Dhamma Wheel Buddhist Forum

(I think this belongs here)

Just recently, I've noticed that my meditations have been getting, worse (for want of a better expression).

I used to sit for periods of time with little to know monkey thought activity. Only recently it's been like; 'ok meditaion ready, steady...and begin chattering monkey chattering session now!'.

I don't think it is a case of 'well done - you are getting to realise how your mind works', it's just a case of mind chatter out of control all of a sudden.

Also, as my back pain flared up I resorted to sitting on a chair. Ironically enough I find it harder to get into the deep meditation sessions I had when on the cushion. If I think about it, it is when I'm on the chair (as opposed to cushion) when my mind seems to expereince much more inane chatter. You'd think it would be the other way around.

Any thoughts on the above two?

Peace and thanks

Hi Collective
Its a bit difficult to be specific as you haven't mentioned what it is that you actually do while in meditation. That is - technique.
What I can tell you is that 'monkey mind' is very common and is nothing to be worried about. My suggestion is to just maintain awareness of the meditation object and don't take any notice of the chatter.
kind regards

Ben

Greetings Collective,

Don't under-estimate the chair!

As for the monkey-mind try doing something to help tie you to your meditation subject until the monkey-mind subsides a little... try counting the breaths, marking them 'in' and 'out', or using a 'buddho' mantra or something.

Metta,
Retro.

You are both correct.

I was also directed to this page which I'd say is immesnely good advice for new meditators:

Link: Meditation

Good one!

Collective wrote:You are both correct.

I was also directed to this page which I'd say is immesnely good advice for new meditators:

Link: Meditation

Good one!

I find a chair works really well with Bodhipaksa's guided meditations. Check out wildmind.com some of the meditations are free there. Mind you, the first time round will mostly be spent deciding whether or not to trust the guy, but after that it's all good.

Collective,

With regards to "mind chatter", I'd suggest looking for a cause outside your meditation. If work has me riled, I have a tough time getting still. When this happens, I remember my bicycle racing days when a buddy of mine used to enjoy difficult challenging headwind training rides because of the extra "oomph" they gave his racing. When I'm challenged by work or home or whatever, I just think of training in a strong headwind.

As for chair or cushion, my legs/knees are not sufficiently compliant for a cushion and I agree that a chair is challenging in its own ways. I have found that a seiza bench is both very comfortable for me and extremely conducive to the work at hand.

Regards: AdvaitaJ

Seiza bench? Is that the wooden stool where you tuck your legs underneath?

Where would I get one in the UK?

Sounds ideal

Hi
A seiza bench can be gotten from a few places and can be made qite easily, I made my own but bought one that dismantles for travelling!
here a re a couple of links
http://www.meditationsupplies.co.uk/sho ... hop_param=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.zenbench.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; the one I recently bought

the one I made is a toadstool version which are very hard to find, and can e collapsible if you put the effort into finding them, but they arent as common as the stndard two leg version, and canbe quite hard to find.