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Hunter
USA
252 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 12 2006 : 7:19:32 PM
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Hello Everyone,
I got a question in from a person on Myspace.com about how to overcome certain problems during meditation associated with attention deficit disorder, like being unable to sit still for meditation.
Yogani and all, I would like your advice on this matter. Note, the answers will be posted on a group page for many people having trouble meditating with ADD.
Perhaps this question has already been answered somewhere else on the forum or lessons?
Hunter |
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Victor
USA
910 Posts |
Posted - Oct 12 2006 : 9:25:37 PM
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| I would self pace and do what is possible even if it is only a few minutes but maybe struggle a little to extend. Be ABSOLUTELY REGULAR in practice.You have to look at the long term and keep working at it over the years. I have ADD and thats what worked for me |
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Kyman
530 Posts |
Posted - Oct 13 2006 : 04:28:15 AM
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I think everyone suffers from ADD, and the extent to which they do is relative to a few factors.
Most importantly is diet. Anyone who is malnourished will have low energy, and we all know what that is like. You just can't focus. You say "I don't feel like doing that". That is really the mind's subjective perception of the body's low state of energy.
Next is environment. A chaotic environment is toxic to the brain. Stress messes up our entire chemistry.
Another major component here is a person's degree of self awareness. They greater your self awareness the less you will experience these symptoms. The key is to try to understand the error in experiencing through the mind. The mind is jumpy, and when we experience at that level our perception is feels shaky or unconcentrated. By taking a step back and truly watching the mind you transcend it. You know longer try to understand the mind through the mind.
Do to the sheer level of disconnection from our body, in most cultures, our brains are like wild horses. Some people try to break a horse, when all you need to do is love it, helping it to feel safe and thus relaxed.
For those experiencing these symptoms, and we all do, there is are many angles through which you can approach these symptoms. The best of all is a steady practice. In an ultimate sense, they are not symptoms. Symptoms relative to an ideal, perhaps, but in reality that is what is there. Even realizing this can shake the brain's chemistry and induce a rapid healing. And with time, the brain restructures itself in such a way as to reduce the symptoms. Everyone on this site will describe the stillness that comes with long term practice.
I am a very big supporter of silence as a means to heal the symptoms of ADD. If everyone attempting meditation could understand the importance of just having one momentary glimps of silence, they wouldn't beat themselves up about not sitting still. I gaurantee, anyone who musters up enough inspiration/determination to sustain silence of mind for just 5 seconds will have opened a very large door.
Another way to look at it, that most can appriciate, is that the inability to focus is a mind phenomenon. The mind, based on past conditioning, pre-determine what it finds interesting enough to focus on. If you can go into the moment, into silence, and observe how the mind objectifies the world and categorizes it, you will quite possibly liberate the mind from this reactionary process.
When we look into the sky and see clouds, are they actually clouds? Were we to see closer, would they appear the same? How many of us walk through our homes and barely even see what's there anymore. The mind has "labeled" the home as familiar, and thus not worth paying attention to. But what is so familiar? If you get closer to objects in the home and examine them, it is easy to see that we know nothing about what they are made of. We don't know where this material came from. We see familiar shapes, but the object is not its shape, or its function.
The person with ADD becomes bored VERY quickly, and that is because they are living predominantly through their mind, and the shadow of familiarity it casts. When a loved one dies we realize finally what we had. Blinded so long by familiarity, we couldn't see the truth that was there. Worst of all we do this with ourselves, with our own minds.
Without the idea of a cloud, you don't see clouds. Children are in a constant state of curiousity. They have very good focus most of the time. You can observe children in this state, observing with great focus. It is only when they become adults that they adopt the adult belief that they know who they are and what they are experiencing.
There greatest form of meditation is watching the mind do its thing, even moving through compulsive thoughts. The mind thinks it is the lifeform, but really we are just observing the 'thoughts of our responsiblities'.
The thoughts of our responsiblities are the minds automatic thoughts based on its function in the world. It recalls what is has done and thinks about what it will do. This is why surrender is so healing. We lose all responsibilities when we surrender our mind/body back into the mystery. What does the mind have to think about after that? How can there be great stress, distorting the chemistry of the brain?
A great trick is listening to the accoustics of a room. We never do that. Silence is painful to us normally. We think there is nothing there, but we aren't listening deep enough. Go deeper. Often we think we are hearing and seeing the world when we are actually hearing and seeing the mind's projections.
Our mind wasn't produced by a company. It wasn't bought. You don't owe anyone for it. You cannot find it in a store. And it cannot be explained. There are no words to describe what this amazing mind is. We are so blinded by our familiarity that we fail to recognize the sheer wonder of this reality. Until we can abide in that mystery, concentration will be difficult.
I was extremely disabled by attention problems growing up, and still have many lingering affects. But now I can discern between what I am vs what I am under certain conditions. I am what I am no matter what, and that is okay. No need to beat ourselves up because we don't fit our own ideal or the ideal of society.
That was a LOT of information, but I hope some of it will be useful. |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Oct 13 2006 : 10:09:43 AM
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In case the person who asked the question doesn't know, the trick to AYP style meditation is constantly bringing your mind back to the mantra, not necessarily holding your attention on the mantra. My apologies if that point was already clear to them. |
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yogani
USA
5242 Posts |
Posted - Oct 13 2006 : 11:32:33 AM
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Hi Hunter:
I'm not an expert on ADD, but can say that deep meditation is not about having an ability to concentrate, or even sit still (movements can be normal). It is about following a simple mental procedure that allows and includes the wandering mind. After a few weeks or months the procedure itself becomes habit, so even it is not a doing.
Interestingly, while deep meditation does not involve the use of concentration, it gradually strengthens our ability to concentrate in daily activity. So this can be a good thing for those with ADD, or anyone who is looking for a way to increase their ability to concentrate.
Of course, it goes far beyond that. The cultivation of inner silence over time opens the doorway to the infinite in us, and ultimately produces "super-normal attention."
No matter what our desire -- for health or for enlightenment -- if we can sustain it enough to keep up a daily practice, deep meditation will carry us forward. The desire for progress is an essential part of the process. That is what enables us to sit daily...
Does ADD limit one's long term desire and commitment to progress in life, or only our ability to focus on the object we are viewing in the moment? If we have the former (ongoing desire), we can easily navigate the latter (attention development) with deep meditation. Once we get to our seat, the procedure of deep meditation takes over. All we have to do is follow it. It becomes easier to get to the seat over time, because inner silence fills us with increasing purpose and laser-like attention. The effect of deep meditation then becomes a cause. But no matter how advanced we become, the procedure of deep meditation is always the same -- not reliant on concentration at all.
The guru is in you.
10/13/06, 2pm eastern -- See update in first paragraph.
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Hunter
USA
252 Posts |
Posted - Oct 13 2006 : 9:57:59 PM
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Everyone,
Thank you for taking the time to give great answers. Quite consoling for the people involved.
Hunter |
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ADD, ADHD, problems during meditation
