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How to Exist

raptitude.com

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Re: How to Exist

#181

Post by vishnugupta »

msaltz wrote: post #167

This version of doing nothing IMO is still “doing something”. It’s clearly not “just existing” to have a standard that you must hold still, not look around the room, not engage in thinking, notice how you’re feeling, etc. It’s clear when you see the picture of the cat in the article that the cat has none of these concerns. I’d consider this to be a form of meditation - still containing ideas of “this, not that”. Some…

Seconded. For me "doing nothing" also means "doing nothing without following any rules" as you've stated. My version of doing nothing involves either just sitting outside watching the world go by or walking & wandering around. May poke at plants here or there, pick up a stone or throw it etc., But no, I'm not consciously trying to "calm my mind"

Re: How to Exist

#182

Post by RamblingCTO »

msaltz wrote: post #169
BohdanPetryshyn wrote: post #77

One of the most concise and to-the-point explanations of meditation I've ever seen. One thought I had while reading it: isn't trying to get more comfortable with doing nothing just another thing to do? isn't it another form of changing what already is? EDIT: I'm advocating and practicing mindfulness but I always have this thought on the background and it's a real dilemma. Any thoughts?

This is a great point. This is why I don’t meditate :) It became clear to me at some point that meditation was another way I was creating some standard for good or bad, and comparing myself to it. Would be annoyed at myself if I weren’t “mindful enough” etc. I think even if you don’t have this tendency, but you’re still meditating with the intent to be in a certain state or arrange things a certain way, you’re still…

> but you’re still meditating with the intent to be in a certain state

Then don't. It's exactly the point to not do that. Meditation needs non-attachment imho. Because when you're attached (I need this to feel a certain way, something must happen) you can't really be observant of your thoughts and sensations, you're one with them.

Re: How to Exist

#183

Post by inigyou »

DrewADesign wrote: post #152
nradov wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should all listen to guys like your boss. Circumstances have changed a bit but their beliefs are generally directionally correct and they have some great lessons to teach.

I’m directly between his age and the age of the people he criticizes. He has absolutely no understanding of what challenges young people face. His path to stability has vanished. There’s no apprenticeship program in that union anymore and in the ones that are, the percentage of your living expenses to your income is incomparably higher. The younger people work more hours than he did at their age and have a hell of a…

In South Korea everyone was recently using 3x leverage on the stock market—which mostly consists of just 2 companies, so concentrated that American institutions aren't allowed to call their index funds diversified—because you have nothing to lose by losing 200% of your money. Which did happen last week as the market crashed. Those people are no worse off for losing 200% of their life savings, because they are already at zero if they don't literally win the lottery—life savings weren't enough to be net positive.

Re: How to Exist

#184

Post by mrloopex »

vishnugupta wrote: post #181
msaltz wrote: post #167

This version of doing nothing IMO is still “doing something”. It’s clearly not “just existing” to have a standard that you must hold still, not look around the room, not engage in thinking, notice how you’re feeling, etc. It’s clear when you see the picture of the cat in the article that the cat has none of these concerns. I’d consider this to be a form of meditation - still containing ideas of “this, not that”. Some…

Seconded. For me "doing nothing" also means "doing nothing without following any rules" as you've stated. My version of doing nothing involves either just sitting outside watching the world go by or walking & wandering around. May poke at plants here or there, pick up a stone or throw it etc., But no, I'm not consciously trying to "calm my mind"

Leave it to hacker news to bitch about how “meditation is wrong” just because it requires a tiny bit of effort to understand.

Re: How to Exist

#185

Post by vishnugupta »

mrloopex wrote: post #184
vishnugupta wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded. For me "doing nothing" also means "doing nothing without following any rules" as you've stated. My version of doing nothing involves either just sitting outside watching the world go by or walking & wandering around. May poke at plants here or there, pick up a stone or throw it etc., But no, I'm not consciously trying to "calm my mind"

Leave it to hacker news to bitch about how “meditation is wrong” just because it requires a tiny bit of effort to understand.

