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> Major commercial players in the meditation space The sheer insanity of this phrase astounds me. There's an industry devoted to meditation. For such a thing to exist, you have to start by convincing people that they're not meditating right. Which means some people are better at it than others and you should worry about not being as good. What's next, competitive meditation?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In regards to (a), isn't it more about not reifying your thoughts and sensations? This might be semantics though; I do agree that the path of not becoming a slave to thoughts and sensations starts with acknowledging them.
Yes, I meant acknowledging thoughts as "things" which you can observe, pay attention to or ignore as you will.
Would that make me better? I have had many colleagues who dedicated their life to meditation and ended up alone and without a career. I don't think they are particularly happy now, and that is because they prioritised the spiritual ideals above anything else, ignoring other legitimate needs. Is it even a good idea to exist as a pure witness detached from anything around you, or to think that you are not really a person?
What I approve of is being more aware, in the present moment. This practice clearly has a purpose. It can lead to less impulsive reactions / more adaptive actions, without so much internal struggle. But the rest is just playing with your mind - mantras, chakras, Kundalini, they are just side effects of the nervous system. They feel transcendent but are just a bunch of feelings.
People should be aware that this does not mean you shouldn't meditate. At least give it a shot. The risk/reward ratio is so heavily skewed toward reward (what are the risks, really?) that you'd be foolish not to try it.
> Major commercial players in the meditation space The sheer insanity of this phrase astounds me. There's an industry devoted to meditation. For such a thing to exist, you have to start by convincing people that they're not meditating right. Which means some people are better at it than others and you should worry about not being as good. What's next, competitive meditation?
> There's an industry devoted to meditation. For such a thing to exist, you have to start by convincing people that they're not meditating right The second sentence does not follow from the first. Why do you think it does?
I believe there are only 2 way to reach truth. 1. experience your truth 2. do statistically sound study to show if your truth is in fact the truth of majority. to challenge and test the use of , meditation and 'Mindfulness', JUST TRY IT on yourself. this won't kill you or cost you fortune. find your own truth. P.S. - I think this magazine Article to be somewhat hocus - pocus. I can't pinpoint what's wrong1 except som…
Between being a placebo and a straight up pseudoscience(if I even were to call it a “science”) in my opinion “mindfulness” is a type of pavlovian conditioning design to establish a self-empathy defense mechanism within our minds. I’ve been to “mindfulness events” for executives and corporate, where people claim to let go of their ego only to look down on anyone who is not as “open minded “ as they are. Overall is ano…
I have practiced meditation for 20 years but I still don't understand what is the purpose of emptiness (I mean I used to think I did but now I'm not so sure). What would be the purpose from a reinforcement learning point of view? A state where I have no likes or dislikes, no goal, no reward signals, where I feel no attraction or repulsion, where the distinction between self and other disappears. An uprooted agent dri…
It’s funny then, isn’t it, that one meditates for no reason at all. Except we could say, ‘for the enjoyment of it,’ and here I would interpose the essential principal that meditation is supposed to be fun. It’s not something you do as a grim duty. The trouble with religion as we know it, is that it is so mixed up with grim duties, ‘we do it because it’s good for you, it’s a form of self-punishment’. Well, meditation when correctly done has nothing to do with all that. It’s a kind of digging in the present; it’s a kind of grooving with the eternal now. And it brings us into a state of peace where we can understand that the point of life, the place where it’s at, is simply here and now."
~Alan Watts, The Art of Meditation
Not really surprised. How do you even do measurements in a brain to see if it has any effect? It's already quite tricky to make sure anti depressants work, so I would not trust meditation. At best you just make people believe doing it will make them better, so as long as they believe it, it might be reassuring enough. I don't tell people to do meditation, I tell them to go to a quiet place outside, in a park or woods…
I consider that to be a form of meditation, even though many seem to think that meditation is strictly limited to sitting in an uncomfortable position in a dark room with your eyes closed.