Recreational Meditation: A way to tease your monkeymind into stillness

[JuliusCaesar]

So I've conceived of a meditation method that uses graduality and the human desire to progress(that is the dopamine you feel when you think you've made progress), as well as the human tendency to prefer happiness to basically trick you into meditating long hours. So it goes like this, you sit down and meditate(I mean do Vipassana by focusing on your breath with closed eyes) for 1 minute. Then you start over and increase it to 2, then to 3, then to 4 etc etc. So all you need to do this is a timer(which you have on your computer/phone) and a comfortable chair, and some free time in order to do this. The idea is to do it with the mindset of trying to beat your high score. So this technique makes use of many of the same human weakness that video games exploit.

 

The math for this breaks down like this.

1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10=55

11+12+13+14+15+16+17+18+19+20=155

21+22+23+24+25+26+27+28+29+30=255

31+32+33+34+35+36+37+38+39+40=355

41+42+43+44+45+46+47+48+49+50=455

51+52+53+54+55+56+57+58+59+60=555

 

Thus  by this method it takes 55 minutes to meditate 10 minutes straight, 3 and a half hours to meditate for 20 minutes(55+155=210/60=3.5). 7 and three quarter hours to meditate for 30 minutes(55+155+255=465/60=7.75). 13 and two third hours to meditate for 40 minutes(55+155+255+355=820/60=13.6667). 21 and a quarter hours to meditate for 50 minutes(455+355+255+155+55=1275/60=21.25). And 30 and one half hours to meditate for a full hour(555+455+355+255+155+55=1830/60=30.5).

 

If you've hit the one hour mark(30.5 hours of meditation) I recommend you raise the incremental variable of increase from 1 minute to 10. So, meditate for an hour, then an hour and 10 minutes etc. The math on that looks like this. 60+70=130+80=210+90=300+100=400+110=510+120=630. So it takes 10 and a half hours(630/60=10.5) to go from 1 hour to 2 hours of meditation, or 41 hours to go from a beginner to a 2 hour long meditator by this method.

 

Once at 2 hours, I'd say make the incremental increase 15 minutes. The math on that is like this, 120+135=355+150=505+165=670+180=850. Therefore it takes 14 hours and ten minutes to advance from 2 hour to 3 hour meditation. And 51 hours and ten minutes to go from beginner to 3 hour meditator.

 

Then once you've done that, increase the rate of incremental increase to 30 minutes. The math looks like this, 180+210=390+240=630. So it takes 10 and a half hours to progress from a 3 hour meditator to 4 hours. Or 61 hours and ten minutes of meditation overall to go from beginner to 4 hour meditator.

 

At this point, you're probably more adept than the vast majority of meditators in the world(seeing as most of them probably can't do more than 15 minutes). So I'd say up the rate of incremental increase to 1 hour. So the math looks like this. 4+5=9+6=15+7=22+8=30. Thus it takes 30 hours to go from a 4 hour meditator to an 8 hour one by this method. Or, 91 hours and ten minutes of meditation to go from beginner to 8 hour meditator.

 

If you've made it this far, you've progressed to such a high level of mastery, that you could probably meditate 24 hours a day if you wanted to fairly easily. If you went on one of those 10 day Vipassana retreats you'd find it exceptionally easy. And if you manage to keep that up for 120 hours straight(according to Sadhguru) you'd open your third eye and become like Lord Shiva. Of course, doing nothing for 5 days straight, no eating/drinking/urinating/defecating/sleeping/even opening your eyes is a formidable task. Even if you can meditate 8 hours straight. So you'd need to apply the concept of graduality to your practice on the level of days now.

 

I have an alternate method, one that actually I'm using myself(the main one I loved in my mind but realized another variant that would be better for me specifically). This method draws on the same logic as the other. Only it's intentionally designed for the purpose of inducing lucid dreams. Which I'm seeking after for their practical value, as you can do magickal things about 1000x easier in a dream than in the waking world, and it can be used to affect consensus reality.

 

So the idea is to meditate just before going to sleep only. You start with 30 minutes(if you can't get yourself to do that, then use my other method until you can), then the next night you do it for 35 minutes, then the next for 40 etc. The math looks like this 35+40=75+45=120+50=170+55=225+60=285. Thus it takes 7 nights plus 4 and three quarter hours of meditation before bed to reach the one hour mark. I've been testing lucid dreaming techniques on and off the past 3 years(on about 85% of that time), and of all the mainstream techniques/supplements/binaural beats, I've found this basic act of meditating before bed to be the most potent of them all. I used a binaural beat track that granted great results, but I find it difficult to sleep listening to noise so I don't use it anymore.

 

I once tried to meditate in the dream state after an hour of meditation before bed. I became lucid in a dream where I was before Donald Trump and Doug(from the King of Queens) arguing about something. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breath, but the dream collapsed because I hadn't been properly stabilized it. This might sound like a failure to you, and in some sense it is(since failure is relative). But mind you, I've tried many other techniques by which you couldn't even remember what you wanted to do when you became lucid, or you'd just not become lucid at any level at all. So in light of that this was a significant victory.

 

I'm planning to hike the incremental increase rate from 5 minutes to 15 minutes at the 1 hour mark. So the math goes like this, 60+75=135+90=225+105=330+120=450. So it will take me 7 hours and 30 minutes of meditating over 5 nights to go from 1 hour to 2. Or 12 nights plus 12 hours and a quarter hour of meditating overall.

 

Then from the 2 hour point, I plan on upping the rate of incremental increase from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. So the math is like this, 120+150=270+180=450. Or in other words It'll take 7 hours and 30 minutes of meditating over 3 nights to progress from 2 to 3 hours of before bed meditation. Or 19 and 3 quarter hours of meditating over 15 nights overall.

 

I'm not even certain if I need more than 3 hours of meditation before bed for my purposes. But just in case it's neccesary, I'd be willing to go higher. I won't do the math because it's fairly simple at the level of adding hours to hours.

 

Another way of using this concept which has to come to mind, is in Holotropic/Shamanic breathing. You could hyperventilate for 100 breaths straight, then 200, then 300 etc. You could use these concepts for any kind of spiritual practice. I'll add a poll to this where you can vote on which method you like the most.

 

 

 

[gettoefl]

love your enthusiasm and your scientific bent, thanks for sharing these suggestions ... only thing i do is divide the 16 hours into six x 160 minutes since 160 mins is the max i can sit for plus i like how it nicely splits up the day into 6 sessions so no desire to tweak ... ideally i do 3 x 160 mins sits which is half the day but i can only manage this when i am in retreat mode, so my day to day currently is doing 2 sits and 4 non sits namely worldly stuff ... keep me nicely on track