Does Hours Of Sds Harm The Body?

[Big_D]

Hi guys,

2 months ago I started a daily meditation habit. I do 1 hour Strong Determination sitting every day.

I also did 2 hours, which was a little bit more intense than the 1 hour sit, but i feel it's just not enough ( my Ego isn't really frightened by it).

So i thought about doing a 6 hour sit, just to know what real suffering feels like.

But I am thinking about if the 6 hour sit, can be physically damaging somehow.

I am only 18, so I try to avoid long-term damages on my body.

Does someone has experince with this? Should I consider some "rules", when I sit that long?

On the other hand, there a monks sitting for days without moving and it seems that their bodies are not damaged...

 

[RossE]

Wow that's a long sit! I only do SDS for one hour but in many sits I get really intense pain in my legs. Given the pain I experience I think six hours would cause some damage to the body.

How do you find the one hour sits? Do you feel on the verge of giving up at any point? If you've no intense pain after one hour or even two hours then I doubt the 6 hours would cause you damage. Intense pain yes, lasting damage I doubt.

[Big_D]

1 hour is actually easy for me because i do it every day. But I think that it's important to know that I sit in a chair, so no Lotus position or Zazen or smth like that.Also the "outer" pain (legs), is not that intense for me when I sit one hour. Only  at 2 hour sit, it starts to hurt.

But at 1 or 2 hour I don't really feel like giving up. I don't know, it is just not intense enough for me. But I think I will definitly try the 6 hour sit.

I think I am more resistant to pain and all the suffering because my drive for truth and enlightenment is very high.

My motivation is: "When I suffer from a few hours of just sitting.... how I wanna become enlightened then?"

 

[RossE]

@Schuchti11 Sitting in a chair is definitely easier and I don't think 6 hours in a chair would damage your body. In a chair I find the most difficult part is accepting the boredom and the thoughts about how long I've been sitting there.

Cross legged is more about accepting physical discomfort. Before you do it I recommend doing one hour cross legged just to get an idea of the pain/emotion you will need to withstand in the later hours of your 6 hour sit. It gets pretty intense for me anyway, and I've quit on a few occasions with just a few minutes to go.

I wouldn't go searching for anything in your sittings, just try to let go and accept everything, especially when pain arises. If you're thinking about trying to have an experience of some sort it will not happen.

 

Edited November 14, 2016 by RossE

[aurum]

5 hours ago, Schuchti11 said:

1 hour is actually easy for me because i do it every day. But I think that it's important to know that I sit in a chair, so no Lotus position or Zazen or smth like that

Sit crossed-legged. See how easy an hour is doing that first.

[oysterman]

I have not yet experienced long term pain from my SDS habit. I just set myself up in the most comfortable cross-legged position I can and then try to keep my back straight.

An acupuncturist once told me that long term SDS meditation can produce lasting pains and damages - I think that Leo has a new section on the booklist that might be relevant. I am personally going to read about on this topic before starting a habit of extremely long (2+ hour) SD sits.

[Big_D]

Ok I did the 1 hour cross-legged sit.

My report:

at 15 min. exactly the same as sitting in a chair.

at 30 min. feet started to get numb, but still no pain.

at 45 min. both feet got 100% numb, pain started to grow, but no suffering.

between 45 min - 60 min. intense pain at both feet, little pain at legs, but could still endure it, almost no suffering.

 

All in all it was a good new experince to have. I'm sorry to say that, but it was still too easy... maybe i am just more resistant to pain/suffering than the average human. But because of the pain in my feet, i didn't got sleepy, so i could stay 100% focused all the time. The next time I will try a 1 and a half hour cross-legged sit and when i have enough free-time i will try the 6 hours sit in a chair.

But thanks for the tips guys. I think i will implement cross-legged sitting every second day or so beside the "normal" chair sit.

