Buried in the article, there's an important nuance: if you pursue a type of meditation called "loving kindness", you can shrug off bad feelings without negative effects like becoming more selfish.
Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
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Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#152I spent years living as a digital nomad and that culture seems to draw in people on the far end of the new age spirituality spectrum. Crystals, shakras, reiki, vibrations, quantum stuff.
I came to have an association with the people who I met who were into this stuff as being extremely selfish and self righteous. There is a weird intersection between that stuff and kind of hustle culture where they always be explaining to you how the can change your life and usually selling something along with it.
Anyway totally subjective but this doesn't surprise me at all.
Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buddhist vipassana meditation is based on deconstructing the ego altogether as well as all desires, and recognizing the illusion behind them. So if people are being egocentric, they probably have not progressed very far in their spiritual path.
That honestly just sounds like mental self-flagellation done to inflate the ego and feel superior.
Said simply, it's not.
Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#154A bit off beam but I always thought it odd that Darth Vader used a meditation chamber to meditate in The Empire Strikes Back.
It just seemed so strange that the key villain was practising mindfulness, yet not being very mindful.
Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#155Whenever someone talks about mindfulness or stoicism, the name that pops to my head is Tim Ferris. Like a less crappier Joe Rogan with an actual brain maybe? I still listen to some of his podcast episodes because he gets guests who I want to learn about. But oh my god the narcissism! I get it the podcast is about success and how to succeed, but for the love of god try to take your head out of your own ass for a minut…
Don't know the guy, but being silent about whatever acts of kindness you've done is fine. Bragging about your good deeds is not good form.
Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Buddhist vipassana meditation is based on deconstructing the ego altogether as well as all desires, and recognizing the illusion behind them. So if people are being egocentric, they probably have not progressed very far in their spiritual path.
That honestly just sounds like mental self-flagellation done to inflate the ego and feel superior.
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Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#15710-20 minutes/day was enough to teach me how to be 'mindful' on demand and mitigated a lot of mild ADHD-type problems in my life (impatience, anger, finding queues unbearable, high sensitivity to noise etc.). I spent a few months doing more, and it may not be related, but I became increasingly detached from the outside world, more self-absorbed and less motivated. Spent a lot of time just sitting and being content wi…
I think Sam Harris has talked about this, but I can’t find it now so maybe my memory is bad. I think he called them zen bums. It was people who want to do nothing else except meditate all day, every day.
Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#158The end goal of mindfulness is to make you realize that you don’t exist, you have no free will, and there is no “you.” It can be an unpleasant place to be dropped off in.
Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forefront? HA! My experience is diametrically opposite: prolong Buddhism practice often leads to ego-centric behaviors that are swept under the rug and not talked about. I was warned about it when I started getting "serious" about my practice, but I didn't believe it until I confronted it, face-to-face, on a daily basis. To this day I am the renegate and persona non grata at my Temple, ex except for the Abbot and my…
Buddhist vipassana meditation is based on deconstructing the ego altogether as well as all desires, and recognizing the illusion behind them. So if people are being egocentric, they probably have not progressed very far in their spiritual path.
I’ve heard it said to be careful. That one may find upon deconstructing their ego, and finding that it’s all an illusion, that they stare into the face of god, and that god is them staring back at them. That they are it. That they are the divine. How intoxicating. This person and the drug addict who thinks they’re Jesus are on the same wave length. The drug being a dangerous shortcut.
So have they not progressed very far? Or have they progressed somewhere else? Like the saying: far out man.
Re: Emerging evidence that mindfulness can sometimes increase selfish tendencies
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been reading Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha and the author makes the same point about informed consent. It's widely known in various traditions meditation can mess you up. I think he quotes someone saying "better not to start if you're not going to finish" or you may end up in a bad place for a long time.
> It's widely known in various traditions meditation can mess you up Yeah, and the interesting thing is that in many Eastern traditions, meditation wasn't ever even recommended for the average person. And those that did do it, did so in an environment with teachers and safeguards. The McMindfulness fad is missing almost all of that, and I'm starting to see more and more stories of people hitting a dangerous wall with…
> Sam Harris is one of the current major proponents of meditation in the West, and I've heard him say "even if meditation were bad for people, I would still recommend they do it". I think that's irresponsible advice.
I've been using Harris' "Waking Up" app, to great success, for a few years now and your anecdote is uncharacteristic of his guidance.
Where did he say this?