I practice Tai Chi, which is a martial art but includes meditation. It’s nice because you can’t really do tai chi properly unless you’re thinking about what you’re doing. You have to move your hands, feet and torso properly while also being connected to your breathing, balance and being connected to the ground. You really can’t think about what you’re going to eat for dinner if you’re putting all of that stuff together. I’ve finally gotten to the point where if I’m doing it in a room full of people I don’t even notice the other people.
For me, Tai Chi is a nice form of meditation because it gives me specific things to think about - like the other exercises mentioned here where you think about your toes or your breath. But also I get a good workout.
If i may add to this, Eckhard Tolle says the same thing in his book “You are not your mind”. Edward DeBono (the master of creative thinking) talks the same about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
As a person from the east, I’d like to say it differently. What Descartes says is a valid path for many - per Indian Philosophy, however, its not the only valid path. There are many Easterners who happily follow the path of Descartes, many don’t. The very concept of the existence of “One Valid Path” is misleading per Eastern Philosophy. It dismisses Objective Reality.
To illustrate the above, there is Vyadha Gita, which is teachings given by a Butcher to a monk. The Butcher’s devotion to doing his job well, is as good and valid path to self realization like meditation.
Karen Armstrong’s biography of the Buddha contains, not a step-by-step guide explaining in detail how you would get started practicing it, but a for-dummies sketch of the type of meditation studied by Gautama early on.
That’s interesting… one description of how to enter dhyana (I’m no yogi but I have done that, at least) is to “sit down cross-legged and establish mindfulness”. What is the relationship between “no mind” and mindfulness/sati/smrti?
Dhyana is derived from Sanskrit dhyanam meaning mindfulness. The root of the word is Indo-European dhya (to see) which becomes Sama in Greek and gives us the word Semantic.
Dhyana became Chan in Chinese Mandarin Buddhism and Chan in turn became Zen in Japanese.
Sati/Smriti are Sanskrit words (and have Indo-European roots) but have specific meaning in Buddhism that I am only peripherally familiar.
Although I would also add “or observing your thoughts without judgment.”
There are so many ways to meditate, you can’t really do it wrong. I also have ADHD and I think it’s people like us who might benefit the most from carving out some quiet time for self-awareness. Of course your mind will wander. When you notice it wandering, that’s progress.
The way I do it is I just sit down on a cushion and focus on my body. Breathing is a great place to start because no matter where you are, you always have your breath. I might pay attention to what I see, for example a flickering candle, or I might close my eyes. If I have pain, I might even focus on that, to see if I can learn more about it. Then when I catch my mind wandering, which it will do, I label the thoughts very broadly (worry, political rage, planning, to name the most frequent patterns) and go back to focusing on the present. One thing I’ve started to do with intense emotions is not try to label them at all but just feel them in my body.
I truly never thought of meditation as an exercise in self-insight (however loosely you may define the self) until I read the book Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright. It’s a look at Buddhist philosophy through the lens of evolutionary psychology and I learned a lot from it. It got me meditating again and has even informed my meditation practice. I’ll say, “Oh, that’s the brain’s status module trying to protect me” or whatever. Seriously, it’s a super cool book that doesn’t exactly walk you through how to meditate but explains the whole point of meditation rather well.
But you don’t have to read any books to do it. Just sit down and pay attention to what’s happening.
This sounds like flow state which is common for people who are really good at/experienced with something. I get it with writing sometimes for hours on end. I’m not sure if it is the same thing neurologically speaking, but it does appear that both serious mediators and experienced mountain climbers are both adept at shutting off their default mode network - the wandering mind most people experience when bored.
Is this good? I’m convinced the best creative ideas come from boredom. But flow is peak creativity for me. I’d love to know if there is any research comparing meditation states to flow.
To be fair, I was using MDMA when dancing, which kind of simplifies the effort of clearing the mind.
Have not done it in years, though.
Hard hikes are a different thing. When your “hike” is what we call in South Africa “kloofing” - essentially hiking down a river with a big pack with food for 5 days, not so much walking as jumping from rock to rock and occasional big cliff jumps (10m or more) and lots of swimming, it often requires consiously stopping to admire the beauty all around you. Even remembering to drink, even though you are in a river!
That is flow, I suppose. Kind of the opposite of the MDMA thing, which is empty mindedness. Kloofing is full concentration on a single thing.
I would agree with this as well. Judgment, after all, is simply another form of thinking. I’m not altogether happy with my choice of the words “suppress thinking” as it implies something more active than I intend. Thoughts happen; successful meditation is learning how to allow them to pass and get on with the business of being aware and in the moment.