Do any of you meditate if you don't I recommend it. Meditation is very helpful in many different circumstances. It may be difficult to start however once you get into it. Its surprisingly easy to continue doing it.
>>3858 Like a lot of things it's only necessary if you live an unnatural life style. If you're a city dweller who spends all day on the computer or are constantly being bombarded with media and your mind never gets a minute to rest it's "worth it". If you have a calm mind and a calm lifestyle though and can easily sit on the porch doing nothing but watching the birds fly around for a few hours it won't do much. In fact do that instead of meditating. Meditation is a little silly when compared to just chilling outside and embracing nature.
>>3856 >10 Science-Based Reasons to Start Meditating Today
>For One, It's Totally HOT!
I don't know who Emma Seppala is, but I do know that she needs a visit from the THOTpatrol.
Of all of the images you could possibly use to promote meditation, I have no idea why you would use one full of logical fallacies and vague claims and which ends in a generic "Don't think you can sit still?! It's ok, just put on your favorite tunes and take some 'You Time,' girrrrrl!!!!!" which pretty effectively blunts the (already questionable) impact of the preceding material.
>>3860 Meditation was developed long before computers or media, and really has very little to do with the kind of relaxation you're describing.
Anyone read Zen Training by Katsuki Sekida? I've found it to be a helpful book. It strikes a good balance. Some meditation books dwell too much on the devotional practices associated with whatever Buddhist practice the author follows, which is fine if you're interested in following that Buddhist tradition, but not necessarily helpful for a beginning meditator who's not looking for a new devotional practice. On the other hand, some books go too far in the other direction, ripping the practice of meditation totally outside of its proper context and treating it almost as a kind of medical practice, or solo mental theraputic practice. I understand the impulse to do so, but it seems to make the assumption that everything relevant about meditation is amenable to analysis with modern science and psychology, and that it's okay to discard thousands of years of understanding that have developed around the practice. That seems hasty.
Zen Training places meditation in its Zen context, but doesn't seem to assume that readers will become Zen Buddhists. It also has some speculation based on physiology and some early studies of medication (probably out of date, since they were conducted in the 1970s, IIRC), but it's not a main focus of the book.
Here's an mp3 on "Do nothing meditation" by "Shinzen" Young. I'm not necessarily endorsing it: the video that I ripped it from was posted to 8/b/ a while back, and I'm merely providing it for content/as a discussion point.
Note also that Young is a Jew, if that matters to you. There was something Jew-y about him when I was listening to the talk, so I looked him up, and yeah, sure enough, Jew.
>>3866 >Meditation was developed long before computers or media, and really has very little to do with the kind of relaxation you're describing.
I suppose. I just think going from being a bugman sperg straight into meditation is going to have high turn over rates compared to something like going for walks in the forest or hiking. The kind of person who gets into and sticks with meditation is someone who typically has already learned how to be alone with their thoughts free from distraction.
>>3880 >sitting still like a faggot invalid, staring into space like a low functioning autist is somehow better than taking a walk in nature
I find this hard to believe.
Some Japanese monks achieved mummification through meditation. They sought to decouple from the universe and disintegrate their souls permanently.
Reaching the astral realm, or projecting one's being astrally, is also done through forms of meditation and is used for gaining knowledge and power, opposite to the classic "decoupling" found in Buddhism.
Permanent physical changes such as cortical thickening take many years of committed, routine meditation. Astral meddling is indistinguishable from madness to an outsider. Walks in the woods and bird watching do not count as meditation.
Meditating is tapping into the infinite but its (((modern understanding))) is limited to mere enhancement of one's performance in the material world. This is by design. They say it increases focus (it can), that it makes you smarter (it does), or that it has health benefits (sure), and you will probably never meet anyone who practices meditation for reasons other than these, and so those are the only things they will gain from it.
Do any of you meditate if you don't I recommend it. Meditation is very helpful in many different circumstances. It may be difficult to start however once you get into it. Its surprisingly easy to continue doing it.