I took the mindfulness course at Stanford[1] to support my wife who needed it. I was highly skeptical initially, but really enjoyed it. He teaches mindfulness through practice and leaves religious association out of it. It takes practice to become better at it, but it wasn't as painful for me as you described. In mindfulness meditation (at least the way it was taught in that course) the idea isn't to not think about anything or not let your mind wander, but to be mindful that your mind is wandering. It keeps you 'in the moment'. The guided exercises (mp3s and in class) really help make it easier.

Admittedly, I stopped actively practicing shortly after the course ended, but do find it extremely helpful when my mind is racing and I can't fall sleep. 5-10 mins of breathing exercise and I'll be fast sleep.

[1]https://stanfordhealthcare.org/events/scim-mindfulness-medic...

> I was suffering every second,

Do you realize you are probably suffering every minute even when you don't have to sit quietly? It is enough to be away from the rich source of distraction and immediately a kind of anxiety appears, making you seek the next stimulus. Is it ok to live with such a constant need to be fed with this stream of data?

> "Do you realize you are probably suffering every minute even when you don't have to sit quietly?"

Why? Because it's not possible to enjoy it? Because desire is linked to suffering?

Here's the thing. I get why ego can get in the way of enjoying things more fully, and that meditation can help give you a broader perspective on life, but I don't buy into the whole superiority that comes from self-denial. I don't think there's wisdom in shutting yourself away from the world. You can enjoy the chaos, not in some limited way, but fully enjoy it. If you need a simple life to get your kicks then fine, but that's just one model of a fulfilling life, there are others.

> Because desire is linked to suffering?

Unfilled desire is linked to suffering. Filled desires are linked to pleasure, but after fulfilling one desire, another one appears.

It's life. So it's not fulfilling desires but being conscious about how desires are born, and consciously choosing which one to fulfill.

Why can't you enjoy something for what it is? As I said, it's possible to enjoy chaos. You don't know what chaos will bring, but you can still enjoy it as it comes along.

Desire is a misused word. It's used as a catch all for all pleasure seeking, but in reality it's a special type of pleasure seeking, a directed form of pleasure seeking based on craving. If you're a pleasure seeker that doesn't have any strong craving for one type of pleasure over another you're still grouped in with those that are addicted to certain types of pleasure.

In other words, if you enjoy life as it comes, you aren't plagued with the problems of craving, therefore the same rules don't apply.

But you've lost the thread of the discussion.

>> I was suffering every second, >Do you realize you are probably suffering every minute even >when you don't have to sit quietly?

This wasn't about enjoying "life as it comes". This was about being addicted to the next stimulus; exposed by just trying to sit down and meditate for 20 minutes.

You're conflating being able to handle and enjoy some chaos with the inability to tolerate a few moments of peace.

> "You're conflating being able to handle and enjoy some chaos with the inability to tolerate a few moments of peace."

The suggestion was that you suffer even when your mind is engaged in something where this suffering was not apparent. In other words, even when you don't feel like you're suffering, you probably are. I disagreed with this by pointing out that even though meditation has its merits, there are other ways to enjoy your life, and therefore this assumption that you're 'probably suffering' is somewhat of a stretch.

I had the same experience. Though I tried multiple times with different methods, I have never benefited from meditation, or I never felt so, contrary to most studies. Maybe we are in the <0.05 population?

What I basically meant: while meditating was not satisfying at all the afterwards felt great: I didn't had any urge to waste time with Facebook or other unproductive activities.

The biggest problem around meditation is that most are not able to clearly express what meditation is really doing with you.

You're (both) doing it wrong. For starters, meditation is a learned skill. It's not something you can do right off the bat.

Second, it's not about 'not thinking'. It's about being aware of your thoughts, as if watching them from a distance.

Third, you can't not benefit from taking some to sit and quiet your mind. That's as absurd as saying you don't benefit from sleep or rest.

> Third, you can't not benefit from taking some to sit and quiet your mind. That's as absurd as saying you don't benefit from sleep or rest.

How do you know this?

For me personally - the benefits from meditation were obvious but I think that was because I'm pretty neurotic and was in a really stressful life situation.

It was like ibuprofen for my suffering mind. Not that it helped immediately - but after a prolonged practice I noticed that suddenly my mind was not in psychic pain and I could just take the situation at hand without unnecessary added stress.

So, I suppose the perceived results might depend on the life situation at hand (ambient stress factors, so to speak).

> It was a pain, doing nothing, just breathing, keeping focus on your breath and body. I was suffering every second, doing nothing, having no thoughts, no mind wandering. It was so hard and awfully boring

For me, this is one of the main reasons I want to try to take up meditation (I still haven't). It just seems so absurd that simply sitting down and doing nothing would feel so uncomfortable. So, why not do it and maybe discover what is going on.