Why we love climbing - Mystery Solved

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Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Apr 19, 2008 - 12:08am PT

Power of Now is a great book. To diss it without reading it just shows intellectual bigotry.

The more you know people, the more you know most aren't really happy. Really being in the moment is more rare than the lip service paid to it. Folks who dismiss the angst of others without compassion aren't likely to be "in the moment" when they do so.

Spiritual stuff makes some folks uncomfortable. Anybody care to take a stab at why? Don't just say something off the top of your head, feel the discomfort and tell me where it comes from.

Peace

Karl

WBraun

climber

Apr 19, 2008 - 12:15am PT

Well then?

What is the sum substance of this so called "Now"?

Dick_Lugar

Trad climber

Indiana

Apr 19, 2008 - 09:49am PT

Joseph Campbell said basically the same thing as Eckhart does about extreme sports and being in the moment, but he used fighting in a war and realizing death could happen at any time as his vehicle of explaining this similar level of consciousness. In other words, soldiers never felt more "alive" or "in the moment" when surrounded by death.

Lost Arrow

Trad climber

The North Ridge of the San Fernando

Apr 19, 2008 - 11:03am PT

The Basics of Buddhist Meditation
Dr. C. George Boeree
Shippensburg University

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Buddhism began by encouraging its practitioners to engage in smrti (sati) or mindfulness, that is, developing a full consciousness of all about you and within you -- whether seated in a special posture, or simply going about one’s life. This is the kind of meditation that Buddha himself engaged in under the bodhi tree, and is referred to in the seventh step of the eightfold path.

Soon, Buddhist monks expanded and formalized their understanding of meditation. The bases for all meditation, as it was understood even in the earliest years of Buddhism, are shamatha and vipashyana.

Shamatha is often translated as calm abiding or peacefulness. It is the development of tranquility that is a prerequisite to any further development. Vipashyana is clear seeing or special insight, and involves intuitive cognition of suffering, impermanence, and egolessness.

Only after these forms were perfected does one go on to the more heavy-duty kinds of meditation. Samadhi is concentration or one-pointed meditation. It involves intense focusing of consciousness.

Samadhi brings about the four dhyanas, meaning absorptions. Buddha refers to samadhi and the dhyanas in the eighth step of the eightfold path, and again at his death. Dhyana is rendered as Jhana in Pali, Ch’an in Chinese, Son in Korean, and Zen in Japanese, and has, in those cultures, become synonymous with meditation as a whole.

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Basic Meditation

The most basic form of meditation involves attending to one's breath.

Begin by sitting in a simple chair, keeping your back erect if you can. The more traditional postures are the lotus position, sitting on a pillow with each foot upon the opposite thigh, and variations such as the half lotus (one foot on the opposite thigh, the other out in front of the opposite knee). This is difficult for many people. Some people kneel, sitting back on their legs or on a pillow between their legs. Many use a meditation bench: kneel, then place a little bench beneath your behind. But meditation is also done while standing, slowly walking, lying on the floor, or even in a recliner!

Traditionally, the hands are placed loosely, palms up, one on top of the other, and with the thumbs lightly touching. This is called the cosmic mudra, one of a large number of symbolic hand positions. You may prefer to lay them flat on your thighs, or any other way that you find comfortable.

Your head should be upright, but not rigid. The eyes may be closed, or focussed on a spot on the ground a couple of feet ahead of you, or looking down at your hands. If you find yourself getting sleepy, keep your eyes open!

Beginning meditators are often asked to count their breath, on the exhale, up to ten. Then you begin back at one. If you loose track, simply go back to one. Your breath should be slow and regular, but not forced or artificially controlled. Just breathe naturally and count.

A few weeks later, you may forego the counting and try to simply follow your breath. Concentrate on it entering you and exiting you. Best is to be aware as fully as possible of the entire process of breathing, but most people focus on one aspect or another: the sensation of coolness followed by warmth at the nostrils, or the rise and fall of the diaphragm. Many meditators suggest imagining the air entering and exiting a small hole an inch or two below your navel. Keeping your mind lower on the body tends to lead to deeper meditation. If you are sleepy, then focus higher, such as at the nostrils.

You will inevitably find yourself distracted by sounds around you and thoughts within. The way to handle them is to acknowledge them, but do not attach yourself to them. Do not get involved with them. Just let them be, let them go, and focus again on the breath. At first, it might be wise to scratch when you itch and wiggle when you get uncomfortable. Later, you will find that the same scant attention that you use for thoughts and sounds will work with physical feelings as well.

