How meditation will help you with NoFap and quitting porn.

ChrisHaven · Dec 25, 2013

I've been meditating for a few years now, and it definitely helped me quit porn and masturbation completely.
I've seen many posts on meditation here, so I thought I'd share my article on meditation and NoFap.

Article below:

When we hear the term “meditation”, we tend to imagine ourselves(or someone else) sitting cross-legged in silence or chanting some mantra. Well, there’s a lot more to meditation than meets the eye and if you’re trying to quit porn, meditation is one of the most powerful tools you can use to reach your goal.

In order to understand how meditation works as a tool to quit porn, you’ll have to keep an open mind. Although this is a short article, it may get deep at certain points. Most therapies for porn addiction employ some methods and techniques from meditation inadvertently, but very few advocate or are even aware of using meditation as a stand alone treatment for porn addiction.

Initially, you may start using porn for a number of reasons, but eventually, porn use becomes a reaction to the uncomfortable body sensations which result from the constant interconnection between mind and body , and the thoughts which accompany these reactions. You don’t get addicted to any kind of inherent quality in porn itself; although it can sometimes seem that way, such as “I’m addicted to watching transvestite porn”. You get addicted to the sensations in your body. By watching porn, a certain kind of biochemical process starts in the body and you experience a sensation which you develop a liking for. You first develop a craving for it, then a habit and finally get addicted to the sensation. Addiction is therefore a continuum: you want to enjoy the sensation again and again.

Ok, brace yourself for some deep stuff. In physics, it has been recognized that the objective and subjective cannot be separated. Recent scientific studies support this important point; that any experience that arises in or consciousness is a subjective experience, not part of an independent external world. Although we experience the outside world as a series of sensory objects, what actually comes to our senses is energy in the form of vibrations of different frequencies.

The unconscious mind, which is still beyond the understanding of modern science, is in constant contact with these energy schemes, often simply described in modern physics as heaps of statistical probabilities. These vibrations carry no subjective information, they just carry objective value. They trigger neural codes, which are transformed by the brain and its judgements into a model of an external world.

This model is given a subjective value and projected outwards to form the subjective world. Unfortunately, we call this mixture of subjective and objective components the objective world. From the fact that many of us see a similar external world, we can only deduce that we have similar models. The similarity of models does not necessarily imply the uniformity of the world that gives rise to those models.

Porn addiction means addiction to a certain type of vibration that has been created by the drug use and the subsequent chemical processes in the body. The addiction has gone to the deepest level of the mind, and there is every likelihood of it becoming rooted in the deep unconscious. As meditation reaches the unconscious level of the mind by working with the sensations, it can remove the roots of addiction.

The deepest level of the mind is constantly in contact with bodily sensations. As we develop awareness of the sensations and observe them with equanimity, the porn addiction at the subconscious level is automatically removed.

This interrelation of mind and matter is the key to meditation and it was a crucial significance in the teachings of the Buddha. “Whatever arises in the mind is accompanied by sensation.”. Therefore, observation of sensations offers a means to examine the totality of one’s being, physical as well as mental.

When you, as a porn addict understand that observing yourself at the level of sensation is the key to coming out of addiction, and begin to work on sensations with meditation, you will begin to recover. Be aware that mediation is not some kind of magical cure or miracle. Progress requires a strong will to come out of addiction, and also a strong will to work towards this goal by observing yourself at the level of sensations.

Mark · Dec 25, 2013

Really excellent article Chris! Thanks for posting it. You covered a LOT there in few, clearly explained paragraphs. I hope this helps more people discover and incorporate regular meditation practice into their daily lives etc

ChrisHaven · Dec 25, 2013

Thanks jiltedjohn! I really hope more people apply meditation in their lives consistently as well!

Jason2 · Dec 25, 2013

Thanks for the info, Chris!

Mark · Dec 25, 2013

ChrisHaven said: ↑

Ok, brace yourself for some deep stuff. In physics, it has been recognized that the objective and subjective cannot be separated. Recent scientific studies support this important point; that any experience that arises in or consciousness is a subjective experience, not part of an independent external world. Although we experience the outside world as a series of sensory objects, what actually comes to our senses is energy in the form of vibrations of different frequencies.

