Did the Buddha ever say excessive meditation is bad?

Question

I believe that I remember once reading that the Buddha abandoned excessive meditation. Is this true?

Answer 1

the buddha says that ''with excessive thinking and pondering I might tire my body, and when the body is tired, the mind becomes strained, and when the mind is strained, it is far from concentration.'' https://suttacentral.net/mn19/en/bodhi same thing with ''excessive energy'' https://suttacentral.net/mn128/en/sujato

he says meditation must be ''made much of'' https://suttacentral.net/arv12/en/anandajoti

Answer 2

MN8 indicates that blissful meditation is incomplete on its own:

mn8: It’s possible that some mendicant, with the giving up of pleasure and pain, and the ending of former happiness and sadness, might enter and remain in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness. They might think they’re practicing self-effacement. But in the training of the noble one these are not called ‘self-effacement’; they’re called ‘blissful meditations in the present life’.

The Buddha goes on to explain that self-effacement is important as well:

mn8: Now, Cunda, you should work on self-effacement in each of the following ways.

mn8: ‘Others will be cruel, but here we will not be cruel.’ ...

The exposition is lengthy, but quite clear. Practice goes beyond meditation.