A more advanced form of meditation is shikantaza, or emptiness meditation. Here, you don't follow anything at all. There is no concentration -- only quiet mindfulness. You hold your mind as if you were ready for things to happen, but don't allow your mind to become attached to anything. Things -- sounds, smells, aches, thoughts, images -- just drift in and out, like clouds in a light breeze. This is my own favorite.

Many people have a hard time with their thoughts. We are so used to our hyperactive minds, that we barely notice the fact that they are usually roaring with activity. So, when we first sit and meditate, we are caught off guard by all the activity. So some people find it helpful to use a little imagination to help them meditate. For example, instead of counting or following your breath, you might prefer to imagine a peaceful scene, perhaps floating in a warm lagoon, until the noise of your mind quiets down.

Meditate for fifteen minutes a day, perhaps early in the morning before the rest of the house wakes up, or late at night when everything has quieted down. If that's too much, do it once a week if you like. If you want, do more. Don't get frustrated. And don't get competitive, either. Don't start looking forward to some grand explosion of enlightenment. If you have great thoughts, fine. Write them down, if you like. Then go back to breathing. If you feel powerful emotions, wonderful. Then go back to breathing. The breathing is enlightenment.

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The Ananda Sutta

Ananda, Buddha's cousin, friend, and devoted disciple, once asked him if there was one particular quality one should cultivate that would best bring one to full awakening. Buddha answered: Being mindful of breathing.

"There is the case where a monk, having gone to the wilderness, to the shade of a tree, or to an empty building, sits down folding his legs crosswise, holding his body erect, and setting mindfulness to the fore. Always mindful, he breathes in; mindful he breathes out.

"Breathing in long, he discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, he discerns that he is breathing out long. Or breathing in short, he discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, he discerns that he is breathing out short. He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the entire body, and to breathe out sensitive to the entire body. He trains himself to breathe in calming the bodily processes, and to breathe out calming the bodily processes.

"He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to rapture, and to breathe out sensitive to rapture. He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to pleasure, and to breathe out sensitive to pleasure. He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to mental processes, and to breathe out sensitive to mental processes. He trains himself to breathe in calming mental processes, and to breathe out calming mental processes.

"He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the mind, and to breathe out sensitive to the mind. He trains himself to breathe in satisfying the mind, and to breathe out satisfying the mind. He trains himself to breathe in steadying the mind, and to breathe out steadying the mind. He trains himself to breathe in releasing the mind, and to breathe out releasing the mind.

"He trains himself to breathe in focusing on inconstancy, and to breathe out focusing on inconstancy. He trains himself to breathe in focusing on dispassion, and to breathe out focusing on dispassion. He trains himself to breathe in focusing on cessation, and to breathe out focusing on cessation. He trains himself to breathe in focusing on relinquishment, and to breathe out focusing on relinquishment."

(adapted from The Samyutta Nikaya 54.13,)

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Obstacles

The Five Hindrances (Nivarana) are the major obstacles to concentration.

1. Sensual desire (abhidya)

2. Ill will, hatred, or anger (pradosha)

3. Laziness and sluggishness (styana and middha)

4. Restlessness and worry (anuddhatya and kaukritya)

5. Doubt (vichikitsa) -- doubt, skepticism, indecisiveness, or vacillation, without the wish to cure it, more like the common idea of cynicism or pessimism than open-mindedness or desire for evidence.

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For more original sutras on Buddhist meditation, see the following:

The Arrow -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn36-006.html
Analysis of Mental Faculties -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn48-010.html
The Ship -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn22-101.html
Analysis of the Frames of Reference -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/sn47-040.html
The Relaxation of Thoughts -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/majjhima/mn020.html
The Simile of the Cloth -- http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/majjhima/mn007.html

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Resources

climber

Apr 19, 2008 - 12:37pm PT

'Cause when I'm climbing, I'm not at work NOW! Thus, I am happy.

