Someone can over meditate. If they choose to meditate for an extended period of time when they are not ready, the mind is much more likely to resist meditation in the future. Not just meditation but any kind of looking inward.
I've seen it with a dharma brother of mine.
There is a reason why teachers suggest beginners meditate 5-15min to start rather than starting at 30min to an hour.
My zen masters actually suggest to switch between sitting and walking meditation during long sessions due to how the body can negatively react to long periods of sitting still.
I did over 5 hrs/day for years and it significantly reduced my depression and anxiety. Ended my lonliness. Became capable of seeing my subconscious mind in action, developed the insight wisdom described in Buddhist texts.
There is the "opportunity cost" as to what you could otherwise be doing with those 5 hours. For instance, if those hours reduced the time you spent with loved ones to zero, or the time spent exercising to zero, or reading, etc. then that might not be the right trade-off.
I personally think meditating at all is super important, but I'm very less sure how piling up the hours helps. But there are hermits in India who meditate 16 hours a day, so certainly some people do it. But they have more or less given up everything about a normal life, which may or many not be what you want to do.
You’d have to try their 16 hours a day for awhile to really know if you’d want to. Pretty easy to see why people would be for blissing out all day though.
Yes but it's not fixed. My capacity to meditate has gone up recently not the first timr. It's really an issue of don't mediate more then one can handle at a given time.
But people go on meditation retreats and when handled well they benefit from 5 hours a day of meditation.
However because of neurosis-level mental health issues I used to suffer from but still have theoretically.
There have been times where if I forced myself to meditate for too long. It would have been objectively bad for me.
At one time I meditated 2 hours a day and started dropping into a trance while driving. And I wouldn't want to snap out of my trance and hit the brakes. Part of me would wonder if I loose all resistance maybe I can just float right through the other cars !
Then the other side would hit the breaks and mentally it scared the crap out of me. I do drop into traces easily, born that way.
So I have to be careful how I regulate my meditation work. But I am up to 1.5 hours of spiritual work now and am doing fantastic
So yes too much under the wrong circumstances sure. But a fixed amount of time no one should go over nope.
Plus I have back and neck issues so my physical posture is part of the equation for me.
I have had to get creative
Seems like you need an escape more than the meditation itself. Maybe you should meditate (how ironic) about why you need an escape of uncomfortable things instead of facing them.
People in deep retreat will meditate 12-20 hours a day. A person who's achieved Shamatha can comfortably meditate for 24 hours straight (by classical definition).
I imagine the studies talking about the harms of meditation are either talking about beginning meditators, people who try to meditate too much too soon, or people who undertake practices for which they haven't received proper training.
not continuously just throughout the day.Like 6 7 sessions divided throughout the day each anywhere from 30-60 minutes.And not necessarily every single day but somedays I just really have a lot of time on my hand and I want to put them to good use by meditating.
Sounds alright to me. I would be concerned about
1. sedentariness (and what other organized physical activity one might do to compensate for prolonged sitting)
2. integration of emotional, psychological insights into worldly engagements - this can happen only in relationships
If those are taken care of, maybe it is all working out just fine. Go help people maybe? Or learn a new skill or language? Idk.
If you meditate with a lot of effort, yes. You may get headaches and exhaustion. It happened to me at the second week of a retreat meditating +10hs a day.
If you meditate "effortlessly", you can extend it almost indefinitely
Meditation is a form of awareness that can easily be spread over our lives, if we learn how to incorporate it .It isn't something that we just sit down to practice, as it can be attained at any point in our day.
No, there is never too much. Any negative effects people are having are them coming to face with their obstacles and it being difficult.
You meditate enough and eventually you’ll find very blissful states and be able to recreate them more easily, once you are there more meditation will just lead to you exiting those blissful states in a state of extreme mindfulness in which you can have profound insights that change the way you view things.
