Thread: Practicing Mindfulness wrong. Active vs passive awareness.

Originally Posted by Sageous

Wow.

Not even a quiet nod toward the fact that you've turned a thread whose OP asked a clear question about how to effectively practice mindfulness for LD'ing into an academic discussion about the nature of effort in meditation. At least Vagaltone had the good grace to stick a sentence that included the word "lucidity" at the end of his last post, which also had nothing to do with the OP... and no, guys, the OP was not a request to debate the meaning of effort in high-end-Tibetan Buddhist-level meditation. Wandering off topic is one thing, but your complete dismissal of the Brite's OP seems at a minimum to be a bit disrespectful.

And it seems that you're fulfilling the predictions of the naysayers who thought it would not be a good idea to start a meditation forum, because lucid dreaming would quickly be left behind. Nice work.
....
Sorry about the rant, BTW...

Let's take a look at the OP and see how valid your argument is:

Originally Posted by Brite

Practicing Mindfulness wrong. Active vs passive awareness.

I have tried quite a few times to practice mindfulness/awareness but eventually a cloud of cog fog envelops my mind and I slowly stop practicing because of fatigue, and soon end up forgetting the whole thing. This is the longest that I've been with it and I want to keep it up, but it's mentally exhausting.

You shouldn't force your mind to be aware, you should allow it to right? I read somewhere that people most mistake paying attention for being aware. Maybe that's what I'm doing.

I look around myself, in a room, outside or wherever I may be, and get a sense of the space that I'm in. A feeling comes to me. I don't really think any thoughts. I don't ask myself if I'm dreaming, or a bunch of other questions, because that distracts me from the feeling. The same feeling I get when I realize I am dreaming. I feel...the emptiness in the room or the vastness of the field, wherever I may be. This is what awareness is, to me. Is that forcing it?

Problem is, the more I do this, the less easier it gets and the more I have to focus and concentrate in order to summon this feeling.

My first post was in direct response to the OP. There is no mention of lucid dreaming in the OP, only "the practice of mindfulness and awareness." Thus I went on to give what I believe was solid advice about the distinction between passive and active awareness (this issue was stated in the title) in meditation practice (arguably one of the deepest practices of mindfulness/awareness). Being that there was no specification as to the particular practice in question, I felt it was appropriate.

The OP mentioned using force with mindfulness vs simply allowing it, and in my posts I clarified the role of right effort in practice. Right effort does not only apply to meditation, it applies to all endeavors, including daily mindfulness, as the OP appears to be speaking about.

Brite stated quite clearly that the information that came from the meditation/effort discussion was great and helpful. If anyone has a right to complain it is him, and he seemed thankful for the information.

If anything, I would think this thread demonstrates the need for a meditation sub forum rather than being an argument against it, as giving it it's own place may reduce the likelihood of the topic being brought up in other areas of the forum. And I'll just quickly mention the irony that the "rant" you felt the need to apologize for offers essentially nothing of value to the topic at hand, whereas the posts on meditation and effort received more support from the community than any other "on-topic" post in this thread (according to the "likes" anyway). My aim is to provide helpful and useful information from my experience and knowledge and to help clarify perceptions and understandings, especially when doing so could benefit those reading. It's not just about the original poster, it's about the entire community, and if I believe that something mentioned along the way could use a little deeper penetration and clarification for the sake of proper understanding and application of the concepts, even if it doesn't directly relate to the OP, it is best to do so. I owe no apologies.

I can't count how many threads I've read that end on a completely different note than they began. This is the nature of forum discussions. Accept, let go, be content.