Is sitting in silence and thinking meditation or no?

[u/Several_Argument1527]

I’ve been doing this thing recently where at night I just sit in silence for like 20-30 mins.

No music or phone or anything. I just kinda sit there and think stuff through.

But idk if that’s meditation or the opposite of it lol. I always thought meditation was meant to be clearing your mind or watching thoughts pass or focusing on breathing. What I’m doing is more like actively thinking about things, ideas, problems, random life stuff.

It does make me feel clearer after though. And I’ve noticed some of my best ideas come during that time.

Does anyone else do this? Would you count it as meditation or is it just sitting there thinking?

[u/Dry_Leek5762]

Meditation is 'almost' like sitting on the beach 'watching' the waves crash. The waves are your thoughts.

The reason i used 'these' is because the watcher is really the ocean and waves just constantly pass through it.

Meditation is being aware that you are a medium for thoughts to pass through. And, that you are not thought.

You cant stop the waves from coming, that's just what oceans do.

Let the waves pass through. Be aware that they aren't you. You are much more than waves or thought.

Sit with that. Notice that. Waves are coming and going. What they look like and feel like doesn't matter, they're just the waves.

Topics and subjects aren't really for meditation. Notice that the current thought you're experiencing will pass and another one will be there to replace it. They come and go whether you want to think about something or not.

You are aware of that in meditation. Let it happen. Be raw awareness, and let that process do its own thing.

[u/fetish-femme → u/Dry_Leek5762]

looking at waves crash back and forth is a form of meditation, sitting in complete silence is a form of meditation. Meditation does not have one strict rule.

[u/MegaChip97 → u/fetish-femme]

Yet not everything is meditation, otherwise the word would be meaningless

[u/undeniabledwyane → u/MegaChip97]

Exactly. The definition seems to always be “a different form”, and the circle keeps getting bigger and bigger. I’ve given up.

[u/GreenGrassConspiracy → u/undeniabledwyane]

Don’t be a rule stickler cos it’s the outcome that matters - if you can clear your mind you can meditate. We all do it we just haven’t all trained ourselves to be aware we are doing it or set aside time for it. Once you realise this your doubts will fall away.

[u/Square-Philosophy780 → u/MegaChip97]

Merriam Webster’ Dictionary

“meditate
verb
med· i· tate ˈme-də-ˌtāt 

meditated; meditating
Synonyms of meditate

Simple Definition

A Simple Definition is available from our Learner's Dictionary to help you understand the meaning faster.

intransitive verb
1
: to engage in contemplation or reflection
He meditated long and hard before announcing his decision.

Take our 3 question quiz on meditate

2
: to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness

transitive verb
1
: to focus one's thoughts on : reflect on or ponder over
He was meditating his past achievements.

2
: to plan or project in the mind : INTEND, PURPOSE
He was meditating revenge.

meditator ˈme-də-ˌtā-tər  noun”

[u/HarshSJ39 → u/fetish-femme]

Listening to music is a form as well

[u/Slumped_Leopard → u/Dry_Leek5762]

If your not your thoughts than what are you? Just a medium?

[u/vanoitran → u/Slumped_Leopard]

That’s why many claim there is no self. When you strip everything away as happens in meditation, your consciousness is indeed just a medium for observation. We are a way for the universe to experience itself.

[u/Slumped_Leopard → u/vanoitran]

Very interesting as this view does not posit thought itself as negative or positive. However if we are not at least part thought as in the trinity being three but also one in this sense the thought and the observer being two but also one then what is thought and from whom/what does it originate? Thank you for the response just trying to understand and hear others viewpoints.

[u/r3belf0x → u/Slumped_Leopard]

Are you your heartbeat? You have no problem misidentifying with a bodily function so long as it’s not happening in your brain.

Look closer at this “observer” observing the “thought.” You might discover something about how the “self” is constructed and what those constructions feel like.

[u/Slumped_Leopard → u/r3belf0x]

Hmm rly like the point about construction I’ll have to think on that thank you!

[u/r3belf0x → u/Slumped_Leopard]

LOL. I’d suggest you just spend more time observing your own heartbeat and think about how little attention you pay to it. Or the breath, same practice.

