The Dopamine Detox Challenge *(Science Based)*

Thank you @Bihari .
I wish you all the best in this challenge too!

 

Having Lunch Alone
I am living alone at the moment (I have a gf but I am staying in another city for some time), and today is my first day trying out this challenge. I have to say it feels much more difficult than nofap challenge (well, that might be obvious since it includes nofap).
My usual routine when I have lunch is that I will make some food (usually something simple) while I watch some YouTube video, and then I will eat my lunch alone watching YouTube or Netflix. It felt so strange to do this routine without the entertainment. It felt really empty, I just sat there and ate quietly. And I wanted soooooo much to just open YouTube and watch my favorite channels. I must say, it felt horrible, it's sad, but it's the truth. I guess my brain is so used to having that distraction during lunch time that it made me feel so weird to just eat in silence. I must add that I think I ate slower than usual, that's probably a good thing, I was more aware of what I was eating.
Anyone share this problem? And does it get easier?

 

Day 1 - It was really difficult but I completed this first day of dopamine detox. Avoiding YouTube and sugary foods was specially challenging. I will keep going, I hope it gets easier with time.

 

I don't know much about Tibetan Buddhist meditation but i like to know. Pls don't hesitate to share.

 

It's all in the post, really. Maybe it wasn't the best explanation but I was pretty tired when I wrote it.

Do you have any questions about what I wrote?

Basically, to dive a little bit deeper into Tibetan Buddhist meditation practices, they are generally a lot more colorful than Shamatha meditation with the breath as object but they kind of assume that you're already familiar with Shamatha-Vipashyana. When you have that familiarity, your experience itself actually becomes your meditation, so it's no longer restricted to one object. Your entire sensory experience is included, including your mental activity.

So, in many forms of Tibetan Buddhist meditation, you're also using sound and visualization. But the essence of those practices is still the same, it's always Shamatha-Vipashyana, because there's nothing beyond that, really. The union of Shamatha-Vipashyana is the essence of Buddhahood, which is awakening to reality. So, you could say that in many Tibetan Buddhist meditations, they are meditating on Buddhahood itself. This is possible, because all beings are actually already Buddha. We just don't realize it, and that's why we suffer.

In theory, you should already have a solid foundation in Shamatha and Vipashyana, as well as the cultivation of boundless love and compassion, and the wish to free all beings from suffering and guide them to awakening, before beginning more elaborate practices. That's the best case scenario, I think.

I hope that wasn't too much of a rant and gave you some insights, if you have questions, please ask them.

 

Yeah, it's definitely not a quick and easy thing to learn but definitely worth it. As I said, have a look at Mingyur Rinpoche's YouTube videos if you're interested and I think you will learn quite quickly. He also has an online program on his website: https://tergar.org/

I would recommend you just learn Shamatha with the breath as object at first and only do that for a good while.

 

I feel you man, I think you're far from alone in this. I think many people have this habit. Myself included. It's great that you have the courage to be with that discomfort and not give up. Boredom is not an easy thing to deal with. Especially in our day and age.

Since you are interested in meditation, that is a great tool for learning how to eat mindfully. Eating can be a great meditation practice. That's one way to make it become easier.

 

Dopamine Detox Day 5 - April 30 2020:

I feel like I've been saying this almost every day but really rough day again, roughest day so far. Woke up completely exhausted. Couldn't do my morning meditation practice, and I've pretty much just been on NoFap all morning.

I've been dealing with a really serious medical condition for almost a year now and adjusting to my new normal. I was so happy to be wasting less time and being able to practice meditation first thing in the morning again. I was hoping this challenge could get me back on track with my life. It's great but something is not working. I'm still learning how to work with my medical condition and I think I've been pushing myself too hard.

It's hard for me to rest and feel like I'm doing something meaningful. Resting tends to take me towards flooding my brain with dopamine and then I get into addiction loops. But my body seems to be screaming for rest, so I'm going to have to experiment with this.

I think a good way to rest would be to sit and do absolutely nothing for an hour or so a day, or maybe lie down for an hour or so a day but not watch anything or read anything. Let's see.

 

Hello, man! Welcome to the challenge!
If I may suggest one thing, maybe you could set an intermediate approach, instead of going 'all win' mode. In this times of great uncertainty and anxiety, it's even more important not to be too harsh on ourselves. You already have been dealing with issues about social isolation and loneliness on our present circumstances, I guess. Direction is more important than intensity when it comes to personal development and improvement. Keep it up!

