Dharma Wheel

I have heard that the longer you maintain your meditation practice, the more the calmness & other 'good' effects carry over into your normal frame of mind.

I am curious to hear from long time meditators how true this is? How long did it take before you noticed it having a profound effect on your daily life? (When you haven't meditated obviously)

It's funny, I remember someone saying daily life is the best place to see how well your practice is really going, being holed up alone for a long time I think can easily lead to a deluded sense of progress, when you don't have to deal with all the commotion and craziness the world has to offer.. At least this has been the case for me.

So the question, how long of practice before you noticed things like anger, greed, grasping beginning to lose hold?

Thanks.

Right Effort, Right Intention,Right Mindfulness,Non-attachment ect. all comes naturally to us after years of practice.I noticed that after years of practice, it was all there.I used to hear friends telling me to have Right Mindfulness ect. ect. ect. but I never paid any attention to them.Being a nut, I just let it be. It blooms naturally as you tread the path.Young Buddhist should be exposed to the Buddha's teachings and left to practice and in time the 'nature' will all be there.Fruits should be left to ripen naturally.They will surely taste good. We can't make a Lotus bloom. It'll happen, but only when the conditions and seasons are right.This is the beauty of the Path.
Buddhism also makes our lives simple as we tread the Path.With reduced desires,we become conscious of our 'fortunate' rebirth as humans. We gradually apply Right Effort and Right Understanding while examining our experiences of daily life for our own betterment.Buddhism gives us inner happiness which cannot be bought with money. We follow the advice of the Buddha leading a noble and harmless life with the natural reduction of greed, hatred and delusion and we become aware of the changes within us gradually.Simplicity is the beauty of the Buddhist Path.

I really cannot remember how long it took, but the changes are all there now.Just can't put my finger on it as it was such a smooth change.

I don't know how long it took or when it happened but it is true. Maybe not "calming' all the time, but at some point you see that you have become one step removed from all of your mental bullsh**. It's still there, but you are watching it like a TV show and not so much being IN that TV show. Sometimes it means that you have to find a new motivation for stuff. If you were motivated by anger or greed before, maybe you accomplished big things. Confusion can work like that. So, when the mind becomes a little bit clearer, you have to see what motivates you. For me, it was seeing that I actually had accumulated a whole lot more mental bullsh** than I was even aware of!!!
.
.
.

For me, it was seeing that I actually had accumulated a whole lot more mental bullsh** than I was even aware of!!!

Oh yes I am certainty noticing that much about myself. I suppose it becomes more difficult when you actually begin to see these thing's, sort of disheartening but also humbling.

Right Effort, Right Intention,Right Mindfulness,Non-attachment ect. all comes naturally to us after years of practice.

Thank you, that's good to hear. so it seems Buddhism takes dedication, go figure.

Thanks for the responses.

Yup, the spill over effect is enormous... but what to attribute it to? Meditation? Study? Insight? Practice? Getting old? Who knows...

After nearly thirty years of meditation practice I have as much bullshit as ever.

The difference is I am slower to own it.

ghost01 wrote:I have heard that the longer you maintain your meditation practice, the more the calmness & other 'good' effects carry over into your normal frame of mind.

I am curious to hear from long time meditators how true this is? How long did it take before you noticed it having a profound effect on your daily life? (When you haven't meditated obviously)

It's funny, I remember someone saying daily life is the best place to see how well your practice is really going, being holed up alone for a long time I think can easily lead to a deluded sense of progress, when you don't have to deal with all the commotion and craziness the world has to offer.. At least this has been the case for me.

So the question, how long of practice before you noticed things like anger, greed, grasping beginning to lose hold?

Thanks.

About 2 years. But it's different for each person as each person has different karma. So you really can't go by someone else's experience because they most likely have different, sometimes very different, karma from you.

I am curious to hear from long time meditators how true this is?

110% true.