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Meditation in the Time of Disruption

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Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#41

Post by sdfin »

X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #16

I'm not sure what the take away was, but I really enjoyed the article. That seems appropriate. I've been doing unguided mediation by myself for short periods (sub 30m) for years. Never really took much instruction in terms of what type of mediation i should do. I think this article is the first thing that really made want to seek out instruction. Any personal recommendations for books/other material for someone that'…

I like how this talk explains meditation and it's progression, with variations on the practice: http://centerforsacredsciences.org/podcasts/Listening%20to%2...

Warning: on the talk, meditation is explained in a mystical context, but the practice is the same whether you share or not that perspective.

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#42

Post by needz »

X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #16

I'm not sure what the take away was, but I really enjoyed the article. That seems appropriate. I've been doing unguided mediation by myself for short periods (sub 30m) for years. Never really took much instruction in terms of what type of mediation i should do. I think this article is the first thing that really made want to seek out instruction. Any personal recommendations for books/other material for someone that'…

Waking Up with Sam Harris. It's an app for iOS. Sam Harris is a very insightful philosopher and neuroscientist. He explains things in a very concise and concrete way that I value above my experience with Headspace.

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#43

Post by claudiawerner »

needz wrote: post #42
X6S1x6Okd1st wrote: post #16

I'm not sure what the take away was, but I really enjoyed the article. That seems appropriate. I've been doing unguided mediation by myself for short periods (sub 30m) for years. Never really took much instruction in terms of what type of mediation i should do. I think this article is the first thing that really made want to seek out instruction. Any personal recommendations for books/other material for someone that'…

Waking Up with Sam Harris. It's an app for iOS. Sam Harris is a very insightful philosopher and neuroscientist. He explains things in a very concise and concrete way that I value above my experience with Headspace.

Is Sam Harris actually a philosopher? I got the impression he isn't, not in the academic sense, anyway. Daniel Dennett is a philosopher.

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#44

Post by needz »

claudiawerner wrote: post #43
needz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waking Up with Sam Harris. It's an app for iOS. Sam Harris is a very insightful philosopher and neuroscientist. He explains things in a very concise and concrete way that I value above my experience with Headspace.

Is Sam Harris actually a philosopher? I got the impression he isn't, not in the academic sense, anyway. Daniel Dennett is a philosopher.

He has a B.A. in Philosophy from Stanford, so he at least has the foundation.

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#45

Post by nsomaru »

subpixel wrote: post #25
tychomaz wrote: post #23

I did transcendental meditation for 17 years. If you want to open the door to deceiving spirits in your life, go ahead and meditate.

I'm curious to know more. But I also think it's important not to paint all meditation with the same brush. Transcendental Meditation® is it's own weird thing.

Meditation and yoga have taken the ‘Western’ world by storm. This is because they are extremely easy to instruct. Close your eyes, breathe evenly, etc.

Those who know (yah pasyati, sah pasyayi - are initiated in scripture and are able to ‘see’) understand that meditation is the end portion of a spiritual path, the last stage before enlightenment.

Every single canonical text mentioning meditation mentions how essential it is to control the mind first, before meditation. Yet most people end up using it as a way to calm down which is not the intended use. It is unsurprising that they end up hurting themselves. Most can’t continue the practise long enough to do that anyways because for a beginner your mind will be jumping within 5 seconds or less.

It doesn’t matter much anyways. Most people are not Really meditating when they attempt to do so, more just relaxing.

Source: Scholar of important ancient Indian texts.

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#46

Post by truth_seeker »

In my experience at least, I have not found any meditation apps transform or transcend my situations. All they provide is temporary solace.

No-mind and Dynamic meditation by OSHO proved very impactful in my life. All it needs is 21 days of sincere effort.

Dynamic - https://www.osho-meditation-festival.com/english-1/osho-medi...

No-mind - http://www.oshomeditations.com/no-mind-therapy

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#48

Post by nickelcitymario »

Rzor wrote: post #24
tychomaz wrote: post #23

I did transcendental meditation for 17 years. If you want to open the door to deceiving spirits in your life, go ahead and meditate.

>If you want to open the door to deceiving spirits in your life Care to elaborate?

I can't speak for the author of that comment, but here's my take:

When you meditate, you're creating in essence an open space in your mind. (A head space, if you will. I will not, because that's pretentious. But feel free.)

That empty space is an invitation to anything out there that wants to fill it. If you're spiritually minded, you might think of it as an invitation to spirits to come and fill your head with new ideas, and wouldn't you know it, evil spirits love that sort of thing.

If you're secular/rational/scientifically minded, just know that if you calm your mind, you WILL get other thoughts replacing the ones you just calmed down. If you sit down feeling guilty, your meditation will likely be dominated by thoughts of guilt. If you're angry, you'll likely obsess about that anger.

The usual advice I've been given is to let it happen. Let those "evil" thoughts come, take note of them, and then let it go. If they come back (and they always come back), note them again, let them go again.

The danger is if we get attached to these ideas. Then they grow and become the basis for depression or anxiety or any number of other ailments.

The opportunity is to be able to see that these thoughts and feelings aren't any more real than anything else; that we don't have to act on them; we don't have to identify with them; we don't have to let them control or even influence how we really feel, think, and act. They're just passing thoughts. We don't have to hop in their car and go for their ride. We can keep walking.

(Fuck, that was pretentious too, wasn't it?)

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#49

Post by vram22 »

bootsz wrote: post #4

A man travels to live at a Buddhist monastery with the hopes of learning to become enlightened. Upon arrival he meets the head monk and asks “How long will it take me to reach enlightenment?” “Hmm...”, says the monk, “...perhaps 10 years.” Feeling this was far too long to wait, the man replies: “But, what if I work twice as hard? Devote myself twice as much to the practice? How long then?” “20 years,” replies the mon…

I read a similar one:

A man goes to get advice from a master who is sitting on the beach. He asks the master: How can I get enlightened?

The master draws a word in the sand with his finger:

  meditation
The man asks: Can you explain it in more detail?

The monk draws:

  Meditation
The man gets agitated and again asks: Can you give me more guidance about it?

The monk draws in larger letters in the sand:

  MEDITATION

Re: Meditation in the Time of Disruption

#50

Post by beatgammit »

kranner wrote: post #7

I don't know how adequate the 10-minute sessions promised by apps like Headspace are in the long run. In my experience, a 20-minute session feels a lot more effective than 2 10-minute sessions, and so on for 40 minutes over 20 minutes, and so on. I found Headspace and similar apps to be a good introduction to meditation for the first week or two, but they really are 'meditation lite' compared to reading some of the c…

Do you have any good suggestions for "the classics"? I've read "Siddhartha", "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", and I'm just about done with "Mindfulness in Plain English".

I'm pretty new to the whole idea of meditation, and I'm still a bit skeptical about it, but I'm willing to go all in for a few weeks to see how it goes.

I feel like reading will help me keep going. I've heard it's good, but I'm really not sure what the goal is, so perhaps further reading will help me "stay on the course" or whatever.

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