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Men who stare at walls

alexselimov.com

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Re: Men who stare at walls

#91

Post by distantsounds »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #10

Is this not a form of meditation? I've never been able to keep a meditation habit, but my understanding is that meditation techniques often feature closing your eyes and focusing on breathing, body parts or some other irrelevant thing, it sounds like staring at a wall would serve the same purpose.

is meditation just not a form of staring at a wall? i've never been able to keep a staring at a wall habit, but my understanding that staring at a wall often features opening your eyes and focusing on breathing, body parts or some other irrelevant thing, it sounds like meditation would serve the same purpose.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#92

Post by cfors »

The spirit of this is correct, but a better approach to this is going for a walk with just your thoughts.

Yes, that means no phone, no headphones, just you and your brain enjoying a walk. Let your mind wonder and be free.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#93

Post by lbrito »

Ifkaluva wrote: post #83
lbrito wrote: post #80

I don't get this productivity hacking mindset. You're suffering some sort of burnout, and you want to try some hack to be _more_ productive? Looking at a wall so I can crank out _more_ work? No, screw that. If I'm ever feeling that way, I'm going to try and work _less_ and take _more_ breaks.

What are you talking about? Dude is literally describing a break, just not a type of break that feeds the attention economy. Are you opposed to that?

Sure, but he is advocating for a break so that he can work more and "waste" less time on "unproductive" breaks. He is promoting a productivity-enhancing break.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#94

Post by NDlurker »

If you're the type of person who can fall asleep quickly, wouldn't a nap be better? I go out to my car and take a 10-15 minute nap when I'm struggling with something at work. I wake up with a clearer head and sometimes a solution to whatever the problem was.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#95

Post by NDlurker »

amelius wrote: post #16

In case someone wants to look at a wall: https://unsplash.com/photos/red-bricks-wall-XEsx2NVpqWY

I live in an old warehouse converted into apartments. The walls are made of yellow brick and they're nice to look at because of the variation in texture/wear/color

Re: Men who stare at walls

#96

Post by smeg_it »

krunck wrote: post #89
smeg_it wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was taught basic breathing meditation from a Vietnamese nun; but I'm not an expert. There are so many variations that I don't understand. I don't know much about Zen or it's take on meditation or mindfulness. On meditation, I know when I do it right, but have trouble helping people learn. I have trouble when I most need it (highly stressed), as I have the most trouble taking the time to relax without feeling too gu…

A meditation practice(in the Soto Zen tradition) over the course of five years changed my life. Daily 40m of sitting facing a wall watching the breath and returning the mind to the present moment when it strays. No judgement. Just returning the mind to the present, again, and again, and again.... The BS starts to drop away. No enlightenment moments. But later, away from the practice you have more patience, more accep…

I've been doing it on and off for years. Trouble is my "career" is dead. I think I'm technically "middle" aged, but really over "middle" of life. It's harder to relax the mind and body right now. When I do it "right", I feel more relaxed on both fronts. My body doesn't sit for hours or anything but 15-30 is my norm when it works. It's hard for me to continue, if I hadn't relaxed by say 5 min. I think mine is basically the same except I try and return to paying attention to my breathing when my mind wonders. I know my breathing is in the "present"; so this might just be a semantic difference. *I don't like the word "concentration" because, I think, it throws people off (so that's why I didn't use it)

Re: Men who stare at walls

#97

Post by rainmaking »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #10

Is this not a form of meditation? I've never been able to keep a meditation habit, but my understanding is that meditation techniques often feature closing your eyes and focusing on breathing, body parts or some other irrelevant thing, it sounds like staring at a wall would serve the same purpose.

Definitely.

Interesting twist- notice dark shapes in your color spectrum for a while, then switch to light. Trippy.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#98

Post by Cider9986 »

dktp wrote: post #15

Loosely related, though I don't think Benjamin Bennett's intention was ever to improve focus/productivity But it never ceases to amaze me the consistency and time spent sitting and smiling and other similar endeavors by Benjamin - https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminBennetttt/streams

That is insane.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#99

Post by techblueberry »

lbrito wrote: post #93
Ifkaluva wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? Dude is literally describing a break, just not a type of break that feeds the attention economy. Are you opposed to that?

Sure, but he is advocating for a break so that he can work more and "waste" less time on "unproductive" breaks. He is promoting a productivity-enhancing break.

Alright, you go write a blog post about how actually doom scrolling is better for meditation, because it leaves you feeling unproductive.

Re: Men who stare at walls

#100

Post by dijksterhuis »

CPLX wrote: post #62
timacles wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it almost is but meditation, is done with more intent. In Zen Buddhism for example you are always striving to increase awareness , by constantly monitoring your internal monologue, pulling yourself back from day dreaming, expanding from focus on the breath to all near by sensation and phenomena. True meditation, in the zen sense, is an order of magnitude more difficult to do consistently, and takes intense willpower.

I am a practicing Zen Buddhist and I wouldn’t agree with this description, at least not in my experience and the community that I’ve participated in. Specifically I would say the concepts of “striving” and “intent” aren’t ones I would use. What it actually is takes a little more to pin down (famously) but I would consider the concept of surrender to be more applicable. In fact I would say the absence of striving woul…

i’m not sure but they may be speaking about rinzai zen. watched a few bits and bobs about rinzai and some of the practices are kinda of that “willpower” ilk. dunno, never practiced it, not my vibe.

they definitely were not describing soto-zen tho, that’s for sure.

edit — i find it almost koan-esque that there’s two schools referred to as “zen”, both of which generally dislike the label “zen”, both of which have very different practices and methods.

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