“..for me..”, “…my version…”

Re: How to Exist

#186

Post by idoubtit »

augment_me wrote: post #29

In "Four thousand weeks" by Oliver Burkeman, he breaks down that this obsession with action stems to the industrial revolution when it was decided that workers should sell their time for a living. Before that we used to have task-oriented jobs, like milking the cows, which you cant do more than once in a while, or harvest the fields, which you can't do until it's ripe. In general humans are more evolved to this kind…

> task-oriented jobs, like milking the cows, [...] or harvest the fields, [...] humans are more evolved to this kind of work given our 200'000 years of task-based genetics

The agricultural examples are not representative of the human past that forged our genetic structure.

Hominins are about 5 millions years old. Humans, 2m years. Modern humans, 300k years. Agriculture appeared around 10k years ago in the Middle-East, later in other parts of the world. So most of the human past is about hunting and gathering.

Apart from this detail, I wonder if there are well established scientific argument that make that "genetics of behavior" the main factor in our modern behavior. At first glance it looks like a wild theory, created by a journalist who wrote self-help books and held a psychology column.

Re: How to Exist

#187

Post by jerf »

sph wrote: post #132
skrebbel wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is to wait until you get a terrible flu. You won’t feel like coffee, because you feel terrible. You won’t notice the withdrawal symptoms, because the flu symptoms are the same but much worse. Caffeine withdrawal takes only a week or so, so by the time the flu is gone, the addiction is as well. Just (“just”) remember to not get that habitual cup of morning coffee on the first day you feel kinda OK again, tha…

Yes, I know it's not that hard, but lately I've been going through a period of low mood, and I really cannot stomach the idea of diving deeper into the Abyss for a couple weeks while my receptors downregulate. It's hard enough already as it is.

I had some success systematically reducing it over time rather than cold turkey. YMMV. It may feel silly measuring out coffee and reducing it by just a small bit every day but it's worth it to avoid the fully withdrawal symptoms.

Re: How to Exist

#188

Post by msaltz »

RamblingCTO wrote: post #182
msaltz wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great point. This is why I don’t meditate :) It became clear to me at some point that meditation was another way I was creating some standard for good or bad, and comparing myself to it. Would be annoyed at myself if I weren’t “mindful enough” etc. I think even if you don’t have this tendency, but you’re still meditating with the intent to be in a certain state or arrange things a certain way, you’re still…

> but you’re still meditating with the intent to be in a certain state Then don't. It's exactly the point to not do that. Meditation needs non-attachment imho. Because when you're attached (I need this to feel a certain way, something must happen) you can't really be observant of your thoughts and sensations, you're one with them.

Yeah that’s fair, that’s why I put the “or arrange things in a certain way” - imo wanting to be observant of thoughts and sensations is a choice one makes that implies a value judgement, i.e. that it’s “better” to to be observant of thoughts and sensations, which I don’t think is necessarily true. For instance if I consider the best conversations I’ve had, it’s because I was “lost” in conversation - just having the conversation, not even aware that that’s what I’m doing. To me being nonjudgmental doesn’t mean viewing something and having a neutral view of it (which is still a judgement), it’s being entirely free from judgement by not being apart from it. This way when you’re judging something (“ugh I don’t like this coffee”) there’s no problem with that either.

All that said I think if someone wants to choose to meditate, or to spend time being aware of feelings or whatever form of meditation they choose, they’re totally welcome to do that. And I agree that if you do that, it’s helpful to focus on the process rather than the outcome.

Re: How to Exist

#189

Post by hbcdbff »

mrloopex wrote: post #184
vishnugupta wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded. For me "doing nothing" also means "doing nothing without following any rules" as you've stated. My version of doing nothing involves either just sitting outside watching the world go by or walking & wandering around. May poke at plants here or there, pick up a stone or throw it etc., But no, I'm not consciously trying to "calm my mind"

Leave it to hacker news to bitch about how “meditation is wrong” just because it requires a tiny bit of effort to understand.

No one ever implied, let alone said, that, but if it makes you happy to have a strawman please carry on
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