Would you say that the ritual that you do for meditation helps solidify to your brain that you’re in the “process” of meditation in any way?
I think so. Having a ritual around it helps with conditioning yourself that when you perform the ritual it’s time to meditate. As I think of it, the ritual creates the space in which meditation can arise.
Also, when you described the “opening of the hands” motion in your mind, is that a concrete thing (for lack of a better word) that you think, or more of a phase transition from the not-meditating state to the meditating state?
So it’s both a concrete thing I’m doing with my brain and something like a phase transition. Like, it both feels like a specific mental action that has a particular shape and feel to it, and it seems to precipitate a change into meditation away from regular patterns of thought. I don’t know that it’s of one type more than the other, but my guess, primed by this question, is that it’s something like a concrete activity that, given the right conditions, catalyzes me into meditation.
I think so. Having a ritual around it helps with conditioning yourself that when you perform the ritual it’s time to meditate. As I think of it, the ritual creates the space in which meditation can arise.
So it’s both a concrete thing I’m doing with my brain and something like a phase transition. Like, it both feels like a specific mental action that has a particular shape and feel to it, and it seems to precipitate a change into meditation away from regular patterns of thought. I don’t know that it’s of one type more than the other, but my guess, primed by this question, is that it’s something like a concrete activity that, given the right conditions, catalyzes me into meditation.