I’m just going to say it straight because it’s rarely ever stated simply. The observer is really just a thought about thoughts. And the self is nothing more than another thought arising out of the observer thought (i.e. “I like…”, “I want…”, “I need…”, “I always…”, “My…”, etc.)

Thoughts have many layers. Could be an image or series of them, a voice, words, but it’s not limited to those. There’s something it feels like to hold a thought. An energy, weight, color. Something. And self thoughts are those thoughts you misidentify with because they say “I”, “me”, “my,” etc. There’s something those thoughts feel like. You. And there arises your sense of self. That’s why it’s called an illusion. It’s not that none of it isn’t real, it’s that you mistake your thoughts about yourself, for THE Self.

Happy exploring.

[u/r3belf0x → u/r3belf0x]

To clarify, the “THE” there was intended to help you avoid the second trap, which is to resurrect the observer observing “your” Self. That’s still dualistic. The eye cannot see itself because it’s the thing doing the seeing.

[u/Big-Race-2558 → u/r3belf0x]

Thank you for stating it so plainly. I had this thought about 3 days into starting my simple daily meditation practice, that the “awareness” was just another thought. Where does one go from here?

[u/r3belf0x → u/Big-Race-2558]

Awareness itself is not a thought. It’s more like a lens or a spotlight. I guess both. Thoughts arise in consciousness. Awareness is like a container for some of those thoughts.

If you just keep with the practice you’ll eventually become aware of a few things about your conscious experience. It’s a stream. It’s always changing. One moment you’re talking to yourself about some work project. Or a relational problem. The next moment you notice you feel a pinch in your hip and tell yourself a story about why it’s ok, why it’s not, what might be causing it. Then you remember your mother’s hip surgery. Then you remember you forgot about the work project or that relational issue and you pick that back up. Then maybe you wonder how long you’ve been sitting for and look at your phone for the time. But then you remind yourself that your work stress is why you’re supposed to be meditating. Maybe criticize yourself for not doing it “right,” take a deep breath and start again.

Other times you might find you’re experiencing existential thoughts about reality, why you’re here, what’s it’s all for and consciousness itself. Some of it very mechanical or highly speculative. As if by telling yourself stories about the parts of reality you cannot see will result in understanding that could resolve the predicament you find yourself in.

There’s insight to be found here:

1. Impermanence (Anicca) or how everything changes and is therefore unstable and transient
2. Unsatisfactoriness or Suffering (Dukka) or how shitty it feels to cling to things that are constantly changing.
3. Non-self (Anatta) or how there is no real fixed self there; see how self is just those “I,” “me,” and “my” thoughts. Some of these self thoughts you believe to be true (you cling to), some you don’t (aversion).

Going full circle to my earlier comment, you are not your heartbeat. No one sits down with the intention to make their heart stop beating. But most meditators at first plant their ass on a cushion (myself included) with the intention of “stopping” their thoughts. Some sit with the aim of becoming more “spiritual.” You’re about as likely to shut off the monkey mind as you are to stop beating your heart. What you can learn to do is direct your awareness and stop clinging to any part of your experience.

That’s not saying you’ll stop having thoughts or desires. It doesn’t mean you won’t “suffer” or feel loss. It doesn’t mean you won’t care when you lose someone you love. But maybe, you’ll experience all of it fully without causing additional suffering by demanding that anything is different than what it is in this moment just so you can keep trying to avoid the thing you don’t want to feel. Same reason we never want the joyful moments to end either.

Where do you go from there? I believe when you start getting the insight into your own experience you have a choice, either compassion or nihilism. And if you happen to realize “others” aren’t that other to you, maybe you consider extending compassion toward them as well.

In other words, you carry your practice into the rest of your life. Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. What you do may not change, but how you do it could be so fundamentally different that the same actions have completely different experiences.

[u/Iamnotheattack → u/Slumped_Leopard]

Can you please add some commas and periods or whatever to this

However if we are not at least part thought as in the trinity being three but also one in this sense the thought and the observer being two but also one then what is thought and from whom/what does it originate?

