Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

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dpcalder
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Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by dpcalder »

How can I diminish the frequency with which I must go to the bathroom during long stretches of meditation? I know diminishing food and drink intake is an ideal method, but when I am not fasting, are there certain postures that are more or less conducive for not having to go to the bathroom?
Mr. Seek
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by Mr. Seek »

If it's cold you may need to pee more i think, so heat yourself up

dont overdo it with juicy fruits like watermelons

Drink only when necessary. Reflect on how some ascetics drink only once per day in the morning, when eating. I think some jains do that

Idk about postures. Dont put pressure where you shouldn't?

Sometimes if you're progressing well the body and nervous system will kickstart some of your mechanisms on turbo mode to get rid of any junk you may have in you. Its part of the purification process. You may just suddenly start going more regularly to the toilet (big n small needs) after/during good meditation sessions. Nothing to be concerned about if it happens. Should eventually pass. Dont hold it in
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Dhamma Chameleon
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by Dhamma Chameleon »

Just go to the bathroom, maintaining your mindfulness.
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JamesTheGiant
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by JamesTheGiant »

dpcalder wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:03 am Iknow diminishing food and drink intake is an ideal method,
That is not an ideal method. You can't meditate well when dehydrated. Drink normally, and pee once an hour or once every two hours if your meditation is going well.
See the pee-break as a challenge to maintain unbroken awareness from the moment you open your eyes, to when you are walking to the toilet, to when you are urinating, to when you are walking back, sitting down, and starting again. Unbroken continual awareness. A break from sitting meditation is not wasted time!
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SDC
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by SDC »

Instead of taking such extreme measures to not have to urinate you should a) include the act of using the bathroom as part of your contemplation, and b) ask yourself - without trying to provide an immediate answer - why it is so troubling to have get up and take care of a normal body function during your meditation.
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
Mr. Seek
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by Mr. Seek »

SDC wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:11 pm Instead of taking such extreme measures to not have to urinate you should a) include the act of using the bathroom as part of your contemplation, and b) ask yourself - without trying to provide an immediate answer - why it is so troubling to have get up and take care of a normal body function during your meditation.
Exactly. Just contine the meditation while in the toilet. Check the descriptions of sati in the texts, which comes before formal sitting meditation (jhana, samadhi)--it is done all day long, even when getting up, walking, in the toilet, etc.

Many people skip the part about sati and just go directly to samadhi, but you'll never succeed big time with the latter without the former. Samadhi is proper sati on steroids, intensified because you are wholeheartedly invested in it and not doing something else while having sati.
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samseva
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by samseva »

If you're de-hydrated, you won't be able to meditate, and will only be able to think about water. The medical term has made its way into common speech, and its meaning changed. Being only slightly less hydrated than optimal levels of hydration for a few hours won't affect your health. Not only is not drinking a lot not unhealthy, the common advice found online and in modern-day health circles, of drinking so much water every single day, is unhealthy.

If you're urine is completely clear, you're drinking too much water—and losing considerable amounts of minerals excreted while urinating as a result. If your urine is dark yellow, you need to drink more water. Listen to your body.

Contrary to many in the thread, I also understand the annoyance of having to come out of one's meditation to go to the bathroom. While some say to "continue" your meditation when going to the bathroom, this is not meditation of developing concentration, but satipaṭṭhāna, which is a different type of meditation. The reality is that, having to urinate often, and go to the bathroom, results in having to come out of samatha meditation, break one's level of samādhi, and once back from the bathroom, have to restart developing samādhi.

Avoiding diuretic foods—like coffee and tea, and alcohol—would be best (although, you should already be avoiding alcohol), as diuretic substances make you get rid of excessive amounts of water from your system. Obviously, not drinking too much water is important. Or foods high in water, like fruit like watermelon, soup, and so on.

You also want to have enough water, as not enough water might affect your meditation. Again, see second paragraph about urine above.
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Coëmgenu
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by Coëmgenu »

The bathroom is a good time for freestyle asubha.

