r/streamentry 5d ago

Practice Does equanimity developed on the cushion transfer to real life?

I've been sitting consistently for about half an hour a day for last half a year and I see some gains and progress, usually after about 10 minutes my mind quiets down and I actually enjoy the practice and the slowing down of thoughts.

However my worry is, in daily life I dont see much improvement and I tend to succumb to the suffering created by the mind as easily as before. Any insights gained on the cushion dont seem to help in my busy daily life, and I tend to fall into unhappy thought loops, same as before starting the practice.

Any hints, comments?

24 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

View all comments

9

u/Ordinary-Lobster-710 5d ago edited 5d ago

I think it's akin to asking, how prepared will you be for a marathon if you practice running half hour every day. 15 min is warm up stretch, and then 5 min cool down. so like 10 min of actual practice per day to run a 5 hour marathon

an hour minimum is what ppl say you need in order to start seeing results. you should see for yourself if giving it a real chance has an effect on your life.

I think mastering your mind's ability to stay equanimous is a tremendous challenge. Even in highschool, in order to learn algebra, you had to go to class for an hour a day. And then you had a half hour of homework. And that was just for highschool algebra. If you want to make progress with your ability to induce equanimity I would probably give it at least as much effort as it takes to learn algebra.

It takes a long time for most people to meditate before their mind even "drops in" so I don't think half hour you are doing enough per day to rewire your brain to get the kind of long lasting equanimity you want.

2

u/autistic_cool_kid 5d ago

The best thing that 45 mins a day did to me was motivating me to do 1 hour

Which actually changed my life and motivated me to do 2 hours

Which changed my life even faster

Although nothing last, I struggle to do 2 hours these days because life right now is super busy and kinda stressful, thankfully it's calming down, excited to go back on that train