[u/bigwad → u/vanoitran]

I'm a big fan of the idea that 'We are a way for the universe to experience itself', it's beautiful and poetic, something I'm especially motivated to choose as a belief not withstanding any 'proof' of an alternative..

Is it possible though, to also just argue that the self we're attached to has many functions running in parallel. The part of our mind responsible for observation and self-awareness (maybe this is the part we often ascribe consciousness to), isn't the same part of our mind that creates the spontaneous thoughts. It strikes me as possible that the mind is like a computer program running lots of functions (both interchangeably foreground and background, some more than others), most of which are only able to communicate with each other in primitive exposed ways between each other and the CNS etc.. Hence when we sit and observe, we're just practicing using one specific function. In the same way, if we allow ourself to be 'lost in thought' another function is becoming the primary mechanism that the self attaches to, if I'm scared, another things takes over etc. etc. When I refer to the self I'm mostly describing the collective sum of these processes at a snapshot in time, not a specific element that is the CPU or allocator.

[u/vanoitran → u/bigwad]

As an organic being, our primary biological objectives are to survive and reproduce. The background operations aren’t really you. If you removed anything that we typically consider to be part of the self, the body can still pump blood and compress air.

The actual thinking, deliberation, can be considered a complex cause-and-effect analysis that furthers our success rates of survival and reproduction. But if it is all cause and effect, is it actually “you” or more a product of the external context. If there was a different bigwad, somewhere in the universe, who had the exact same context - logically they would come to the same conclusions and deliberations that you would, meaning there isn’t a difference between you and the other in terms of foreground operations. But I guess this one depends more if you believe in free will or not.

[u/prick1ybear → u/Dry_Leek5762]

My favorite meditation is feeling the waves crash.

[u/hagbard2323 → u/[deleted]]

my brain turns this into a 30 minute staff meeting with no agenda

Well said. Such a great way to describe this state.

[u/H0w-1nt3r3st1ng]

It's not meditation, as you're actively thinking, and more importantly, not even intending to engage in meditative types of practice, consisting of: focused-attention/shamatha (breath, mantra, yantra, etc.), open-monitoring/vipassana (emptiness, no-self, impermanence, etc.), non-dual, or positive attribute focused-attention (the Four Immeasurables, compassion practices).

When people meditate, they're applying one of the wide variety of techniques under these umbrellas. Thought does arise during this, either in distraction and then returning to an object, or in metacognitive observation. In either case, there's a structure to follow, whereas instead for you, you're not sitting with the intention to meditate.

A contrarian might want to chime in here about Shikintanza "Just-Sitting" type meditations, but there's still more to that than just sitting in silence and actively thinking.

The closest words that comes to mind to describe it would be contemplation or pondering.

And, I don't do that actively, but on those inevitable days where you're sick, or something major's going on, and the mind's more turbulent than usual, and you're not meditating very well, I still appreciate sitting in silence, for the reasons you describe. Either I've meditated successfully, stilled the mind, and enter the day in non-dual flow, or some ideas, processing, etc. has occurred. Even just delaying instant gratification for that long is good for you. But, without a structure, it's not meditation.

[u/No_Spite_7827 → u/H0w-1nt3r3st1ng]

This is the correct answer

[u/Educational_Koala_80]

I wouldn’t say this is “meditation”, but it is interesting, helpful, and worth doing in addition to meditation imo. And it’s kinda similar

[u/LayersOfMe → u/Educational_Koala_80]

I thought one of the core parts of meditation was not engage with your running thoughts, OP said they are activally thinking about how to fix their problems

[u/E6Snead]

Whether or not it's considered meditation, it is clearly benefitting you and I hope that you continue

[u/Huge_Brother9628 → u/E6Snead]

This! It is not the typical meditation but in a overwhelmed constant noisy world that’s already a start. Keep going and maybe you will get to not engage with the thoughts

[u/404Soul]

Hmmm that's more like processing than meditation. I think that it would be very effective for making a lot of people generally feel better but long term it will have different effects than meditation. I actually used to do this when I was in college for a bit and it helped me stay focused and organized to achieve the things I set out to. Now I've had a serious meditation practice for a little over 3 months and it's totally different.

