Thanks Ann for your answer. My fist thought was, that I was a bit too snarky, sarcastic, so whatever I wrote - don't take it personal - but I think you already got that. Of course I have nothing against horses, they are beautiful animals, and even though I don't really ride horses, I still meet them when I run out, as they are here in the fields, and many people in the area where I live ride horses, there are horse races in the next village, where people come from the whole county. So, again sorry for the sometimes overly snarky tone.
Regarding you, I take it that meditation is not really for you, I don't want you to be anybody else than you are. I don't want to persuade you to either do 2 x 20, or take up the dome program, or anything else. But there are people who are inclined to having long meditations, who are lovers of meditation, you may find them on Purusha, or also in many other spiritual groups, or they are simply on their own. To think that they do this, because they have nothing else to do is rubbish. To think that they just sit around and let time pass is equally rubbish. It makes me feel you don't know meditation very well, it's okay you have an active life and enjoy it. I also think that those who pursue a Purusha type lifestyle should do so, because it is an urge from within, because there is a real calling, not because they want to 'achieve' something, or they have to force themselves. Also, I am very active myself, I have to do many things, so I cannot afford to meditate 7 1/2 hours, and since much of the effect of meditation has spread into activity, I also don't need so much meditation anymore. But I still like it, and meditate every day - and I never regret doing a single meditation. Meditation has always been my best friend. (and that's not because I have no other friends ;-)) One thing more I like to mention: With meditation there comes a deep sense of detachment. That's obviously diametrically opposed to the sense of passion and interest, you may get with other things. That means you can't love the world anymore, but your love and sense of passion will be different. And to Judy: she doesn't know me at all, the life that I am leading, she just tries to take an easy shot at me. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com> wrote: I ran a tea house says: If you say, they are people like the rest of us, I say yes they are. If you say, you feel sorry for them, I say I feel sorry for you feeling sorry for them. You say, they just sit for 7 1/2 hours in meditation, since they have nothing else to do, no passions etc? Do you really believe that? That means you cannot imagine, that a person actually enjoys meditation, and is absorbed for a long time. I mean, how long could you sit in meditation, honestly, before getting bored? 1 hour, 2 hours, 1/2 hour? What I mean to say is that a person doesn't meditate for so long, just because he has nothing else to do. Quite obviously persons who meditate so long enjoy it tremendously, and quite obviously they feel passionate about it, just as you maybe feel passionate about horses. I say: That is what I said already. If someone who likes to meditate for a third of a day felt like doing something different then they would be doing exactly that - something different. We all do what gives us the most pleasure as well as what we simply have to do to meet our obligations or put food on the table. There is no argument here. Those who chose to abandon all other activity or interaction with others in order to sit solitary with their eyes closed for 7.5 hours a day are doing it because they want to. I ran a tea house says: What is there about horses anyway, do we still need them? Haven't we got cars, which bring us much safer and without getting wet to our destiny? Why waste all your time with horses, and what would happen, if everybody would just be preoccupied with horses all the time? Couldn't you just leave them alone? Well of course one could and many do. But my point was activity vs meditation, many hours spent with eyes closed vs hours spent with family or pursuing activities that include making art, viewing art, running, reading, making love, eating. Time can be wasted with horses if one is not interacting in a certain way with them or forcing things or not respecting them as living, sentient beings. But that is not how I spend time with these creatures. Ah no, but you would have to spend some time with me to understand this. There is no greater gift than to be able to truly understand and appreciate these large animal's tolerance and acceptance of our capricious whims to jump them, make them do all sorts of athletic maneuvers or to watch them simply put up with our moment to moment demands. Just knowing that makes us seem so much smaller and them so much larger. That is easily as transcendental as drifting off into some meditative state. I have done both and I'll take the open-eyes version. I ran a tea house says: What about marathon, I run almost marathons, a marathon takes minimum 4 hours, and you have to add extra rest you need afterwards, getting to the place etc. training it every week. Or what about iron man, can't they find passion to do something useful? Now you have totally missed my point. Of course marathon runners are smack dab in the middle of incredible and dynamic activity and it takes one to the extremes of physical endurance. I'm all for it. I was talking about those who choose to sit day after day for 7.5 hours meditating and disagreeing that they, as Share opines, are "spiritual warriors." I was talking about meditators not marathon runners. And finally I ran a tea house says: No, the argument, that people, who like to meditate long, do so because they lack other passions is bogus. Meditation is their passion. Well, it certainly is high on their list of of priorities. But how do you conclude that they also have other passions? If you are a dedicated meditator and choose to spend half of your waking hours doing that it would be an exceptional person indeed who could devote an equal amount of time to another passion. It is possible but not probable or common. You are not able to quieten your mind, that is why you have to preoccupy it with all kinds of senseless stuff, just be engaged, never get to look at yourself. My mind is incredibly quiet during activity. You have no idea how quiet it is or not.You don't know me and from what you say in your next sentences indicate you have never had any sort of connection with horses and the incredible power and silence they contain. Two strikes Teahouse. Riding horses is just a distraction, it doesn't get you anywhere, and it's not meditation either, the joy of it will not stay on. It is ongoing every time I smell their sweet smell, kiss their muzzles, feel them respond to the lightest touch of my seat or leg, feel them carry me willingly with their straining muscles and in turn don't resent the fact that they work for me. It is no distraction - it requires intense focus and one-pointedness that transcends thought at times. It becomes simply feel and instinct. When you couple two beings together think intercourse without the sex. And to have a partner in a 1500 pound animal who chooses to interact with you because they somehow want to is liberating if not humbling. And that is only the least of it. You will never know the Ananda of meditation, you have been on the spiritual path allegedly for years, have lived in Fairfield, had many encounter sessions with Robin, but you still don't know the bliss of meditation. I'll take the bliss of all the other things waking/walking life can offer, thanks. Your statement makes me think you have never experienced the bliss of deep, abiding activity with all of the richness that every sense can bring to you. Life is for living and you have to suck it in with everything you've got. I just happen to have the faculties to be able to squeeze a lot of juice out of my waking/walking state. You are welcome to your eyes closed blissiness. I've got food to taste, forests to smell, rainstorms to feel, the sound of hoofbeats to hear and emerging art to see. Great saints like Ramana Maharshi continued to meditate for 15 years in Virupaksha cave even after their enlightenment. And why did he do this? Because he could do it. Because he wanted to do it. That is my point: we will all do what we most desire to do, if we have that luxury. And as long as I have legs that can walk, a brain that works and senses that can perceive then I choose to stay on two legs, eyes wide open slipping and slithering down some brambly, deliciously treacherous wooded path rather than allowing my life to slip away in long hours of meditation. Many here will disagree with me, after all this is a meditator's forum, but there you have it. ---In fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com, <authfriend@...> wrote: Iranitea tells Ann where it's at (according to him): (snip) No, the argument, that people, who like to meditate long, do so because they lack other passions is bogus. Meditation is their passion. You are not able to quieten your mind, that is why you have to preoccupy it with all kinds of senseless stuff, just be engaged, never get to look at yourself. Riding horses is just a distraction, it doesn't get you anywhere, and it's not meditation either, the joy of it will not stay on. You will never know the Ananda of meditation, you have been on the spiritual path allegedly for years, have lived in Fairfield, had many encounter sessions with Robin, but you still don't know the bliss of meditation. Great saints like Ramana Maharshi continued to meditate for 15 years in Virupaksha cave even after their enlightenment. And why did he do this? Because he could do it. And yet Ann is far more interesting, vital, and in touch with herself and with life than you are, iranitea. Go figure.
