Reading, Working, & Meditating
So what have I been doing in all the time since my last post? Well, the title says it all.
Meditation
What I’d really like to know is:
Readers, what do you know about meditating? Especially, transcendental meditation (TM)?
I’ve been to the main websites, so I already know most of that, but I’m curious: Have any of you had first-hand experience with it? Either meditate, or know someone who does?
I’m considering paying to learn TM, but it’s a little pricey, so I’d appreciate a little more info on the matter before I go spending my money.
I’m reading at least 5 books simultaneously, because I find I get more enjoyment from reading that way. Two are health related, and the other three are more spiritual sort of books. Here is what is on my reading list:
Health
- Fantastic Voyage: Live Long enough to Live Forever by Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman (2004)
- The
Spiritual
- The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How to Reconcile Them by Owen Flanagan’s (2002).
- Cosmic Voyage: A Scientific Discovery of Extraterrestrials visiting Earth (e-book), by Courtney Brown (1996)
- Message given by ETs & Extra-Terrestrials took me to their Planet (e-books) by Rael (1998)
Of all five books, I think I am probably enjoying book 2 and 4 the most. I would write more, but I have work to get back to. Feel free to ask me for more information on any of these books.
Work
Sigh… hi ho, hi ho, off I go!
posted by Cosd @ 2:03 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Heya Josh,
I caught Buddhism back in 2000 and took about a year to get over it :oP Actually, of all the faith-based perspectives out there I find Buddhism quite amiable to various values I hold: humanitarianism, introspection, etc.
With regards to meditation, I used to make it a daily practice and went on a couple weekend retreats to further refine my practice. There were 3 types of meditation I practiced which, for lack of a memory for any official names, I'll call the centering, calming, and compassion techniques.
All techniques involved an initial 5 minutes or so of body relaxation, much in the style of hypnosis.
The centering technique involves focusing your attention on a single thought or sensation. The feeling of your breath passing in and out of your nose is a common focus point.
The calming technique involves attempting to focus your attention on nothing; that is, not allowing thoughts to enter and jumble your head. A useful metaphor is to imagine a placid lake; thoughts arise like bubbles from the depths, but it is the meditator's job to let these thoughts subside, like the gradual diminishment of ripples caused by the original thought.
The compassion technique involves combining the focus and control developed by the first two techniques to put your whole mind to the feeling of compassion for all living things. It can start by thinking through the ramifications of some teaching on compassion, but in the end you're supposed to imagine your body becoming radiant with compassion, and as the light from this feeling spreads out you imagine that it touches people you know. You imagine their struggles and sorrows and embrace them with your light.
It is interesting to think back upon my meditative experiences of the past with my present perspective informed by science and psychology. I mentioned hypnosis above and I think that it's possible that a large part of the calming and uplifting effect of meditation (group meditation at least) may be related to it's similarity to hypnotic suggestion. This is not to diminish it's utility, mind you, I'm simply suggesting that a mechanism may be found without turning to the questionable Buddhist metaphysics. I think some of the lasting effects of meditation derive from the fact that it works to train both introspection and cognitive control, the latter of which has been shown by psychological literature to be correlated with happiness.
In the end, I still think meditation can be quite useful and I probably should chide myself for not keeping it up. That said, I do not think it is the panacea that Buddhist metaphysics claims. For a review of my metaphysical view and the contrast to the Buddhist view, see my essay here:
http://www.geocities.com/mikeroane2000/knowledge.pdf
(the last 4 paragraphs are particularly pertinent)
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks Mike!
Buddhism, and their form of meditation is certainly something I'll look into. Especially since the price for TM is around $3000 currently.
I think it might be worth saving my money even if it means learning a lower quality form of meditation.
-Josh
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