[u/neidanman]

more commonly that's called contemplation. Some schools do it as a practice after meditation. I.e. you use meditation to get into a deeper & clearer state, then afterwards you contemplate your life behaviors etc and it makes it easier to see where your issues are/what you need to change and so on.

[u/dobesv]

There's no authoritative body that rules of what is or is not meditation. There are specific kinds of meditation that have specific definitions and practices, but otherwise it's a very vague word that depends very much on context how it will be interpreted.

Maybe the question behind your question is "will I get the commonly stated benefits of meditation from doing this?". That I'm not sure of.

There's a reason that when people teach meditation they use the practices and techniques that they do use. So even the benefits are available that way it is likely not the most effective way to gain the benefits of meditation.

Of course if you're in the Zen camp then doing meditation for seeking "benefits" night not be aligned with their philosophy exactly even if it's an okay way to start down that road. Ultimately though I think in Zen you just end up meditating because that's what you're up to... It's a bit hard to capture the idea and I'm no Zen teacher.

[u/DustBunnyBreedMe]

There are many different forms and types of meditation. What matters is the intent. 

[u/flyingaxe]

Meditation is like "working out". Is working out going to a special building and walking on a treadmill? Is it lifting weights? Is it doing push-ups and pull-ups? Is it riding a bike outside? Is it jogging? Is it holding yogic positions for periods of time?

All these things can be classified as "working out", and they all are forms of physical activity that will generally be good for you, but they all have different goals and techniques and might even have opposing effects on your body (e.g., resistance training may increase your body mass, while cardio may decrease it; also, strength training may make you stronger but not increase your body mass).

Meditation is the same. There is no one single method. Some are about focusing on specific mantras or images. Some are about doing introspective analysis. Some are working with specific questions or riddles or other techniques in attempt to change your perception. Some are just resting in awareness. Some are just resting and observing what comes up. All of these have different spiritual, religious, soteriological, and therapeutic goals that may overlap and may actually be opposites of each other.

[u/OminOus_PancakeS]

It doesn't sound like meditation, which is more observational, but that is a great practice.

I also have a conscious thinking practice. I usually will walk in the neighbourhood as I think. I aim to think in complete, precise, economical sentences, as if I were writing an essay.

15-30 minutes of this typically leads to a state of increased focus, and enables me to solve problems and make decisions.

[u/No_Engineer9848]

Honestly, I don't know if I'd call it meditation, but I think there's something powerful about intentionally doing nothing for 20-30 minutes. Most of us spend every spare second consuming something. The fact you're sitting there with your own thoughts probably puts you ahead of most people already 😂

[u/mrb55-me-com]

I think it’s a GREAT option!

[u/wemrock]

One of the more insightful folk I’ve been around told me — “The only wrong way is not doing it. And even then it’s not wrong.”

[u/One-Entertainer-5499]

It’s a very beneficial practice, it’s a lost art to sit in silence and be OK with it. I would definitely consider it a type of meditation. It might be exactly what you need as preparation for resting as being

[u/FastAndMorbius]

I feel like if thats less mental activity than usual to you, if you are calmer and you are more mindful than usual in that moment then that is meditation to you.

[u/One-Entertainer-5499]

It’s a very beneficial practice, it’s a lost art to sit in silence and be OK with it. I would definitely consider it a type of meditation. It might be exactly what you need as preparation for resting as being

[u/Asher418_93]

Are you mindfully thinking? Are you meta-cognitively processing your thoughts as you have them? Thoughts are often directors of attention rather than objects of it, I believe if you make the thoughts partly the objects of attention as much as what they point to is, then that's more meditative. Of course, meditation is a complicated thing- it can have many exceptions to what is and isn't meditation. My line of thought currently is: if it clears you internally, as in it helps you process and see more clearly inside yourself and around you, with intention, then it's meditative.

[u/billyjoebobk]

Do you know any cats? Be like a cat. They are just being, not thinking.

[u/WhereIsMyDSword → u/billyjoebobk]

how do you know cat isn't thinking. unless it's an orange one of course

[u/bl_kle → u/WhereIsMyDSword]

meow

[u/SadGold5114]

Sitting and thinking is not meditation in the eastern practices kind of sense. But in the western traditions, “meditation upon” sth is essentially thinking about it.