 

[RossE]

@Schuchti11 Good stuff. Maybe your sitting position is a lot smoother than mine, I've always been uncomfortable sitting on a surface. I'm weary of over complicating meditation but with SDS experiencing the pain is kinda the point and it's definitely worse when sitting freely.

Sounds like a 6 hour sit might be something you're ready for. 

[Markus]

Up it gradually. Don't jump from 2 to 6. You most likely won't be able to anyway. Joint pain is BAD. Muscle pain and pain from pressure are to be expected. So, up it gradually and listen to your body. If you get sharp pain or get numbness that doesn't subside quickly after finishing the sit, there might be a problem.

[Alex4]

when you do that you simply let your thoughts arise? or do you concentrate on something?

[123456789]

@Schuchti11

17 hours ago, Schuchti11 said:

maybe i am just more resistant to pain/suffering than the average human

I think the exact opposite, you're more equanimous,

[Big_D]

@Alex4 I try to stay in the present moment, while I let go off everything my mind/thoughts tell me. This way I can feel all the sensations in its rawst form, without any interpretation of my mind (for example pain = bad). If you don't pay attention to your thoughts (which is actually pretty difficult),     the resistance disappears and suffering drops to almost nothing. As Leo said "suffering = pain * resistance"

@Mr Lenny ye I think thats more accurate

[Alex4]

1 hour ago, Schuchti11 said:

@Alex4 I try to stay in the present moment, while I let go off everything my mind/thoughts tell me. This way I can feel all the sensations in its rawst form, without any interpretation of my mind (for example pain = bad). If you don't pay attention to your thoughts (which is actually pretty difficult),     the resistance disappears and suffering drops to almost nothing. As Leo said "suffering = pain * resistance"

@Mr Lenny ye I think thats more accurate

yes, I do it similar like you. sometimes when many thoughts from a similar background pop up I try to think why this occurs

[Leo Gura]

If you do hours for cross-legged sitting every day for years, it can screw up your knees.

So if you're afraid of that, just use a well-padded chair for long sits.

[oysterman]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

If you do hours for cross-legged sitting every day for years, it can screw up your knees.

So if you're afraid of that, just use a well-padded chair for long sits.

Thank you for clarifying this. I'm sure it's on your to-do list, but it might be worth mentioning at the end of an appropriate video. I've seen a lot of people with similar queries

[Big_D]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

If you do hours for cross-legged sitting every day for years, it can screw up your knees.

So if you're afraid of that, just use a well-padded chair for long sits.

Thanks for the advice.

In the future, I will definitly experiment with all the different sitting techniques.

But yeah.... for the very long sits I will probably use a couch.  

 

By the way, 2 weeks after I began the daily meditation habit of 1 hour SDS,  I had 1 enlightenment experience and 1 "near death" experience while I meditated.

So THANKS  for that LEO!!!

 

[Bob84]

On 16/11/2016 at 6:21 PM, Schuchti11 said:

@Alex4 I try to stay in the present moment, while I let go off everything my mind/thoughts tell me. This way I can feel all the sensations in its rawst form, without any interpretation of my mind (for example pain = bad). If you don't pay attention to your thoughts (which is actually pretty difficult),     the resistance disappears and suffering drops to almost nothing. As Leo said "suffering = pain * resistance"

@Schuchti11 Might be a strange question: but why do you keep going?

[Big_D]

1 hour ago, Bob84 said:

@Schuchti11 Might be a strange question: but why do you keep going?

On what is your question exactly ralted to? Could you eleborate?

[Bob84]

@Schuchti11 Why doing more suffer sitting? Instead of something else.

[Big_D]

1. Because after those sits, I feel amazing. Not in the sense that i feel happy or bliss, but just peace. After those sits my mind is so calm... it's ridiculous no one told me this before Leo.

2. If you can endure that amount of suffering and be OK with that , you become like untouchable to the "human problems". For example if your self-image gets destroyed or if you fail at something... it doesn't effect your mood so much, because you are used to suffer.

3. Enlightenment/Total Peace.