Brutus of Wyde

climber

Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA

Apr 19, 2008 - 03:30pm PT

To quote myself --

"They seek those moments when time stands still.
The catalysts are as varied as the individuals who pursue this path: a meteor shower; a
night sky so star-filled that it snatches your breath; another rise of the sun over distant
mountains vast and untouchable; dodging a rock careening crazily down a gully; a
desperate icy struggle through whiteout and ground blizzard down to the safety of camp
after an unsuccessful summit attempt; standing atop a mountain with a friend, the whole
world at your feet, a blinding sun blazing out of a flawless sky, taking the time to watch
that sun dip below the horizon even though camp is still many miles and many thousands
of feet distant; stumbling over boulders and through brush in the darkness; watching the
starlight and the storm wrest for possession of the night sky, seated on a narrow ledge
beside your rope-mate with only the clothes on your back for shelter, shivering the night
away, knowing that, sometime in a distant place you cannot now touch, the world will
once again grow bright, the sun will rise, and you will look out on the infant day with
new eyes."

The NOW is the only contact that we humans have with eternity.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Apr 19, 2008 - 03:35pm PT

I guess the point of bringing up this "Be Here Now" stuff is to note that when you experience that climbing gives you a higher experience by forcing you into the moment, that you can actually learn to be more present in EVERY moment and that even our miserable work can be bearable if we accept our reality and be centered in ourselves while doing it.

Or be centered in ourselves while quitting it and accepting a more modest lifestyle.

We don't have to settle for a few bright moments of fulfillment in a life of menial drudgery and stress.

peace

karl

Rocky5000

Trad climber

Falls Church, VA

Apr 19, 2008 - 09:08pm PT

Yeah, that's pretty much it - read Jiddu Krishnamurti, Lao Tzu, Chuang tzu etc., but don't, for the love of Vishnu, sit cross-legged concentrating until you need an atomic mental enema; instead go out and relax in the world, let it all in; maybe the 'now' will drench you, and time relax its grip on your mind. Or maybe not. Unclench your fist, let your brain play. Climbing does that for some people, but by no means all. I kind of doubt that it works in a gym, though. Something about the sky and the light.

Soften the glare.

cintune

climber

the Moon and Antarctica

Apr 19, 2008 - 10:25pm PT

The satori part is all about the movement. Even in a gym if the route setters have a clue.

TGT

Social climber

So Cal

Apr 19, 2008 - 10:31pm PT

It produces pleasurable neurochemistry.

The rest of this discussion is the philosophical quasi-religious equivalent of masturbation.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Apr 19, 2008 - 10:54pm PT

"The rest of this discussion is the philosophical quasi-religious equivalent of masturbation."

Probably still beats work

No pun intended on the "beats"

nutjob

Stoked OW climber

San Jose, CA

Apr 20, 2008 - 03:55pm PT

I think Karl and Khanom are hitting closest to the mark so far.

In my experience, I've had to do a lot of demon-releasing to clear up the voices that clutter a quiet mind and living in the present. I have known very few people who were willing to discuss or acknowledge that kind of stuff, let alone making the effort to confront it head on and deal with it... this to Khanom's point.

It is an ongoing thing, not a one-time enlightenment. I used to feel angst about my failures to live in the moment more often, living a spiritual ideal. I now chalk it up to part of our human experience on this roller-coaster of life, and I don't beat myself up about it. I accept the times of living in imbalance and the stress associated with chasing material wealth or dealing with family conflicts as part of life. If our spirits required perfection, they wouldn't come down for a field trip to earth.

I think some people in pursuit of spiritual perfection isolate and insulate themselves from the things in life that can bring stress. To me, this is the spiritual equivalent of going to see a movie with no plot, humor, or action. Or like going on a climbing trip with bolts every 4 feet. It's less scary, less uncomfortable, but do you look on the time as memorable and well spent? I guess I'm starting to blow smoke now... if you can look back on what and how you did it and be happy, then your spirit got it's money's worth.

One closing thought: just keeping that metaphor alive in me, that our spirits are down here on earth having a grand field trip because it gets boring up in the cosmos, does a lot to give me comfort during times of earthly stress and discomfort. It makes it easier for me to accept stuff with grace and humor when there's not much else to do.

Knave

climber

Bayarrhea

Apr 20, 2008 - 08:02pm PT

Now does not pass if you ride it like an unbreaking wave.

Lost Arrow

Trad climber

The North Ridge of the San Fernando

Apr 20, 2008 - 08:15pm PT

In Masturbation is not one in the Now?

In REALITY if one is focused such as Lead Climbing you are not in the now. To be in the now you have to be observing, not acting. Climbing is a lie.

To evolve you need to Meditate.

Juan