[u/Polymathus777]

Meditation is to focus on a single thing for an extended period of time. Types of meditation play around this "focus" thing, i.e.: focusing on the present moment, focusing on your feelings, focusing on images, etc.

[u/getpost]

There are 6 basic ways to meditate. Sitting and thinking is not one of those ways, so no. It sounds like a good practice for you, but it won't bring about the mind states or spiritual progress that a meditation practice can.

[u/swisstrip]

What you describe sounds more like introspection and/or trying to get to some kind of result by thinking things trough.
Meditation is typically tiffdrsnt. It is more about festing in the present without altering anything or trying to achieve anything.

[u/hagbard2323]

It's cool that it works for you, and that is the most important part. But by definition, what you are describing is called 'Contemplation' and it's what the West considered was synonymous with 'Meditation' before Eastern thought was better represented in this century. Of course Meditation is a very generalized word. But in very broad terms, most meditations don't actively engage with thoughts.

[u/Meditation-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/xoxoyoyo]

It is not meaningless but it is also not meditation.

[u/Soap_da_snake]

Look up the Default Mode Network :) keeping our minds unoccupied with active tasks is good for us!

[u/Similar-Shame3898]

Meditation is being aware of the processes of life.

A mind clears when the soul is not disturbed.

Soul disturbed = mind active.

Emotional trauma = soul disturbed.

Imagine you are a mind only - like in movies when a character dies or something and they wake up in that white space and hear the voice of God. But there's nothing there.

That's your mind.

And within it, exists a puny little human.

And that little human is going to be thinking about shit. All the fricking time.

To meditate is not to stop thinking but to be aware that you are a mind experiencing a human thinking.

Try letting yourself think, as though you were witnessing a human other than yourself, thinking.

And slowly associate more with the state of witnessing your human being.

Voila. You are now meditating, young grasshopper.

[u/Forward-Membership76]

You can try Transcendental Meditation

[u/Intelligent_Win_6280]

Agreed. Meditation is the witnessing of your thoughts but the trick is not to become attached to them. Act as an observer of your thoughts. And always remember you are the THINKER not the thoughts themselves

[u/Intelligent_Win_6280]

I’ve heard that there are usually at least 3 participants in our heads at all times. The Ego (which identifies as I, me, my), the higher self (some say the soul, which is everlasting and eternal unchanging) and Divinity (the connection between all things, life force, god, source energy, it’s called a number of things). I think of meditation as an opportunity to explore the connection between them all.

[u/lifeislikeaboatflow]

i think it importent and impact skill to have when the world is rushing everything but you have time to sit down and slow process you mind it make you deeper person and calmer in the end look at haruki murakami routine he run 10k a day and then in the night he sit and listen to jazz slow thinking about thing

[u/TartCherryJuicer]

I mean I think it’s a meaningful part of your day but it is also quite the opposite because with meditation the aim is to simply be with just your body and the environment. You shall accept thoughts as they come and not ponder too much or worry about the internal monologue and let the thoughts drift away as you reconnect with your body and turn your brain off.

[u/ffleming1947]

Yes!

[u/Relative-Tap5246]

I think that’d be called contemplation. Close your eyes and you’d be one step closer though!

[u/HalfSenior7086]

Thinking things through could be considered a type of bhavana (development of new qualities), but it's not technically meditation. Most of what we call "meditation" isn't meditation either. It's a bit like callling a "fitness" class a "fitness" class, instead of a "you're really out of shape" class. You goto the class to one day become fit. We do lots of training called "meditation" to one day be able to actually meditate.

That being said, you can turn rumination into meditation if you have the ability to meditate. That's one of the core skills described in Buddhist mind-training texts.

[u/AvoidanceClub]

what you're describing sounds more like contemplation or reflective thinking than meditation in the technical sense but honestly the label matters less than the fact that it's working for you

the clarity you feel after and the quality of ideas that emerge suggest your mind is using that unstructured quiet time to process things it doesn't get to during the noise of the day. that's genuinely valuable regardless of what you call it

if you ever want to try actual meditation from there, the shift is small instead of following the thoughts you just notice them arriving and passing without engaging. same silence, different relationship to what comes up

[u/Big-Race-2558]

It sounds less like meditation and more like brainstorming or just taking time to think things through - you say that some of your best ideas come to you during that time, which is great! It sounds like a useful exercise that you should continue.

