The best thing I learned from meditation

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What helped me the most from meditation is that I'm a lot better handling things.

Especially to the bad things that happen.

When bad things happen, we tend to be upset, angry, worried...

The mind usually travels towards the negative.

But when you practice meditation, it helps you not to let your mind travel to the negative.

It tries to go in that direction, but goes back to neutral.

Because things happen, but how you view that situation is up to you.

When I started to realize this, it made a huge impact on my outcomes.

Off to a temple in Bangkok

Awhile ago, I flew to Bangkok to go to this Vipassana Meditation Center. I had just went through the worst day of my life from a business failure. 

I'm originally not really a meditation guy. I didn't really want to fully commit to meditation yet, so I found a free session of the Vipassana meditation and I just needed to make a donation after the 2 hour session.

When I experienced meditating at the temple, my mind would wonder around from one place to another, quite frequently.

The monk will tell us that it's only natural for that to happen. It's ok. Whatever is going through the mind, it's all right. 

The important thing is that I observe what is going through my mind, and acknowledge it. Makes sense as things will happen and the mind wanders around. 

Then the monk will tell me to try to go back to neutral when the meditation started. At the time this was nothing special. But overtime I'm better at not reacting to things happening. It's more about observing what's happening, staying calm, and selecting what the best action is for the best outcome.

What helped me the most

What helped me the most is that I'm better at handling challenges.

And being better over time is resulting in me being generally in a better mood than before.

I used to get angry, upset, or sad from bad things happening but instead of being happy about good things and unhappy about bad things, trying to be neutral leads to long term happiness.

It's the same thing when shits happen. Instead of reacting to it and letting the mind flow with the situation, it's better to try to go backwards, letting the mind stay as calm and neutral as possible.

So... What should I do for the best outcome?

Shits happen all the time, to everybody.

But when you are calm, you have a better chance of choosing the best action to solve the situation.

Having that few moments of "ok.. so what am I going to do?" lead to the best problem solving. Here are some examples.

  • Keep going with the flow and talk it through
  • Show anger or aggressiveness 
  • Bring another person that could better solve it
  • simply walk off from the matter

Before reading about Buddhism and experiencing meditation, I tend to choose the first two.

But I choose the third or the fourth most of the time now.

It's a must that I stay logical and reasonable to come to a compromise.

I still have occasions that the outcome is away from what I want it to be.

But the Buddhism books write one of the most important things is to release obsession or expectations. It is what it is.

How I actually got into Buddhism

You never know such a small incident gives you a valuable lesson.

My trip to Bangkok visiting the temple was actually from a book I came across. 

I'm glad I started this small habit of reading random books whenever I had spare time. 

The condo I lived in had a mini library that residents could freely access. I'm not sure if it was the management or the residents deciding which books to put there, but I'm grateful that there was a good book about Buddhism there.

I had no idea taking ten minutes to read a chapter of that book whenever I had spare time would have a huge impact years later.

What sounded somewhat "odd" and kept me reading was that the book stressed that Buddhism is an education on how to find the root cause of sufferings and shares relevant approaches to overcome them. The book said it isn't completely accurate to take Buddhism as a religion.

I always thought Buddhism is a religion like we are taught in Japan, but it actually is an educational and practical way on how to approach the daily happenings.

Have good habits and build on it

Learning Buddhism has been a good habit I picked up.

The biggest benefit was that I'm better at controlling my emotions especially when bad things happen. (It's also helping me to not be carried away with good things happening)

Being able to control my emotions is leading to better actions that solve the problem in the best way it could.

Which lifted my overall mood than before.

When I look back, the Buddhism habit derived from deciding to commit to one small habit which was to exercise just one HIIT training per day.

So I look forward to the next good habits that derive, and will share it here again.

I will share what I learned about Buddhism

I'm still in the learning stage of Buddhism.

I read books and listen to podcasts in Japanese, and this helps me to make good decisions on my daily happenings.

I plan to spend more time in Kyoto where there is a history of Buddhism, and would like to visit Thailand more frequently to deepen my knowledge.

I will keep sharing what I learned from that experiences on this blog.

Thanks for reading:)

Thanks for reading the content👋

In the blog I will share things I learned especially about finance and life advice. 

Japanese are relatively good savers when it comes to money, and I've been realizing it comes from good habits and mindsets that anyone can learn.

So, over time I'd like to share what I learned, and hope to learn from you, too.

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