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All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

theguardian.com

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Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#371

Post by tectonicfury »

pmoriarty wrote: post #360
tectonicfury wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically how they con you into it. Using pretty words which appear to have "deeper" and "transcendental" meanings. They entice you with words like mystery, truth, existence, universe, but the TLDG (Too long didn't go) of this rabbit hole called meditation is (wading in) occult practices.

"the TLDG (Too long didn't go) of this rabbit hole called meditation is (wading in) occult practices" What do the words "occult practices" mean to you? Do you consider them bad? If so, why?

Occult practices for me means devil worship and associated rituals. I consider them bad because I consider the devil bad.

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#372

Post by SyzygistSix »

Zelphyr wrote: post #339

I’ve seen mention elsewhere in the comments how this article is flawed because, in essence, if distraction is endemic to humans, how can it be bad? I think the intent of the article is to highlight just how much we are distracting ourselves and in this we’re missing out on a very valuable facet of our lives which is our own thoughts. Taking a distracted, nonjudgmental view of our own thoughts can be powerful. Distrac…

Judgemental notions that are attached to labelling are not always useful, except perhaps to hide the underlying dynamic.

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#373

Post by therealdrag0 »

chris5745 wrote: post #44
camjohnson26 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of the quote is that people use distraction to mask the discomfort of sitting alone with their thoughts and that this distraction causes problems. It’s not saying that the discomfort is a problem.

Distraction isn’t the problem, the inability to face one’s self is the problem, and distraction is the solution. However, even with distraction, there is still insight. It just comes indirectly.

Can you elaborate on why you think distraction is the solution?

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#374

Post by tectonicfury »

pmoriarty wrote: post #354
tectonicfury wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to die one day in your paradise, and the Paradise I am talking about, you don't die after entering it.

"the Paradise I am talking about, you don't die after entering it" Not every religion considers eternal life desirable. In some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism, for example, the ultimate goal is to leave the cycle of death and rebirth.. not in to paradise, but in to nothingness.

Such religions will also never be able to tell you what they are actually about. :)

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#375

Post by karmelapple »

throw0101a wrote: post #288
anthk wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newsgroups had scoring.

> Newsgroups had scoring. News readers had scoring. Neither the NNTP protocol, nor NNTP servers, had a scoring mechanism, and certainly not one that was distributed over the world-wide Usenet infrastructure. If you think otherwise, can you point to (e.g.) an RFC where it is documented?

I didn’t use newsgroups a huge amount, but certainly some, and none of the clients I used ever had scoring. So to me, newsgroups were completely devoid of ranking.

As mentioned earlier, engagement seemed to be the goal. And the newsgroups I frequented were usually about getting help with a tech problem, or helping someone else out, which has largely been replaced by Stack Overflow.

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#376

Post by F_J_H »

wpietri wrote: post #228
maggotbrain wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are commenting here, you haven't really quit "social media".

How helpful to have a person who knows nothing about my situation police my behaviors because of a vague congruence and an apparent desire to score internet points. No, for the purposes of what I'm doing, HN was not included in that. From my perspective, HN isn't really designed for addiction in the same way. No personalized, UAM-optimized algorithmic feed, no infinite river of small content bites, no rich mechanisms…

This otherwise insightful response would have been more persuasive and effective without the first paragraph.

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#378

Post by tectonicfury »

pmoriarty wrote: post #364
tectonicfury wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show us an ascetic who would find this a walk in the park.

"Published in science journal PLOS ONE in March 2013, the study documented reliable core body temperature increases for the first time in Tibetan nuns practising g-tummo meditation... "The researchers collected data during the unique ceremony in Tibet, where nuns were able to raise their core body temperature and dry up wet sheets wrapped around their bodies in the cold Himalayan weather (-25 degree Celsius) while me…

So is it scientific or a mystery?

If it’s scientific then it must be well understood in terms of cause and effect. In which case, it is like any other physical phenomenon, nothing special.

And if it’s not scientific, rather if it’s a mystery, then scientists will have to take a call on what is.

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#379

Post by carapace »

d4nt wrote: post #267
hilbert42 wrote: post #235

"Modern humans spend virtually no time on "inward-directed thought", and not solely because we're too busy: in one US survey, 95% of adults said they'd found time for a leisure activity in the previous 24 hours, but 83% said they'd spent zero time just thinking." I think Pascal was correct because at least those people I know well enough to discuss such matters with tell me they don't spend much time thinking or cont…

I find it disturbing the way a trait that seems to be very common among humans is being framed as a problem. External stimulus means you’re with other humans that you can cooperate with. That you’re sharing stories and learning. That you’re hunting for food. That you’re building a shelter. All these things are necessary for survival. It seems possible that being sociable and industrious might well have been bread int…

It's a problem. That's why doing it (mediation, mindfulness, prayer, sitting zazen, ...) helps!

Watch animals: they meditate instinctively. Dogs, cats, birds, they all do it.

Just like animals all stretch instinctively. (We had some chickens for awhile this year and they stretch too. It's funny: they stretch the wing and leg on one side together, then the other side.)

What I'm saying is, "yoga" and "meditation" are necessary for survival. You gotta remember civilization is only 12K years old, that's nothing in the biological scheme of things. We should be spending a lot more time napping and "zoning out".

Re: All problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone (2014)

#380

Post by michalf6 »

dedev54 wrote: post #7

Sorry for the morbid take, but the reason why we cannot sit quietly alone is to distract ourselves from our eventual demise.

For me it worked to stop identifying "me" with the physical person or my consciousness, instead to identify with my hereditary line - as if I'm only a carrier for information that gets passed on. My reasoning being - natural selection is the only game I can't not play, so it gives me a fundamental goal in life to do well at it. Also helps with avoiding hedonism / addictions.

When I successfully reproduce, I will stop fearing death.

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