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**Pharmaciest** · 03-01-2008, 02:34 PM

yes and no. yes, in the sense that meditation teaches us to live life more fully and completely. in this sense you may be getting some of that, when you surf or go sailing. anything that helps us stay in the moment is usually a good thing.

no; in the sense that you should not have to 'perform an act' in order to feel peaceful. so meditation is not about what you do for that 30 minutes or an hour a day, it's all about how to raise the qaulity of life for the other 23 hours in the day. in other words, we're not trying to do exactly what the monk in the monastary is doing, because he lives a very stress-free life and may very well spend 8 hours a day meditating.

along those same lines if you could spend 30 minutes or an hour surfing or sailing, and if that could significantly raise the quality of life for the other 23 hours, then by all means, i say go for it. however i suspect it may have something to do with the adreneline rush which is fine on it's own, but it's no substitute for meditation.

for the more active types there are walking meditatiuons and some martial arts like chi gong or tai chi that are better suited for people who have trouble sitting for long. however the act of simply sitting and queiting the mind is somewhat anti-culture for westerners. there is very little in today's society to encourage that.

the best way to find your meditative path is to experiment with many different kinds and see how they affect you. keep in mind tho, that most results are very gradual. and there are probably some things in most styles of meditation that just don't seem right for you. just experiment with different styles.

for instance while i enjoyed the simplicity of tm they also taught me that there is nothing wrong with falling asleep. they said, your body knows what it needs, if it wants to sleep, let it sleep. i said, ok, fine; but i realized after a while that i was sleeping thru all my meditations, and this was very difficult for me to overcome. so that particular aspect of tm simply did not work for me. sleeping is related to the body, meditation is for the mind, at least for me, and this was ultimately why i quit doing tm

03-01-2008, 02:34 PM	#6
Pharmaciest Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 426 Senior Member	yes and no. yes, in the sense that meditation teaches us to live life more fully and completely. in this sense you may be getting some of that, when you surf or go sailing. anything that helps us stay in the moment is usually a good thing. no; in the sense that you should not have to 'perform an act' in order to feel peaceful. so meditation is not about what you do for that 30 minutes or an hour a day, it's all about how to raise the qaulity of life for the other 23 hours in the day. in other words, we're not trying to do exactly what the monk in the monastary is doing, because he lives a very stress-free life and may very well spend 8 hours a day meditating. along those same lines if you could spend 30 minutes or an hour surfing or sailing, and if that could significantly raise the quality of life for the other 23 hours, then by all means, i say go for it. however i suspect it may have something to do with the adreneline rush which is fine on it's own, but it's no substitute for meditation. for the more active types there are walking meditatiuons and some martial arts like chi gong or tai chi that are better suited for people who have trouble sitting for long. however the act of simply sitting and queiting the mind is somewhat anti-culture for westerners. there is very little in today's society to encourage that. the best way to find your meditative path is to experiment with many different kinds and see how they affect you. keep in mind tho, that most results are very gradual. and there are probably some things in most styles of meditation that just don't seem right for you. just experiment with different styles. for instance while i enjoyed the simplicity of tm they also taught me that there is nothing wrong with falling asleep. they said, your body knows what it needs, if it wants to sleep, let it sleep. i said, ok, fine; but i realized after a while that i was sleeping thru all my meditations, and this was very difficult for me to overcome. so that particular aspect of tm simply did not work for me. sleeping is related to the body, meditation is for the mind, at least for me, and this was ultimately why i quit doing tm
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