Long Meditation and observation of physical and mental effects

Long unstructured meditation

I have been practicing longer, unstructured meditations (1-2 hours) daily for the last few days and noticed some interesting effects. One is improved eyesight. While I am “normally” slightly nearsighted I have noticed that there are many occasions, especially outside on a sunny day and while happy, when I can suddenly see with perfect clarity. Since beginning long meditation, these occasions have much increased in frequency.
And there are also mental effects. One is that when I look at a mountain or a little herb (or something of the sort) it feels many times more meaningful and wonderful than usual, and I feel more emotionally connected. Like the mountain or little herb came right out of a beautiful poem, a dusty yellowed book which holds the wonder of days of yore. That persistent dissatisfaction isn’t there so much as usual. I still get stressed but seem to get over it quicker, and in general it is easier and quicker to get back to equilibrium.

I am at a bit of a loss for words in explaining why this is the case at the moment, probably because I’m a little tired writing this. I’ll try though. When we live a fast paced life and indulge too much in sensual or mental stimuli, people become all sorts of crazy, afflicted with “greed, hatred, and delusion”. I think that when we are overstimulated we aren’t able to healthily process the experiences we take, so we become bloated like a person who eats a thanksgiving meal three times a day every day, unable to function properly as human beings were meant to. Whereas in restraining contact with sensual stimuli, there is an effect of making very simple pleasures, like looking at a mountain, much more satisfying.

The way of meditation that I use  is best described as just sitting. That means that all regular thoughts are acceptable so long as I don’t get up from my seat prematurely.  My view of meditation “methods” is that they are just mind toys, and not really special in comparison to allowing regular thoughts to wander. It is easy for people to become obsessed with one method or another and they become a source of stress. I will often feel my breathing now and then, but they all are just toys for our mind to play with while we are just sitting. The stillness of the body is in itself enough to cause profound effects on the mind.  

I love Fukuoka’s philosophy, and he knew that few people would be able to understand natural farming. I think, though, that if he had meditated (he specifically said that he had never done so) then he may have recommended it as a prerequisite to calm modern people’s crazy and imbalanced minds in preparation for natural farming, to make the mind more perceptive, happier, and less restless, more like the minds of our ancestors in former times who lived a slow-paced life intimately connected with nature.

I enjoyed this thread. I’ve been needing to get back into it. I do well with short block meditations but I have always been interested in long sittings. I’m always concerned about position. What’s best. Sitting, laying, will I fall asleep haha. I need to just do it though. Thanks for the inspiration.

I’m glad to hear. I usually find a sort of muktasana to be comfortable—sitting at the edge of a cushion with one foot folded inward to touch the thigh, and the other folded so that the foot touches the shin of the first leg. And then if it gets too uncomfortable I switch between that and kneeling; it tends to be forty minutes for me. Or outside, it’s easier with boots to sit cross legged in the usual fashion without cutting off circulation.

I am curious, what do you meditate about for these long hours?

Maieshe said, The way of meditation that I use is best described as just sitting.

So just sitting not thinking about anything?

Not really. But it is possible to think of the body and its conditions, i.e. physical reality and the senses, as a root, and the mind as the flowers and leaves. The mind and all its contents arise independently and spontaneously, without any conscious intention, from the body. And even conscious intention arises that way—why does a person do what they do, then? Because their thoughts and actions arise like gentian flower from gentian root. A gentian root cannot make daisies, and so on. With conscious intention the state of the mind can be altered temporarily, but it too results from the body and its conditions, like a flower atop its peduncle. Conscious attention can also alter the body and its conditions though, and thereby cause the mind to change.

In short most people, including me, will think whether they sit down and intend to do so, or not. The conscious intention is like the flower atop the flower stalk of thought. But in winter, at least in my climate, very few plants will blossom, because the conditions are now dark and cold. Sitting is like the cooler weather and shorter days that makes the plants want to rest and stop flowering, so that is to say that as time goes on, flowers get more scarce. I find this happening usually in the second hour when longer, verbal thought does cease for increasing intervals, like the flowers blooming fewer and further between.

There is not really a trying to do anything, nor a trying to not try to do anything. Trying and trying not to try, resulting from conditions of stress that have since passed, can be left to their own devices and will dissipate. And the state after trying and trying not to try are gone, is one of peace and clarity.

The mind is going to be distracted by something while a person is sitting, so people give the mind various tasks to do, such as counting their breaths, which is harmless and makes it seem like a person is meditating through their own effort. But I think that it is something both deeper and simpler that is going on, and my experience hasn’t given any evidence to the contrary.

I’m sorry if my rambling is excessive, this is just an interesting topic for me.