 

If I was asked to give an advice, I guess I'd go on the same line as I stated to @NCK: maybe doing less, on terms of personal commitment and effort, can make things more easy and bearable. As you know from Buddhism teachings, the middle way is the way to go. I don't know your personal life and particular difficulties, but it's a good sign that you have a strong sense of discipline and spiritual enlightenment. Hope to see better days on your challenge. Best of luck!

 

Day 5/30

Today was another good day. I managed to stay busy during most of the time, either by working or doing allowed activities (listen to music, watch one episode of a tv series). I'm having a difficult time managing smartphone use, though, especially WhatsApp. It's one thing to keep conscious and alert about.

 

Hi
Shamatha-Vipashyana is vipasana(breath awareness)? How to do it with visualization?
32 parts of body meditation is good

 

Day 0

 

Back to day 0. I am not sad, I don't feel I failed, but I am restarting my counter. I actually just watched a movie at the end of the day today, but it was a really conscious decision. And I think movies are less toxic to me, I don't end up binge watching like I do with series and YouTube. I even think I experienced more while watching the movie, I could pay more attention.

 

I totally agree with you. To be honest my main goal right now is staying away from PMO. In this dopamine detox challenge I will do the best I can, but it's no problem if I watch some videos or eat something sugary, I think this challenge already makes me more conscious about my actions, and that's already really good for me.

 

Yes, that's a good idea, to think of lunch time as a meditation session.

 

Thank you! I will look into Mingyur's videos. Always good to learn about meditation.

 

Yeah, I'm learning I still need to rest more. Thanks!

 

I'm honestly not very familiar with Vipassana. I've never done any Theravada (or Individual Liberation Vehicle) practices. Did you do a Goenka retreat?

From what I do know, I would say that Vipassana is also a form of Shamatha and Vipashyana combined. A more primitive form maybe, you could say. Vipassana and Vipashyana are actually the same word, just one is in Pali (the language that Theravada teachings were preserved in) and one is in Sanskrit (the language that the Mahayana teachings were preserved in).

To make it more fun, they are sometimes used interchangeably by Tibetan teachers because they're also sometimes not clear on the difference, since in Tibetan, it's called Lhag Tong.

The teacher who was to my mind the most important one to bring Tibetan Buddhism to the west, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, used a lot of Sanskrit terms instead of Tibetan ones because he thought that was more suitable for people in the west. So that's why we use the word Vipashyana.

Vipashyana/Vipassana basically means to develop insight into what the mind really is.

To do that, you first need to develop some stability of mind, that's what the practice of Shamatha is for. It's basically calming the mind by placing it on an object, such as the breath. It's a mindfulness practice, basically.

When you do Shamatha, Vipashyana is actually always there, developing in the background, and I think the same can be said for Vipassana practice, that there's always an aspect of Shamatha there.

I think the main difference is the level of insight that is developed. I would say the level of insight developed through Vipassana is a little bit more crude, and the level of insight developed through Vipashyana is actually insight into the non-dual nature of reality. There is no higher insight actually, than what is developed through Vipashyana. It's the pinnacle of wisdom. After that, meditation practice becomes cultivating that wisdom in every moment.

If the Vipassana technique you were taught is awareness of the breath, it's closer to Shamatha, I would say. But Shamatha and Vipashyana are never really separate.

To practice with visualization in the Buddhist tradition, you really need some personal guidance from a Lama/Guru and there are certain prerequisites. How it works is that you can also use it to develop Shamatha and Vipashyana. Shamatha, by using visualization as the object of your mindfulness, and Vipashyana by seeing the visualization as empty of inherent existence and as the radiance of spacelike, timeless awareness.

You can also develop the union of Shamatha-Vipashyana by seeing that the visualization and the sound of the mantra, as well as awareness itself, are just the radiance of spacelike awareness, and then resting in that recognition.

Something like that.

 

Dopamine Detox Day 6 - May 1 2020:

Was able to get some rest yesterday (out of necessity) and felt quite a bit better this morning. I decided to take it easy today as well and move my workout up to tomorrow. I still had a bit of a busy day so starting to get tired again.

I've adjusted my schedule a bit so I have more free time that I can just fill in with whatever I feel like at the moment, as long as it's meaningful.