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That Misery Called Meditation

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Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#31

Post by lincolnq »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #21
rikthevik wrote: post #19

Does anyone else ever get the desire to throw off the shackles of this Western society, renounce their possessions and go live in a monastery somewhere?

Yes, especially after reading Anathem. Then I realize that my refrigerator is full of delicious things, and that my friends mostly live in Western society.

Do you think it would be possible to replicate the relevant aspects of the math from Anathem? How much money would it take? I bet there would be a decent number of people in the world who would want to commit for a year or two. And I'd like to imagine that there would be some useful research that would come out of it...

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#34

Post by samatman »

philk wrote: post #14

I'm not really sure of the benefits of these big one off things; after seven days meditating you come back into your regular life, surrounded by your old environment and soon end up reverting to your previous mental patterns. It seems analogous to going on a running retreat, spending seven days running all day and then coming home and not running again. It strikes me that it would be more worthwhile to cultivate the…

Think of meditation as a pot of water you're trying to boil away.

A retreat is a chance to get that pot of water to a boil. Once there, a little meditation each day will continue to boil the pot.

Without the focused immersion, a little heat each day might never boil the pot.

Note that this works for languages, physical skills (aikido) and many other complex tasks.

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#35

Post by humblepatience »

carbon8 wrote: post #27
humblepatience wrote: post #10

An interesting description of an experience - all I can say is, a 7 day retreat is probably a really, really bad idea for a beginner

Long meditation retreats for beginners are pretty standard. Repeatedly sticking a toe in the water doesn't really do much, you need to dive right in.

I'm a big fan of `starting out slow.` Jumping into a 7 day retreat is not starting out slow.

It's different for everyone what `slow` is, but if you're not sure if you're ready for a 7 day retreat and you go anyway you might end up like this guy (in the article).

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#36

Post by Estragon »

philk wrote: post #14

I'm not really sure of the benefits of these big one off things; after seven days meditating you come back into your regular life, surrounded by your old environment and soon end up reverting to your previous mental patterns. It seems analogous to going on a running retreat, spending seven days running all day and then coming home and not running again. It strikes me that it would be more worthwhile to cultivate the…

You need both.

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#37

Post by trominos »

philk wrote: post #14

I'm not really sure of the benefits of these big one off things; after seven days meditating you come back into your regular life, surrounded by your old environment and soon end up reverting to your previous mental patterns. It seems analogous to going on a running retreat, spending seven days running all day and then coming home and not running again. It strikes me that it would be more worthwhile to cultivate the…

Meditation is learned skill in a way that "running" in your example doesn't seem to be. Ten days of practice is more than just "ten more days of meditation in my life"; it's a hundred hours of improvement. A more reasonable comparison would be to say that a meditation retreat is like going off and doing math for ten days straight. (I've actually done the latter, and it's shocking how much you can learn and improve in a week and a half if you completely dedicate yourself to something. Total immersion really is very very powerful.)

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#38

Post by Groxx »

samatman wrote: post #34
philk wrote: post #14

I'm not really sure of the benefits of these big one off things; after seven days meditating you come back into your regular life, surrounded by your old environment and soon end up reverting to your previous mental patterns. It seems analogous to going on a running retreat, spending seven days running all day and then coming home and not running again. It strikes me that it would be more worthwhile to cultivate the…

Think of meditation as a pot of water you're trying to boil away. A retreat is a chance to get that pot of water to a boil. Once there, a little meditation each day will continue to boil the pot. Without the focused immersion, a little heat each day might never boil the pot. Note that this works for languages, physical skills (aikido) and many other complex tasks.

And going back into the world analogous to having a cold shower. How much is undone?

Re: That Misery Called Meditation

#39

Post by keefe »

trominos wrote: post #37
philk wrote: post #14

I'm not really sure of the benefits of these big one off things; after seven days meditating you come back into your regular life, surrounded by your old environment and soon end up reverting to your previous mental patterns. It seems analogous to going on a running retreat, spending seven days running all day and then coming home and not running again. It strikes me that it would be more worthwhile to cultivate the…

Meditation is learned skill in a way that "running" in your example doesn't seem to be. Ten days of practice is more than just "ten more days of meditation in my life"; it's a hundred hours of improvement. A more reasonable comparison would be to say that a meditation retreat is like going off and doing math for ten days straight. (I've actually done the latter, and it's shocking how much you can learn and improve in…

and that week was a complete waste of time if you don't have mathematics integrated into your daily life
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