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If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

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Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#31

Post by crux »

dschiptsov wrote: post #29

Oh, come on. Meditation is not the way to "exercise willpower muscle" (running is the way to do so). Meditation is the way to learn that your flow of thoughts is not you, it is mere side-effect, a smoke from an engine, a screen-saver, or just idle-running. Yes, the practice of meditation is beneficial for will-power and self-control, but it is not the goal.) Goal is realization that what you think you are, is just a…

I'd think any good "eastern" teacher would be sure to emphasize both the cultivation of wholesome mental qualities and the realization of not-self in meditation, depending on the audience and the context.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#32

Post by 7rurl »

prawks wrote: post #25
zoul wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s better to let yourself to be swallowed whole by your current activity (be it just doing the dishes) than to continue in the endless chatter of your mind. Doing the dishes can be fun if you pay attention to the textures, temperatures, smells and sounds. You can plan your future later, giving it full attention again. That’s the idea.

Doing the dishes can be fun if you pay attention to the textures, temperatures, smells and sounds. I can't wait to do the dishes when I get home today.

It's harder than it sounds. Your subconscious will continually try to interrupt your mindfulness of the dish washing. The main trick of meditation is to be able to gently push those idle thoughts away and refocus on the dish washing (or whatever it is you are meditating on). Even if you don't end up enjoying dish washing more, meditating like this is an excellent workout for your focus and concentration and can be a real stress reliever as well.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#33

Post by jamesli »

webwanderings wrote: post #2

The misconception about meditation is that it requires one to give up everything and sit silently. This is not true in its entirety as it depends on how one interprets the word "meditation". The meditation does not necessarily require you to give up one thing for the sake of another. The goal of the meditation is to "be in awareness" and you can achieve this same goal by being alert and aware with any activity your f…

Excellent point! Be-in-present is the essence of some sects of Zen, especially in Japanese Zen. Sweeping the yard is not only to clean the yard. It is a practice, a meditation, to sweep the distracted thought of one's brain. Same as arranging flowers, etc. In this sense, it is the same as any other everyday manual work, like washing dishes, walking, etc.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#34

Post by starpilot »

webwanderings wrote: post #2

The misconception about meditation is that it requires one to give up everything and sit silently. This is not true in its entirety as it depends on how one interprets the word "meditation". The meditation does not necessarily require you to give up one thing for the sake of another. The goal of the meditation is to "be in awareness" and you can achieve this same goal by being alert and aware with any activity your f…

Parent has read "Miracle of Mindfulness," by Thich Nhat Hanh. He explains,

> If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future - and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#35

Post by bennesvig »

dchest wrote: post #26
bennesvig wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Willpower is a muscle. By wanting to do things, but focusing on meditation, you're building up your willpower muscle.

This is an analogy, it may be true or false. Download speed is a muscle. By downloading more files you're building up your download speed.

That analogy doesn't work.

Meditations influence is covered in depth in The Willpower Instinct, but here's a short summary.

""Meditation requires you to tap all the self-regulation systems in your brain as well as the self-monitoring mechanism," says Kelly McGonigal, PhD, a health psychologist at Stanford University and author of the forthcoming The Willpower Instinct. Every time you meditate, you use two important parts of your brain: the prefrontal cortex, which helps you make smart choices, and the anterior cingulate cortex, which helps you be aware of when you make such choices and when you don't. The more you activate these systems, the more powerful they become, so in the future it will feel easier to do the right thing. "Eventually you will start to notice whenever you are doing something that is inconsistent with your goals," McGonigal says."

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#36

Post by aashay »

webwanderings wrote: post #2

The misconception about meditation is that it requires one to give up everything and sit silently. This is not true in its entirety as it depends on how one interprets the word "meditation". The meditation does not necessarily require you to give up one thing for the sake of another. The goal of the meditation is to "be in awareness" and you can achieve this same goal by being alert and aware with any activity your f…

> "you become one with the reality, or you transcend that favorite activity by merging your self into it. That moment of transcendence is meditation"

I think this is a really interesting takeaway. I'd like to propose another type of activity which I think most people probably wouldn't group together with meditation: video games.

If you're an avid gamer, you'll know where I'm coming from. Whether you're playing an MMO or an immersive story-based game, or even a competitive real-time strategy game, you're well-versed in the feeling of being hyper-focused and "becoming one" with the reality in front of you. I rarely find my thoughts wandering while playing a game because there simply isn't an opportunity to let my brain drift this way, especially if it's a multiplayer game (think StarCraft II, for example).

Video games are, at least for me, an activity that allows me to be in complete awareness and be in the moment, at that helps me relax. Any time I get ridiculed for playing video games as an adult, this is my default explanation.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#37

Post by Fishkins »

KirinDave wrote: post #8

Wait. Wait wait wait. > Research shows that an ability to resist urges will improve your relationships, increase your dependability, and raise your performance... Great. Yes. Impulse control is key. Delayed gratification is part of how we define higher intelligence. Meditation has what do with this, exactly? > How [does meditation help]? By increasing your capacity to resist distracting urges. This entire article is…

There's definitely evidence that meditation alters your brain in positive ways [1]. The phrase "impulse control" isn't used in the list of benefits, but they list improvements in traits I'd associate with impulse control, e.g. increased self-awareness and reduced anxiety.

[1] http://www.familyhealthguide.co.uk/mindfulness-meditation-le...

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#38

Post by 7rurl »

dschiptsov wrote: post #29

Oh, come on. Meditation is not the way to "exercise willpower muscle" (running is the way to do so). Meditation is the way to learn that your flow of thoughts is not you, it is mere side-effect, a smoke from an engine, a screen-saver, or just idle-running. Yes, the practice of meditation is beneficial for will-power and self-control, but it is not the goal.) Goal is realization that what you think you are, is just a…

That's awfully dogmatic of you. Why can't people have different goals for meditating?

Speaking of running... same thing... people can run for different reasons. Certainly long distance running is great if your goal is to increase your willpower, but its also great if your goals is to increase your physical endurance or if your goals is simply to be able to run really far.

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#39

Post by webwanderings »

aashay wrote: post #36
webwanderings wrote: post #2

The misconception about meditation is that it requires one to give up everything and sit silently. This is not true in its entirety as it depends on how one interprets the word "meditation". The meditation does not necessarily require you to give up one thing for the sake of another. The goal of the meditation is to "be in awareness" and you can achieve this same goal by being alert and aware with any activity your f…

> "you become one with the reality, or you transcend that favorite activity by merging your self into it. That moment of transcendence is meditation" I think this is a really interesting takeaway. I'd like to propose another type of activity which I think most people probably wouldn't group together with meditation: video games. If you're an avid gamer, you'll know where I'm coming from. Whether you're playing an MMO…

That's it. You are in meditation when you're playing video games. I believe you should just find more of those same opportunities when you are not playing video games (because you can't really play video games 24x7).

Re: If You're Too Busy to Meditate, Read This

#40

Post by webwanderings »

starpilot wrote: post #34
webwanderings wrote: post #2

The misconception about meditation is that it requires one to give up everything and sit silently. This is not true in its entirety as it depends on how one interprets the word "meditation". The meditation does not necessarily require you to give up one thing for the sake of another. The goal of the meditation is to "be in awareness" and you can achieve this same goal by being alert and aware with any activity your f…

Parent has read "Miracle of Mindfulness," by Thich Nhat Hanh. He explains, > If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future - and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

Thank you, my example of washing dishes indeed came from Thich Nhat Hanh.
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