Is it harder to meditate in a city?

[turtledude23]

I find my mind alot more peaceful when I'm out in nature. Do any of you find a difference in ease of meditation in a city vs. a small town or forest? I think it could be things like the electromagnetic radiation, noise, pollution, and what Ra called aura infringement - alot of people living too close to each other.

[zenmaster]

I find my mind alot more peaceful when I'm out in nature. Do any of you find a difference in ease of meditation in a city vs. a small town or forest? I think it could be things like the electromagnetic radiation, noise, pollution, and what Ra called aura infringement - alot of people living too close to each other.

I look at it as analogous to weight training. To overcome obstacles (to certain forms of meditation) such as those found in the city requires more discipline than the serene, rural environment, for example.

[unity100]

i definitely think it is. a lot of energies, thought forms fly around in the society's mind in cities.

[Jerome]

100% agree.
I have a cottage and I live in a small city. Its like two different worlds during meditation. I can only really meditate in the city just before dawn. All chatter. There is noise in nature, but its more like music.
I wonder if anyone has done a study on this before? I've heard of studies of remote viewers that confirmed the electronic 'noise' heard at 13:30 local apparent sidereal time was a telepathic boost from the galaxy on the horizon. If the remote viewers' accuracy could be measured for time it certainly could be measured (and probably was) for location (city, nature, body of water, at nodal points, etc).

[Meerie]

I think the noise actually helps... because it is easier to meditate without it. So if you can do it with all the noise and chatter then you are good.
I remember once during tai ji lesson, we were doing our exercices in the open, like they do in the East ... some guys went past and making fun of us like yelling and shouting "yes you are soo relaxed, hahaha"....
some of my fellow students actually got pissed and started muttering and I remember thinking "no I am sooo relaxed right now I simply refuse to get angry... thank you guys for giving me an opportunity to try to stay calm despite your noise"

[BrownEye]

I found recently that I meditate while working. I work in a high decibel environment having to wear earplugs. When rebuilding things I zone out since there is no thought involved doing certain work.

I guess the separation of the labor process and thought process made the brain work more smoothly and just start a kind of flow. I had my second enlightenment episode in that fashion, which made me realize I was meditating.

[mysterygirl]

I used to live and meditate in a city - I would sometimes use their central obelisk statue as a transmitter. I think salt baths before meditation can help cleanse the etheric body of most city "static" accumulated- in fact just the intention to clear yourself of city etheric detritus would do.
That said: I'm glad to live in the country now. Stars.

[Liqidzen]

I just switched the power off to my house while we put in solar panels and all of a sudden it felt like the top of my head blew off. I took the opportunity to do some meditation while i waited I could definitely feel it when the power was turned back on, it felt like suddenly there was this heavy squeezing weight on my crown chakra. It feels to me like the electromagnetic radiation in urban areas is the biggest block to achieving the various mind states (alpha, theta, delta) required for deep meditation.

[BlatzAdict]

i feel that those of us who end up in cities have a preincarnational intention to be in the cities to elevate the energy as I find people tend to have a finite range of influence when they are not focusing on clearing the planet but everyday life.

While it is harder to get into the meditative state in the urban environment, it requires a more difficult level of discipline, control, and the ability to simply zone out into that space.

While it's not for everyone, some of decided to take those extra responsibilities.

[Nyu]

I live in a major city so YES it is so hard! The only "nature" I can escape to is the neighbourhood park and there are always people around, or screaming babies, or cars.. Blargh. I cannot wait to be able to go back to the country

[BlatzAdict]

I live in a major city so YES it is so hard! The only "nature" I can escape to is the neighbourhood park and there are always people around, or screaming babies, or cars.. Blargh. I cannot wait to be able to go back to the country

is listening to music count as cheating?

[Nyu]

I sometimes like to meditate to hexvessel, but i don't know if it is a good thing or not.. it seems to work

[Bring4th_Austin]

I just recently moved from a very crowded urban environment, in a house with 4 noisy roommates, to a very rural and natural environment with all of the silence I could ask for.

I feel like going through my "awakening" period in the crowded environment gave me an advantage. Like Zenmaster pointed out, I was able to practice discipline and concentration meditating in such a busy environment. It seemed like whenever I tried to meditate, my roommates would start making some loud racket, someone would start mowing the lawn, some sort of construction was going on outside...it was always something. At first this was frustrating, but as I learned to find my inner silence, the frustration faded and I was able to find peace in the most nerve-racking situations.

Because I became proficient at meditating during busy times, I don't notice much of a difference in meditation out here in the country. I do notice several other energetic and spiritual differences though. I realize that I don't need to set aside as much time to meditate, as I'm surrounded by less distractions and in a natural meditative state much more often. I also have much more energy. I feel like living in a more secluded area allows me to enter into different vibrations I couldn't have done sharing a reality with others. For example, I see what I would consider to be devachanic spirits in my garden fairly often, and sometimes even feel like I'm transcending different planes while doing my every-day activities, seeing waves, vibrations, and geometry. Things like that never happened to me when I was around people in the city.

[BlatzAdict]

I just recently moved from a very crowded urban environment, in a house with 4 noisy roommates, to a very rural and natural environment with all of the silence I could ask for.

I feel like going through my "awakening" period in the crowded environment gave me an advantage. Like Zenmaster pointed out, I was able to practice discipline and concentration meditating in such a busy environment. It seemed like whenever I tried to meditate, my roommates would start making some loud racket, someone would start mowing the lawn, some sort of construction was going on outside...it was always something. At first this was frustrating, but as I learned to find my inner silence, the frustration faded and I was able to find peace in the most nerve-racking situations.

Because I became proficient at meditating during busy times, I don't notice much of a difference in meditation out here in the country. I do notice several other energetic and spiritual differences though. I realize that I don't need to set aside as much time to meditate, as I'm surrounded by less distractions and in a natural meditative state much more often. I also have much more energy. I feel like living in a more secluded area allows me to enter into different vibrations I couldn't have done sharing a reality with others. For example, I see what I would consider to be devachanic spirits in my garden fairly often, and sometimes even feel like I'm transcending different planes while doing my every-day activities, seeing waves, vibrations, and geometry. Things like that never happened to me when I was around people in the city.

interesting.. very interesting