Coaching practices for No Self Meditation
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For No Self Meditation, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Sitting alone with my own mind tends to dredge up self-criticism and uncomfortable stuff, and I come out of meditation feeling more turned-against-myself and isolated than when I started
- I keep treating meditation like a fight to shut my mind off, and I judge each session by how few thoughts I had
- Even in meditation I’m secretly grading myself, chasing some better state, treating sitting as a means to an end
- When I sit quietly I keep assuming there’s a little "me" sitting behind my eyes watching the thoughts go by, separate from them
- I’m comfortable following the breath, but the moment I’m told to drop the anchor and just be present with nothing to hold onto, I either spin off into thinking or go blank
Practices that may help
- Metta at the close — sharing merit and goodwill
End each sitting by radiating goodwill outward, softening any self-critical edge the practice surfaces.
Vipassana Meditation, Made Practical - Avoid the "blank mind" trap
Self-inquiry is investigation, not suppression — don’t try to empty the mind.
Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation - Shikantaza — "just sitting" in the Soto Zen tradition
Sit with complete presence and nothing to achieve — no goal, no technique, no observer separate from sitting.
Open Monitoring Meditation, Made Practical - Experiencing the self as a process, not a thing
In meditation, observe the stream of experience directly and notice that "I" is a label for the stream, not a separate observer of it.
Anatta: The Buddhist Teaching of No-Self in Practice - Releasing the object: sitting without a focal point
Let go of fixing attention on the breath, a mantra, or any other anchor — simply be present.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Working with sensual desire (kamacchanda)
When craving or distraction toward pleasant experiences pulls you out of meditation, use anicca contemplation to see the transient quality of what is craved.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles - Practise inquiry during activity, not only in formal sitting
Bring the "who?" question into the middle of daily activities — it doesn’t require stillness.
Self-Inquiry: Ramana Maharshi’s Path of Direct Investigation - Working with ill will (byapada)
When aversion, irritation, or resentment enters meditation, meet it with loving-kindness for the person or thing triggering it.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles - Precise hindrance identification before applying antidotes
Before doing anything about a meditation obstacle, name which of the five hindrances is actually present.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles
Related concerns
- Ahimsa Meditation
Ahimsa — the principle of non-harming held across Jain, Hindu, and Patanjalian traditions — extends far beyond avoiding physical violence. As a daily practice it means bringing deliberate non-aggression to thought, speech, and action toward oneself and others. The practices are grounded in real psychological mechanisms: non-judgement reduces reactivity, compassion training builds prosocial capacity, and self-compassion buffers the shame that drives self-attack.
- Observer Self Meditation
End each sitting by radiating goodwill outward, softening any self-critical edge the practice surfaces.
Metta at the close — sharing merit and goodwill
- Sila And Meditation
Sit with others regularly — group practice stabilizes individual practice in ways solitude cannot.
Practicing with a sangha (community sitting)
- Blank Mind Wrong Meditation
Self-inquiry is investigation, not suppression — don’t try to empty the mind.
Avoid the "blank mind" trap
- Feeling Of I Meditation
Watch thoughts, sensations, and emotions arise and dissolve without grabbing or pushing.
Non-grasping awareness: letting arise and pass
- Ill Will Meditation
When aversion, irritation, or resentment enters meditation, meet it with loving-kindness for the person or thing triggering it.
Working with ill will (byapada)
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