How i benefit from meditation

Panthau · May 27th, 2009, 20:58

Hi there,

Just wanted to let you know how i benefit from my daily meditation. I and my little family where at the "Europapark" (like Disneyland in germany) this weekend, and normaly i would be totaly strained because of the masses of people and the noise they´re making. Besides that i wouldn´t ride with any of the rollercoasters, because of my claustrophobia, and if i would have done it, i would have had panic attacks (like i had last winter when we we´re skiing).

Not this time...because of my daily meditation i knew how i can keep calm and keep me together. All i did was to concentrate on my breathing every time something stressed me. I tried nearly every single rollercoaster and guess what - i didnt had a single panic attack. Instead i had so much fun with my girlfriend and my son since ages.

Thats not the only way how i benefit from meditation, but one i wanted to mention :-)

Fuzzy · May 27th, 2009, 21:12

Excellent post and love the photo.

seatrend8899 · May 28th, 2009, 00:16

Hi Pan,
Awesome success story and great photo! I am really pleased that you have made a post to the "Success Stories" section.

I hope to join you at a point in time that I give feedback of progress on my meditation/LifeFlow journey.

shine on

jim

Ta-tsu-wa · May 28th, 2009, 02:20

That's a terrific success story and a great picture! Sharing experiences like that with "Dad" are the memories your son will hold priceless for a lifetime.

Here's a suggestion for you to think about. Print out a copy of that photograph and carry it with you where you can take it out and look at it often. It will serve as a powerful visual reminder to you that even in those moments when common sense would suggest you might have reason to be fearful and experience panic or anxiety, you can not only remain calm but can experience some of your most treasured moments. You can call back those special feelings to replace thoughts and feelings that are not as positive as you would like.

So many of us fall victim to anxiety and panic conditions as the result of anchoring feelings of fear with strong visual images and memories. But we forget that the same process that results in a "panic disorder" can be used in reverse to anchor feelings of joy, contentment and satisfaction to produce a "happiness disorder".

Wouldn't it be great if we all developed "happiness disorders"? Your family trip to the amusement park would be a fantastic point for you to begin developing yours.

Way to go!

Panthau · May 28th, 2009, 17:11

Thanks for editing my pic, sometimes im just like a confused professor *g*

Ta-tsu-wa: i have that pic on my pinboard :-)
The question about the "happiness disorder" ...if theres happiness, there´ll be always sadness and contrary... wouldnt it?

*stepping out of the emotional jail and pick the feelings i like*

Thanks for your comments guys :-)

Ta-tsu-wa · May 28th, 2009, 19:21

Originally Posted by Panthau

The question about the "happiness disorder" ...if theres happiness, there´ll be always sadness and contrary... wouldnt it?

Think of Happiness and Despair as being a sort of spectrum or continuum, with total Despair/Sorrow (whatever you consider to be the opposite of happiness) at one end and total Happiness at the other end. In between these two are all the other shades of feeling.

To answer your question, the full spectrum of feelings must exist in potential, that is true. In other words, there must exist the possibility of misery if the possibility of joy is to exist. However, just because it is possible to experience misery does not mean that possibility is required to manifest in actuality. The entire spectrum will always exist as a possibility. But what you actually experience is a choice over which you have control.

Think of it like a rainbow. We all know that ordinary white light contains all of the colors in the visible spectrum. Through the use of special prisms and lenses it is possible for us to view a single color from the spectrum of our choosing. We can, for instance, single out the color green through use of the appropriate filter. So all we would see would be the color green. That doesn't mean the other colors have been eliminated. All of them remain as possibilities for us to focus on. We have simply chosen to focus on only one of those possibilities, in this case, green.

The same idea applies to the spectrum of emotions. Just because they all exist as possibilities in no way means we must choose to experience any particular one at any given time. We can elect to experience happiness and, with practice, we become more and more able to decide what our experience is going to be.

bashmaki · May 29th, 2009, 06:22

Panthau,
That is a wonderful pic. You look like you are either really having a great time or scared out of your mind. It really matters not; point is you did something you knew would put you in a situation you would be uncomfortable with and you persevered. My hat is off to you.

Ta-Tsu-Wa you are nothing short of brilliant. Your explanations are clearly and concisely written . . .Always!! We are lucky to have you among us.

Thanks,

gus

Panthau · May 29th, 2009, 10:13

Yes, i was scared lol. This downhill ended in a black hole and i didnt wanted to look at it :-))

Ta-tsu-wa: Thats a real nice explanation that makes sense, thanks for that. It still doesnt answer the question for what all of this is for...what are we, why are we here and why do we have these spectrums of emotions and other things. Someday we get the answer, hopefully :-)

GilesC · May 29th, 2009, 12:13

Hi Pan,

Great thread and it's good to see you enjoyed yourself. It's moments like that that make you realise that anything is possible.

Originally Posted by Panthau

The question about the "happiness disorder" ...if theres happiness, there´ll be always sadness and contrary... wouldnt it?

Another slant on this...

Happiness is a natural state of our true Self. Sadness is something that covers the happiness up, but the happiness is still there. To get to the happiness we have to uncover it from the sadness. It is like the Sun on a cloudy day. You know the sun is there, but you just can't see it because of the clouds.

Or look at it like this...

People seek happiness.
To recognise happiness, it is human nature that we have to quantify one thing against another, and thus we have to seek something we consider to be "unhappy" to be able to recognise the "happy". If we did not assign a quality of "unhappy" to things then we would not be able to recognise the "happy"... and this comes down to a fear. People fear letting go of the unhappy things because, without them, they would not be able to recognise happiness; they would have nothing to compare against. Yet, just because we could have a life completely without unhappiness does not mean that we would not have happiness, simply that we would not be able to quantify the happiness. If we let go of our attachment of the need to quantify happiness, we can then let go of the fear that is keeping us attached to the unhappiness.

This also applies to other things in life. For example Good and Bad. People say that there must be a balance of good and bad; that we can't have good without bad. This is simply not true. If there were no badness then everything would be good, however we would not be able to recognise that everything was good because we would have nothing to compare it against. But why should that be a problem? It is only a problem because of our attachment to the need to quantify things.

Hugs

Giles

Panthau · May 29th, 2009, 18:05

Hm thats another interesting point of view, GilesC!

Doesnt this come down to the state which buddhists work for? A level in the mid, no hate no love...just be.