Earlier quoted context omitted.
mindfulness is almost an opposite of thinking.
No. Mindfulness is "thinking when thinking, walking when walking, shitting when shitting".
That’s more like Zen Buddhism
Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
111–120 of 148 posts
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Enlightened” people have existed in all walks of life, not just Buddhism. In fact one could see Buddhism as annoyingly codifying into a religion that which is natural and obvious. Just like Christianity.
I agree, enlightenment can happen many different ways. I see Buddhism as just one collection of strategies to achieve it. But I don't agree that it's obvious. It's so non-obvious that people have been trying to teach it to everyone without charge for 26 centuries without much luck.
Indeed. The only time I have ever achieved enlightenment was when I took a pill of hydromorphone.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#113Is there any evidence mindfulness as taught and practiced by, well, those who teach and practice it, is good for anything ? Keep in mind (no pun intended) - if your example is someone who was already successful, and they remain successful, that's not terribly good evidence.
> Is there any evidence mindfulness as taught and practiced by, well, those who teach and practice it, is good for anything? Well, the 26 centuries of Buddhism, and all those monks and laypeople. I'm not sure if you consider all that they've said and written to be evidence , but I think you should.
By that logic we have proof that tiger dongs cure erectile dysfunction.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#114A lot of these posts here on HN regarding meditation and mindfulness sound like what you would hear from an 'intergalactic encyclopedia salesman'. Just a different faith. It's dressed up in the mystery of 'teachings' and 'feelings' and other vague notions. It feels like someone has set up an industry that's raking in a lot of money and all the converts perpetuate it. Perhaps they buy into it or maybe they try to just…
Personally when I see multiple belief systems arrive at the same general (if vague) conclusions I take it as a sign that they’re probably all on to something.
Human sacrifice has been practiced by cultures in every single continent!
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#115I have always doubted full Mindfulness. I meditate irregularly. Some of the best ideas in my life came to me when I was not thinking about it- while walking, cooking, or in shower. If I had fully focused on those tasks only, those ideas might have had eluded me. OTOH, always thinking about something is unhealthy. I find a comfortable middle ground in times when it is required. If Archimedes only focused on the warmth…
I have discovered many a bug in the code I’d written while mindlessly staring out of the window of a subway car on my way home.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#116The end goal of mindfulness is to make you realize that you don't exist and that you have no free will, and there is no "you." With enough practice you will get there, and it's interesting to be able to meditate to the point where you briefly experience periods where you don't exist. Overall, while of course it's true that we have no free will and there is no "you", it's a terrible place to leave someone, especially…
At a somewhat deeper level, you realize that there are many forms of non-existence. Yours is different from, say, that of Napoleon, and also from that of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Is there any evidence mindfulness as taught and practiced by, well, those who teach and practice it, is good for anything? Well, the 26 centuries of Buddhism, and all those monks and laypeople. I'm not sure if you consider all that they've said and written to be evidence , but I think you should.
By that logic we have proof that tiger dongs cure erectile dysfunction.
Well, I regret how I phrased my answer. I read a lot of books about Buddhism and listen to a lot of monks explain things about Buddhism, and I really meant "all that stuff", i.e., tens of thousands of books and uncountable hours of dhamma talks about how to practice, what results to expect, etc.
To me the question was kind of like "is there really any evidence that this 'exercise' stuff is useful at all?" And the answer would be "yes... all the thousands of books about exercise and all the people who exercise regularly."
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Mindfulness is "thinking when thinking, walking when walking, shitting when shitting".
That’s more like Zen Buddhism
No, it is not, it's the Buddha's definition of mindfulness, that a monk knows exactly without confusion when he is walking, knows when he is sleeping, knows when he is eating, etc. It's easy to look it up in the suttas. Saying the canonical presentation of mindfulness is somehow "Zen Buddhism" is totally incorrect.
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally when I see multiple belief systems arrive at the same general (if vague) conclusions I take it as a sign that they’re probably all on to something.
Human sacrifice has been practiced by cultures in every single continent!
Sure that sucks, but presumably the practice bought those societies something worth more to the group than the individual lives sacrificed. Maybe a false feeling of influence over the natural world was required for those societies to function instead of everyone living in fear of the next unpredictable typhoon/earthquake/flood/whatever and losing cohesiveness as individuals tried to protect their own?
Anyway I’ll finish typing this comment in a couple hours ‘cause My 600-lb Life season premier is on and I never miss an episode
Re: Sometimes mindlessness is better than mindfulness
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, there's a multi-layered thing going on here. Yes, there is a mindfulness "industry" nowadays, and it's terribly fashionable right now, and with fashion comes The Horde, and with that comes The Charlatans (not the band) - and in the modern world this is all now followed by The Influencers and adverts and apps and a whole plastic money-fuelled nothingness that accompanies the modern world. But. Under the ho…
"But. Under the hood is a centuries-old tradition of self-investigation and awareness. It's often laid at the door of Buddhism,". Could you be more precise? Which Buddhism? And which buddhist (meditation) practice? I am getting more and more the feeling that this is as true as 'ikigai' being something rooted in japanese culture (which it is not). People know little in depth about Japan, and/or Buddhism (but perceptio…
Probably Chan or Zen Buddhism, the word Chan 禅 means meditation. Zen is the Japanese pronunciation for Chan. Although they all belong to Mahayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism has meditation practices, the more modern formats that the Western world has exposure from is likely Zen Buddhism.