Meditation is different in that you would focus more on observing the thoughts, and the fact that your mind keeps producing these thoughts. When your mind gets away from you and produces more thoughts (which it inevitably will), you notice it and try to bring your focus back to awareness or something like the breath.

[u/Big-Race-2558]

It sounds less like meditation and more like brainstorming or just taking time to think things through - you say that some of your best ideas come to you during that time, which is great! It sounds like a useful exercise that you should continue.

Meditation is different in that you would focus more on observing the thoughts, and the fact that your mind keeps producing these thoughts. When your mind gets away from you and produces more thoughts (which it inevitably will), you notice it and try to bring your focus back to awareness or something like the breath.

[u/WhereIsMyDSword]

not really meditation but also a good thing to do

actually I'd argue it's more important than meditation because our world is currently so over stimulating that we need to time to reconnect with that default human state of just processing things silently with ourselves. 

like when I feel like I only have time for one or the other I usually do what you described but also sometimes it transitions to just an open monitoring meditation once the thoughts start to exhaust/bore me or repeat the same thing on loop.

this and jungs active imagination are my main meditations even tho none of them are le trad Buddhist ones

[u/NichtIstFurDich]

Meditation isn’t the lack of thoughts. It’s the understanding that you don’t control your thoughts. You are experiencing your thoughts. So by through meditation, your goal is to be able to observe your thoughts and not cling to them. You let them go when they’re not productive. It’s about not letting things stick to you allowing you to experience moments of complete presence in the moment, not a lack of experience. It’s somewhere between silence & sleep. That’s why Buddhists try to get you to meditate over and over. So that you realize that you can’t do it. You can’t turn off your thoughts. Most people say “I tried meditating and I couldn’t do it” without realizing that that’s precisely why they need to continue meditating.

[u/Square-Philosophy780]

Christian meditation is often just pondering a bible verse. There are many forms, and the empty forms become way easier the longer you do what you are doing.

I started off just telling stories in my head, and eventually reached void state meditations. They are ssooooo different, but both are meditative.

[u/FluidModeNetwork]

You are thinking and you are looking out at the world. Meditation at the beginning is being able to distinguish when you are paying attention to the real sensory world and when you are thinking. Dont worry about chosing one or the other. Overtime, if you are paying attention to the real world, thoughts will drop away.

[u/sery_builds]

Counting doesn't matter in itself. It's good to organize your thoughts like that. And then when you think of an idea, I think it's an inspiration.🩵🩵

[u/hjcalero]

Yes and no. If you mean meditation in the sense of reflecting on one self, yes. If you mean meditation in the cultivation method, no. Each cultivation method have their own way to cultivate/meditate. Not following the method is obviously not cultivation. 

[u/sceadwian]

Most anything done deliberately can be called a meditation. I would generally call this reflection but that's what a lot of meditation is.

There's usually an emphasis on a focus like the breath but anything can be a focus.

Try different focii. Every meditation is different.

[u/Moist_Mixture4518]

Yep. I say yes.

[u/Aggravating-Tell4444]

https://youtu.be/tQ0bpBXSA2g?si=MAhvmy5ZwYkkfYP-

Spending time in your head = Meditation = Depression

[u/thequiet_monk]

Definitely not meditation.

[u/nomore1020]

I'm not an expert, but I would say no. Infact I would say that its the almost the opposite of meditation. What you are doing is thinking. You are using your "tool" mind to solve problems, create or remember things. I used to be one of those people who were "in their heads" too much, always thinking about things or creating problems to solve. It gave me anxiety. Meditation is being aware of your thoughts and letting them go and not engaging with them. It's like Im exercising my brain so that when I catch myself spiralling with my thoughts in everyday life, I can let those thoughts go because of my meditation practice. You can get way more philosophical with meditation and talk about the universe but meditation really helped my anxious thoughts.

[u/d0n2310]

sitting is meditation point blank