The unconscious mind, which is still beyond the understanding of modern science, is in constant contact with these energy schemes, often simply described in modern physics as heaps of statistical probabilities. These vibrations carry no subjective information, they just carry objective value. They trigger neural codes, which are transformed by the brain and its judgements into a model of an external world.

This model is given a subjective value and projected outwards to form the subjective world.
Click to expand...

Hi, I hope you don't mind but I just wanted to help clarify the above in particular for the benefit of people new to this who might, totally understandably, find it confusing which would be a shame as its such a good article and people needn't be put off (not that they have been etc)

Chinese calligraphy offers a good example of how this works. Take for instance the Chinese symbol for 'chi' which actually depicts steam rising from boiling rice.

How does that image convey a particular 'word' you might ask?

Well, strictly speaking, it doesn't.

Chinese writing (and similar) is much more symbolic than the writing you are reading now and is therefore more open to 'subjective ' interpretation.

Going back to what Chris explained above the symbol for 'chi' in Chinese is a 'statistical probability' and is an objective vibrational 'container'. Ok, you could say that each word you are reading now contains several possible subjective interpretations but Chinese characters probably convey this principle more graphically?

Our mind receives the vibrational information provided by the symbol and then interprets it according to it own subjective 'evaluations', context etc and so the symbol for 'chi' ('ki' in Japanese) can, and does have various possible interpretations which include energy, life force, life essence, and influence. The symbol itself is 'loaded'with information (and Hitler and his controllers used this to devastating effect) but it is only our perception that gives our own individual interpretation (depending on just how 'loaded' the actual symbol is as in advertising) So the subjective interpretation the mind makes of this objective vibrational pattern will be slightly (or even vastly?) different for everybody and going back to Chris's article the objective 'world' is experienced differently by every subjective interpretation of it and therefore there in no completely objective reality.

You could say the vibrational pattern of the symbol is similar to that of the sound/vibration a tree makes when it falls in a forest. Does it make a sound if there's no-one around to perceive and therefore 'interpret' the vibrations??

Chinese calligraphy also engages both sides of the brain and is therefore a more holistic model and indeed the oldest book in the world, the I Ching was designed partially to ensure its users engaged whole brain thinking when trying to solve problems etc.

A very interesting point regarding this is that as you read this ask yourself what it is you are actually 'seeing'? This might sound like a silly question but if you look at pictures of Chinese calligraphy (again because they illustrate the point more graphically) you may notice that you focus predominantly on the black brushstrokes. What we may not consider is the relevance of the white background, the no-thingness that without we couldn't have the writing that we perceive to be the single most important part of the picture. In Yin and Yang terms the black writing is Yang(male) which is the creative/doing primal energy and the white background is Yin which is receptive/being and these are of absolute equal importance being totally interdependent and complimentary.

So when you are looking at it our minds are conditioned to notice/focus primarily on Yang/male/doing and we kind of take the white background for granted and even subjugate it in our minds. And because we are so focused on 'doing'/achieving in our society rather than 'being' (which NEED to be balanced) we have created a situation in which we live in a 'mans world'.

How does this relate to pornography. Well, DON'T go watch any but cast your mind back! Were the women you saw being treated as 'equals'. Was the sex you saw portrayed anything other than a purely physical act (Yang) completely devoid of anything remotely resembling caring/nurturing etc?

Now I did this to help clarify it and I've probably made it even more confusing!! (depending of course on your subjective interpretation of the objective squiggles of vibrational information patterns you were reading?!?!)

I guess i just hope that if you read this after finding the above a little confusing then go back to Chris's short but informative article it might just help make it a little bit clearer because its such a good article it would be a wasted opportunity to overlook it etc

I'm going to bed, I've just tired myself out

Mark · Dec 26, 2013

Related thread for anyone interested http://www.nofap.org/forum/showthread.php?2533-Meditation

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How meditation will help you with NoFap and quitting porn.

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