may be, it can only be reduced or removed entirely through practice. Directly observing the restless wandering mind using the vipassanā method is highly effective, but loving-kindness meditation or recollection of the Buddha's qualities may also be very helpful.
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
I think metta can not do any harm whathever ilness somebody may have. Spending your time in a compassionate state of mind can not do more harm than spending your time in an anxiety, depressed, paranoid etc. state of mind. A good advice I heard for apanasanti is to do it with the goal of increasing your concentration. When you focus on the nose, remember it is with the goal of increasing concentration not reaching a particular state of mind. It's like going to the gym. And you should know that attaining jhana is something way more rare than narcissistic people on the internet might make you believe it is. I had some funny topics myself about been in the bazillion jhana
I also have a question so that I could better understand schitzofrenia. Do these voices, visions etc. are considered real by the person and taken like that ? In psichadellic drugs for example if you see an alien you know it is from the drug. In delirant drugs (datura/benzidamina) you do not know it is from the drug. Witch one of these is it ? Are they just some voices that say something that brings fear and fear is actually the problem? Maybe if you investigate these things with mindfulness when they appear you can find something about the ilness, maybe find something nobody else found before. Having OCD, I am very curious to see where the fears came from. To this day I found absolutally nothing but this is the method used by all people who have discovered something: observing.
I also have a question so that I could better understand schitzofrenia. Do these voices, visions etc. are considered real by the person and taken like that ? In psichadellic drugs for example if you see an alien you know it is from the drug. In delirant drugs (datura/benzidamina) you do not know it is from the drug. Witch one of these is it ? Are they just some voices that say something that brings fear and fear is actually the problem? Maybe if you investigate these things with mindfulness when they appear you can find something about the ilness, maybe find something nobody else found before. Having OCD, I am very curious to see where the fears came from. To this day I found absolutally nothing but this is the method used by all people who have discovered something: observing.
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Yes the problem is the fear and anxiety which i experience when i hear voice or see a not real picture. The mind become restless. I think it is hard to attain jhana with such mind. I don't really understand your other questions. Seeing not real things or hearing voices comes from schizophrenia and not from the drug. The problem is that schizophrenia is hard to cure by medications. There are many peoples who take medications but they still have hallucinations. Schizophrenia is hard to keep in balance by drugs. At beginning of my illness i didn't took any drug and i saw things and i heared voices. When i started to take the medication the hallucinations became less. But the medications can not remove all hallucinations. There are peoples who experience that the medication works well but many peoples find they still have hallucinations.dxm_dxm wrote:I think metta can not do any harm whathever ilness somebody may have. Spending your time in a compassionate state of mind can not do more harm than spending your time in an anxiety, depressed, paranoid etc. state of mind. A good advice I heard for apanasanti is to do it with the goal of increasing your concentration. When you focus on the nose, remember it is with the goal of increasing concentration not reaching a particular state of mind. It's like going to the gym. And you should know that attaining jhana is something way more rare than narcissistic people on the internet might make you believe it is. I had some funny topics myself about been in the bazillion jhana
I also have a question so that I could better understand schitzofrenia. Do these voices, visions etc. are considered real by the person and taken like that ? In psichadellic drugs for example if you see an alien you know it is from the drug. In delirant drugs (datura/benzidamina) you do not know it is from the drug. Witch one of these is it ? Are they just some voices that say something that brings fear and fear is actually the problem? Maybe if you investigate these things with mindfulness when they appear you can find something about the ilness, maybe find something nobody else found before. Having OCD, I am very curious to see where the fears came from. To this day I found absolutally nothing but this is the method used by all people who have discovered something: observing.
We found the teaching of the Buddha. Be grateful for it... We can meditate... Be grateful for it... We know that this universe is the samsara. Be grateful for it... We have THE CHANCE TO ATTAIN NIBBANA. Be grateful for it...
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Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Thank you Venerable. Sadhu.Bhikkhu Pesala wrote:I believe in the miracle of instruction, but that does not always work either. It has to be the right instruction, and given at the appropriate time.
However severe the mental instability may be, it can only be reduced or removed entirely through practice. Directly observing the restless wandering mind using the vipassanā method is highly effective, but loving-kindness meditation or recollection of the Buddha's qualities may also be very helpful.
We found the teaching of the Buddha. Be grateful for it... We can meditate... Be grateful for it... We know that this universe is the samsara. Be grateful for it... We have THE CHANCE TO ATTAIN NIBBANA. Be grateful for it...
Re: Sad i want to attain jhanas but i have mental illnesses. Anyone else who have mental illness and practice meditation
Dear lotus flower,
I've read many of your posts dealing with jhana and samadhi. You really seem to work hard to attain a satisfying state of samadhi but unfortunatly it also seems that you approach the practice of developing a calm mind with strong unreflected craving for reaching samadhi. Arousing and putting a lot of energy unbalanced into practicing samadhi is most probably what prevents you from attaining calmness. (About your mental conditions I cannot comment, only a specialist can help you with that.)Too much effort, too much energy only agitates the mind. Don't neglect the other factors of the noble 8-fold path.
I want you to know and keep in mind that you cannot force samadhi to happen. What you can do, is to develop wisely appropriate conditions so that samadhi will come to you naturally when the necessary factors and conditions are balanced and developed to the right "combination" (for lack of a better word).
Don't be too hard to yourself and remember that your efforts aren't useless. Kamma will bear fruit eventually.
If your mind is agitated a lot, try to balance energy by practicing walking meditation. If I remember correctly walk slower as normal and observe the walking to reduce energy, when the mind settles go to a normal pace, when it becomes calm enough and stable try to sit, but don't do it with the desire to get, to attain. Observe and learn what agitates the mind, what calms it and thus I hope you may progress.
best wishes, acinteyyo
I've read many of your posts dealing with jhana and samadhi. You really seem to work hard to attain a satisfying state of samadhi but unfortunatly it also seems that you approach the practice of developing a calm mind with strong unreflected craving for reaching samadhi. Arousing and putting a lot of energy unbalanced into practicing samadhi is most probably what prevents you from attaining calmness. (About your mental conditions I cannot comment, only a specialist can help you with that.)Too much effort, too much energy only agitates the mind. Don't neglect the other factors of the noble 8-fold path.
I want you to know and keep in mind that you cannot force samadhi to happen. What you can do, is to develop wisely appropriate conditions so that samadhi will come to you naturally when the necessary factors and conditions are balanced and developed to the right "combination" (for lack of a better word).
Don't be too hard to yourself and remember that your efforts aren't useless. Kamma will bear fruit eventually.
If your mind is agitated a lot, try to balance energy by practicing walking meditation. If I remember correctly walk slower as normal and observe the walking to reduce energy, when the mind settles go to a normal pace, when it becomes calm enough and stable try to sit, but don't do it with the desire to get, to attain. Observe and learn what agitates the mind, what calms it and thus I hope you may progress.
best wishes, acinteyyo
Thag 1.20. Ajita - I do not fear death; nor do I long for life. I’ll lay down this body, aware and mindful.