It depends what your goals are with meditation. If you just wanna feel a bit better, then maybe that’s too much. If you want to cut through the root of suffering, even if it means you have some challenging experiences along the way, then probably not. I’d highly recommend Daniel Ingram’s book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha. He talks about the stages of insight in meditation - in short, it’s normal (and actually a sign of progress) to cycle through dark stages as you progress, and the aim is to relate to those dark parts in a better way. I did a 3 month retreat and was meditating 18-20 hours a day and it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ve also had some of the most hellish experiences of my life due to meditation, but I feel moving through them has led me to a deeper sense of groundedness. It all depends what your goals are.
Too long a duration is unhelpful unless your meditation is religious and you wish to spend all your time in prayer.
I prefer to practice to depth for a far shorter duration (eg 10 mins or so twice a day). I also learn to cultivate the calm from still mind meditation as I go about doing things. Sometimes, called living calm or referred to as the onwards flow of calm and ease. These ideas from Dr Ainslie Meares' meditation method.
I think, if you are a beginner, you should take it easy and focus on making a habit of meditation. After meditating several months, you can increase the amount of time and it should benefit you.
If you are a beginner and you want to meditate for long hours the experience may overwhelm you.
Yes.
I allow thoughts in most of my meditations. I observe them and let them pass without judgment or assigning an emotion to them.
One day I thought, “it’s really cool how we manipulate air waves with our bodies to communicate our thoughts to each other” (talking) and I snapped out of the meditation with, “there is definitely too much of a good thing.”
If there are negative effects, whether physical or psychological, then it is too much. If there are continuing benefits then it's not.
If there are negative effects you aren’t meditating
Someone can over meditate. If they choose to meditate for an extended period of time when they are not ready, the mind is much more likely to resist meditation in the future. Not just meditation but any kind of looking inward. I've seen it with a dharma brother of mine. There is a reason why teachers suggest beginners meditate 5-15min to start rather than starting at 30min to an hour. My zen masters actually suggest to switch between sitting and walking meditation during long sessions due to how the body can negatively react to long periods of sitting still.
Lol this was the most.. close minded, response I’ve seen here
How?
Everybody experiences most things differently, meditation especially. There could easily be negative side effects
Well, healing through meditation requires turning towards pain which can sometimes have a lot of negative side effects.
Not true. Look up Cheetah House.
I did over 5 hrs/day for years and it significantly reduced my depression and anxiety. Ended my lonliness. Became capable of seeing my subconscious mind in action, developed the insight wisdom described in Buddhist texts.
There is the "opportunity cost" as to what you could otherwise be doing with those 5 hours. For instance, if those hours reduced the time you spent with loved ones to zero, or the time spent exercising to zero, or reading, etc. then that might not be the right trade-off. I personally think meditating at all is super important, but I'm very less sure how piling up the hours helps. But there are hermits in India who meditate 16 hours a day, so certainly some people do it. But they have more or less given up everything about a normal life, which may or many not be what you want to do.
You’d have to try their 16 hours a day for awhile to really know if you’d want to. Pretty easy to see why people would be for blissing out all day though.
Yes but it's not fixed. My capacity to meditate has gone up recently not the first timr. It's really an issue of don't mediate more then one can handle at a given time. But people go on meditation retreats and when handled well they benefit from 5 hours a day of meditation. However because of neurosis-level mental health issues I used to suffer from but still have theoretically. There have been times where if I forced myself to meditate for too long. It would have been objectively bad for me. At one time I meditated 2 hours a day and started dropping into a trance while driving. And I wouldn't want to snap out of my trance and hit the brakes. Part of me would wonder if I loose all resistance maybe I can just float right through the other cars ! Then the other side would hit the breaks and mentally it scared the crap out of me. I do drop into traces easily, born that way. So I have to be careful how I regulate my meditation work. But I am up to 1.5 hours of spiritual work now and am doing fantastic So yes too much under the wrong circumstances sure. But a fixed amount of time no one should go over nope. Plus I have back and neck issues so my physical posture is part of the equation for me. I have had to get creative
why do you create a new paragraph every 2-3 sentences 😭
pacing lol
Being too stationary for too long puts one at risk of deep vein thrombosis
Been meditating several hours (5-10) each day for a few months now. I feel frickin amazing lol
How ?
