r/Meditation • u/Wesssiiiddddeee • 1d ago

Sharing / Insight 💡 silent vs breathing/mindful meditation

  1. silent meditation: sitting still and letting the thoughts flow, focussing and acknowledging that my entire body is separate than my mind where my thoughts are flowing freely (i can separate my mind + thoughts from the body and let them flow while knowing my body is there sitting). sometimes, i also start focusing on the imaginary black spot in between my eyes during the mind-body separation, which mostly leads to more thoughts to originate and flow.

  2. breathing/mindful meditation: sitting and focussing on my in-breadth and out-breadth (saying stuff like-breathing in/out i know i’m breathing in/out). i breathe through any thoughts that arise, bringing my focus back to my breathing (the present moment)

what i have noticed for each type of meditation relative to the other type of meditation- •30 or more mins of silent meditation: more calm, slightly more anxious, slightly less confident . •30 or more mins of breathing meditation: less calm, more confident, less anxious

both when compared to no meditation: much calmer, more confident, less anxious

in any case, i do both daily, usually sitting meditation right after breathing meditation.

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u/zafrogzen 23h ago edited 23h ago

Yes, breathing meditation before just sitting is the usual drill.

However, "acknowledging that my entire body is separate than my mind" is a common mistake. To project an independent self, an observer or “witness,” separate from a body and senses, and an experiential movie or life-stream, is a mental fabrication which is often mistaken for enlightenment, even though it is another form of self-clinging, or as they say in zen, “putting another head on top of your head." Subject and object are both the same wondrous mind.

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u/Wesssiiiddddeee 23h ago

Hey, thanks for the response! Could you please make the second part easier to understand?😅 i’ve got the gist of it, but want to make sure i’ve understood it correctly.

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u/zafrogzen 19h ago

Here's something I wrote sometime ago on the subject of no-separate-self http://www.frogzen.com/meditations/ It's difficult to articulate because it's essentially beyond conceptual thinking. The conceptual mind naturally cuts reality up into dualistic, bite-sized chunks for easy digestion. In zen they discourage trying to put it into words because it's an individual experience, and someone else's conceptualization can get in the way. Just practicing devotedly, without getting attached to concepts is all that's necessary.