"Look at me. I think I'm so fancy and I'm literally full of shit. Once I'm empty of shit, I'll fill myself full with some more shit."
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
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SDC
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by SDC »

samseva wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:06 pm Contrary to many in the thread, I also understand the annoyance of having to come out of one's meditation to go to the bathroom.
Recollection of the constant liability to suffering is a contemplation praised by the Buddha, and would include any frustration caused by having to part with what is preferred, even if a possible “fruitful meditation session” is that which you have been parted from. So I think it is a wise choice to opt for the contemplation that would broadly envelop the source of frustration by showing it in the light of the first noble truth, especially if the OP is treating these sessions as an escape from the condition of suffering - which is pointless if you land back in the same place once you get off the cushion.
“Life is swept along, short is the life span; no shelters exist for one who has reached old age. Seeing clearly this danger in death, a seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” SN 1.3
bpallister
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by bpallister »

Wear a diaper?
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samseva
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by samseva »

SDC wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 11:55 pm [...]
Sure, but that's not samatha meditation. When doing samatha meditation for long periods of time (1-2 hours, for example), where you are developing samādhi, being encumbered by constantly having to go to the bathroom—of which, coming back to your meditation, you then have to develop your concentration for 10-20 minutes, simply to go back to where it was before you went to the bathroom, is troublesome.

Avoiding caffeine, which is a diuretic, and not drinking too much water is therefore best, so you don't have to repeatedly stop your meditation to urinate twice in a single hour, for example.
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Dhamma Chameleon
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by Dhamma Chameleon »

samseva wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:26 am When doing samatha meditation for long periods of time (1-2 hours, for example), where you are developing samādhi, being encumbered by constantly having to go to the bathroom
If you have to go the bathroom more than once in a 1-2 hour sitting, something's out of balance.

It is possible to go to the bathroom while maintaining enough concentration to get straight back to it when you sit down again. If a bathroom break is enough to disturb your meditation so much, how are you ever going to cope with real world conditions! So it's useful practice to learn how to not let it disturb you to such an extent. Like JamestheGiant said, unbroken continuous awareness is part of the practice. And in my opinion the most useful meditative skill you can develop, because you learn how to stay aware under all circumstances.
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samseva
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by samseva »

Dhamma Chameleon wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:30 am If you have to go the bathroom more than once in a 1-2 hour sitting, something's out of balance.
Going to the bathroom twice in two hours is nothing out of the ordinary. Still, things like drinking coffee (a diuretic), or drinking too much water will especially result in having to go to the bathroom once or twice in 2 hours.
Dhamma Chameleon wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:30 am unbroken continuous awareness is part of the practice. And in my opinion the most broadly useful meditative skill you can develop.
You have the whole rest of the day to do that.
Dhamma Chameleon wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:30 am It is possible to go to the bathroom while maintaining enough concentration to get straight back to it when you sit down again.
It's not. It'll take a certain amount of time to get back to the same level of samādhi that you had before you went to the bathroom.
Spiny Norman
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by Spiny Norman »

dpcalder wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:03 am How can I diminish the frequency with which I must go to the bathroom during long stretches of meditation? I know diminishing food and drink intake is an ideal method, but when I am not fasting, are there certain postures that are more or less conducive for not having to go to the bathroom?
Go to the bathroom mindfully.
Buddha save me from new-agers!
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bodom
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Re: Having to go to the bathroom during meditation

Post by bodom »

dpcalder wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 1:03 am How can I diminish the frequency with which I must go to the bathroom during long stretches of meditation? I know diminishing food and drink intake is an ideal method, but when I am not fasting, are there certain postures that are more or less conducive for not having to go to the bathroom?
Going to the bathroom is part of meditation if done mindfully:
When going forward and returning one acts clearly knowing; when looking ahead and looking away one acts clearly knowing; when flexing and extending [the limbs] one acts clearly knowing; when wearing the outer robe and [other] robes and [carrying] the bowl one acts clearly knowing; when eating, drinking, consuming food, and tasting one acts clearly knowing; when defecating and urinating one acts clearly knowing; when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent one acts clearly knowing.
Meditation is not something apart from daily life. You should be as mindful sitting on the toilet as your are sitting on the meditation cushion.

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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