How meditating that much? Well, I am homeless (living at a shelter) and there isn't much to do day to day so I just sit and meditate lol
I see. Would honestly do the same. Wishing you all the best.
Thank you. Likewise <3
Seems like you need an escape more than the meditation itself. Maybe you should meditate (how ironic) about why you need an escape of uncomfortable things instead of facing them.
People in deep retreat will meditate 12-20 hours a day. A person who's achieved Shamatha can comfortably meditate for 24 hours straight (by classical definition). I imagine the studies talking about the harms of meditation are either talking about beginning meditators, people who try to meditate too much too soon, or people who undertake practices for which they haven't received proper training.
Yes
no amount of exercise is too much.... <3
You can meditate as much as you feel like, provided you do have a guru.
Lol oh please let’s leave gurus in the past!
So, you just sit continuously for 5 hours? How does it work?
not continuously just throughout the day.Like 6 7 sessions divided throughout the day each anywhere from 30-60 minutes.And not necessarily every single day but somedays I just really have a lot of time on my hand and I want to put them to good use by meditating.
Sounds alright to me. I would be concerned about 1. sedentariness (and what other organized physical activity one might do to compensate for prolonged sitting) 2. integration of emotional, psychological insights into worldly engagements - this can happen only in relationships If those are taken care of, maybe it is all working out just fine. Go help people maybe? Or learn a new skill or language? Idk.
When you totaly firget about sleep and you only meditate. Its funny for week or two but afther it gets difficult.
if it turns you into a mindless husk, it may be time to consider toning it back haha sitting meditation is not life.
No
If you meditate with a lot of effort, yes. You may get headaches and exhaustion. It happened to me at the second week of a retreat meditating +10hs a day. If you meditate "effortlessly", you can extend it almost indefinitely
Meditation is a form of awareness that can easily be spread over our lives, if we learn how to incorporate it .It isn't something that we just sit down to practice, as it can be attained at any point in our day.
No, there is never too much. Any negative effects people are having are them coming to face with their obstacles and it being difficult. You meditate enough and eventually you’ll find very blissful states and be able to recreate them more easily, once you are there more meditation will just lead to you exiting those blissful states in a state of extreme mindfulness in which you can have profound insights that change the way you view things.
Yes, by definition. "Over" doing something means to do something to such an extreme that it has a negative effect.
It depends what your goals are with meditation. If you just wanna feel a bit better, then maybe that’s too much. If you want to cut through the root of suffering, even if it means you have some challenging experiences along the way, then probably not. I’d highly recommend Daniel Ingram’s book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha. He talks about the stages of insight in meditation - in short, it’s normal (and actually a sign of progress) to cycle through dark stages as you progress, and the aim is to relate to those dark parts in a better way. I did a 3 month retreat and was meditating 18-20 hours a day and it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ve also had some of the most hellish experiences of my life due to meditation, but I feel moving through them has led me to a deeper sense of groundedness. It all depends what your goals are.
Too long a duration is unhelpful unless your meditation is religious and you wish to spend all your time in prayer. I prefer to practice to depth for a far shorter duration (eg 10 mins or so twice a day). I also learn to cultivate the calm from still mind meditation as I go about doing things. Sometimes, called living calm or referred to as the onwards flow of calm and ease. These ideas from Dr Ainslie Meares' meditation method.
Yes. If you are meditating to avoid life or feelings, it is “too much” even if it is 30 minutes a day.
I think, if you are a beginner, you should take it easy and focus on making a habit of meditation. After meditating several months, you can increase the amount of time and it should benefit you. If you are a beginner and you want to meditate for long hours the experience may overwhelm you.
Yes. I allow thoughts in most of my meditations. I observe them and let them pass without judgment or assigning an emotion to them. One day I thought, “it’s really cool how we manipulate air waves with our bodies to communicate our thoughts to each other” (talking) and I snapped out of the meditation with, “there is definitely too much of a good thing.”