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Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

health.harvard.edu

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Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#21

Post by closeparen »

skadamou wrote: post #4

Articles like this pop up on my news feed from time to time and I am always interested to read them to see if there is any kind of concrete action item I can take in order to reap the benefits these types of articles espouse. I'm usually disappointed. I've tried meditation off and on for around a decade and still don't quite "get it." I know my experience is entirely anecdotal but articles like this always feel very…

Do you notice any difference in how you feel between scrolling through HN/Facebook and reading a novel? I'm not a regular or disciplined meditator, it hasn't been life-changing, but it can definitely take me out of a state like the former and put me into one more like the latter.

My understanding is that regular and sustained practice can make this state your day-to-day baseline.

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#22

Post by ternaus »

I tried to learn how to meditate a few times. It did not work so far.

A few friends told me that they have a similar problem, but after Vipassana they were able to get the idea and started meditating regularly.

Sadly the pandemic made all the Vipassana places to close.

I hope that in 6 months they will start to reopen.

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#23

Post by akvadrako »

skadamou wrote: post #12
pmoriarty wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What technique of meditation did you try? There are probably dozens if not hundreds of different ways of meditating, and many mistakes one can make in implementing those techniques. If the one particular way you tried did not work for you, I would not necessarily jump to the conclusion that no kind of meditation would work for you, or that there was no room for improvement in your technique. Sometimes going to a teac…

The closest I've ever come to really using a "technique" to meditate was in college when one of my roommates went to a transcendental meditation retreat and tried to teach us how to meditate like he did at his retreat. The last time I tried meditating though was on the headspace app though I'm not sure what technique you would call that. The vibe I'm getting is that the best way to get started with meditating is prob…

Meditation isn’t easy. I never saw it’s power until 6 days into a Vipassana retreat where you do nothing but mediate, eat and sleep, including no talking or reading.

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#24

Post by circuit8 »

skadamou wrote: post #13
circuit8 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally get where you're coming from. I really recommend the Sam Harris "waking up" app. Really helped me and I think it appeals to the more skeptical and rational people you find on HN.

Is "waking up" significantly different from apps like headspace? What about "waking up" helped you so much?

Basically the principles behind meditation are explained at a much deeper level, and in a way that allowed me to transfer it more into my every day life. Headspace seems to just revolve around following the breath, whereas this is just a small chunk of what the waking up app teaches you. I recommend giving the free trial a go and see what you think.

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#25

Post by james_s_tayler »

skadamou wrote: post #4

Articles like this pop up on my news feed from time to time and I am always interested to read them to see if there is any kind of concrete action item I can take in order to reap the benefits these types of articles espouse. I'm usually disappointed. I've tried meditation off and on for around a decade and still don't quite "get it." I know my experience is entirely anecdotal but articles like this always feel very…

Just do it the high tech way by using Cardiac Coherence apps like Inner Balance. Scientists studying Heart Rate Variablity (HRV) looked at all the highly skilled groups of mediators in the world and found basically the same thing - they all breathe at their resonance frequency and that puts their HRV in synch with their breathing and spectral analysis shows a pattern of electrical activity in the heart with a very narrow band around 0.1 hertz.

Cardiac Coherence apps basically hook you up to a sensor capable of detecting this and then allow you to pace your breathing at your resonance frequency to enter a state of cardiac coherence. Apparently it works wonders.

I'm going to take it up very soon.

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#26

Post by l_davis »

skadamou wrote: post #15
rabidrat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mastering the Core Teaching of the Buddha might be up your alley. I won't strictly "recommend" it, as the path it espouses is intense and engineered for enlightenment, which is (perhaps ironically) "no fun", in contrast to modern western mindfulness meditation with phone apps which is pleasant and relaxing but won't get you anywhere. But if you want results and are willing to put in the work (which is 1000x the effor…

Thank you for suggesting this book. I'm not 100% sure what to make of it but it's all available for free online and the introduction is really intriguing. If nothing else, I now know something exists that I didn't before. https://www.mctb.org/

Wow. The author of this book calls himself an arhat. That is, shall I say, presumptuous? Not what I think I would look for in a Buddhist teacher (though, full disclosure, I practice Buddhism with a school I am very happy with so already have some opinions on the subject).

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#27

Post by rabidrat »

l_davis wrote: post #26
skadamou wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for suggesting this book. I'm not 100% sure what to make of it but it's all available for free online and the introduction is really intriguing. If nothing else, I now know something exists that I didn't before. https://www.mctb.org/

Wow. The author of this book calls himself an arhat. That is, shall I say, presumptuous? Not what I think I would look for in a Buddhist teacher (though, full disclosure, I practice Buddhism with a school I am very happy with so already have some opinions on the subject).

His whole schtick is "plain talk about enlightenment". I agree that it "sounds" egotistical, but if someone really had attained arhatship, and thought that the best way to promote spiritual training was to talk about it in a plain way, I don't think he's being unreasonable. And his lineage confirms his attainment.

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#28

Post by l_davis »

rabidrat wrote: post #27
l_davis wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. The author of this book calls himself an arhat. That is, shall I say, presumptuous? Not what I think I would look for in a Buddhist teacher (though, full disclosure, I practice Buddhism with a school I am very happy with so already have some opinions on the subject).

His whole schtick is "plain talk about enlightenment". I agree that it "sounds" egotistical, but if someone really had attained arhatship, and thought that the best way to promote spiritual training was to talk about it in a plain way, I don't think he's being unreasonable. And his lineage confirms his attainment.

Can't tell what his lineage is from what I have read.

The temple that I belong to was founded in Japan. The honorifics we use to describe our High Priest and other priests are never used by then to describe themselves. That posture is consistent in Japanese society in general, not just the sect of Buddhism I belong to. So this does seem very strange to me.

Re: Regular meditation more beneficial than vacation (2016)

#29

Post by rabidrat »

l_davis wrote: post #28
rabidrat wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His whole schtick is "plain talk about enlightenment". I agree that it "sounds" egotistical, but if someone really had attained arhatship, and thought that the best way to promote spiritual training was to talk about it in a plain way, I don't think he's being unreasonable. And his lineage confirms his attainment.

Can't tell what his lineage is from what I have read. The temple that I belong to was founded in Japan. The honorifics we use to describe our High Priest and other priests are never used by then to describe themselves. That posture is consistent in Japanese society in general, not just the sect of Buddhism I belong to. So this does seem very strange to me.

America is very different from Japan, and Americans respond to different social signals when choosing who to follow. This obviously a terrible idea for society in general, but you gotta promote to the market you're in :/
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