Monks who spend their entire lives in prayer or meditation are often viewed as paragons of humanity. They’ve reached enlightenment or some higher level of consciousness because they are living completely in the present moment. However, consciousness exists entirely in the past and future—reflecting and projecting. Therefore, to be completely present is to literally be unconscious.
Monks who spend their entire lives in prayer or meditation may be blissfully content, but they are living unconscious lives devoid of any meaning. Meaning in life can only be created through consciousness, and consciousness does not exist in the present moment. Consciousness exists in the imagination: reliving our past and envisioning our future. To cease all mental time travel of this sort—to stop all incoming thoughts—is to detach completely from consciousness.
I meditate and it has helped me enormously. I think mindfulness is the key to seeing reality more clearly and living a happier life. But… One can go too far in meditation and mindfulness, as the most extreme of monks have. I meditate for 10-20 minutes each day, and I can understand those who do more, up to 1-2 hours daily. I even understand going on week or month-long silent meditation retreats. But devoting your entire life to meditation seems insane. Meditation should be a tool to make you more mindful in your thinking, not to make you stop thinking altogether.
Ironically the mediation tools you likely use were developed originally by people who did do the insane and dedicated far too much time to meditation.
It's true that the monks you refer to are extreme in their devotion. Their conviction for this comes from a religious absolutism so it's not hard to see that when mediation practices are devolved from that context they become much more moderate.
To be specific, every one of that kind of monk believes in reincarnation so it's not so much a wasted life as a preparation for the next, and the eventual release from the cycle of suffering which in fact is life.
Certainly any belief system which fundamentally rejects life and takes metaphors of death and rebirth literally has crossed the threshold into the insane, but I would be careful about throwing that term around.
Posted using Partiko Android
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
Hi! I'm a bot, and this answer was posted automatically. Check this post out for more information.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Haha! This is funny
Posted using Partiko Android
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Brother, the foremost thing we have to understand here is that the mind is our tool to explore the various directions in a similiar fashion as we have begun exploring deep space. But what is similiar here is darkness, for when in darkness we are moving we are not aware of the direction, but we are aware that we are moving and have covered certain distance, in the very same way all that we have done and are doing in this life are the small movements in the vast deep space of our brains, for all that you see on the earth right now sometimes before were first conceived in brain and some were invented in accidence, something similiar to dark matter,it is there but we are unable to comprehend it right now,maybe future generations will. Thus, meditation for long hours shuts the outside world for you , taking you deeper into deep space, exploring for that which is not common to see, searching for rarity, rarity that makes life possible in the arid universe, for some minds get poised into not thinking nothingness, that doesn't mean they aren't creating anything, they are forming innumerable nervous synapses, which are giving them privileged access to some of the premium stuffs that we cannot see and understand, it is only for them to cherish, and even if they want to share, they cannot, for the body becomes a very small medium for that, and so they sit scourging more premium services in their deep meditative state, for their minds have now tasted something better which they don't want to barter \exchange anything for or substitute with. Iin a similiar way prior to burger days, and generation brought up with burgers and softdrinks just can't let go their hamburgers, it seems to be essential, seems righteous , mouth watering delicious. These monks have just got their tongues ticked in silence tasting conciousness every moment, even word moment would seem unfit to describe as there's no moment thereon, time ceases to exist.That state is beyond understanding because for it is so great to understand , we are just a speck, a bubble, an ant and a dust in this vast multitude, but it is acheivable, it has been proven by human lives world over, but for that commands sacrifice, sacrifice of world for truth. You see laws of nature are consistent, you gain some , you lose some.
Hope it helped,and if it didn't , trust me , it definitely did :)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Anything is one of a million paths...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit