A practical guide for learning meditation through the art of gaming
qz.com
qz.com
Here's a quote from Culadasa, a neurophysiologist and an adept meditator:
"What sets both Meditative Joy and flow apart from ordinary Joy is that it is an internally generated state of mind, providing its own satisfaction independently of external rewards.
What sets Meditative Joy apart from other forms of flow is that the flow-inducing activity takes place entirely within the mind itself, and the skill being applied is concentration, rather than concentration arising secondary to the focused application of other skills."
The following handout he wrote about flow, meditation and meditative joy may help appreciate the difference (see page 6 for dicussion on Flow): http://dharmatreasure.org/wp-content/uploads/Meditation%20an...
PS. I don't mean to say that these games are not useful, in fact knowing the feeling of 'external flow' probably helps in learning meditation. Meditation as a skill, however, has a better 'knowledge transfer' factor, meaning that with time you can learn to sustain concentration while immersed in daily life activities.
I am really not sure this is true. Here is a quote from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind:
> If you are concentrated on your breathing you will forget your- self, and if you forget yourself you will be concentrated on your breathing. I do not know which is first. So actually there is no need to try too hard to be concentrated on your breath- ing. Just do as much as you can. If you continue this practice, eventually you will experience the true existence which comes from emptiness.
So yes, you induce meditation by choosing (in your mind) to watch your breath but that's no different from choosing to play a game. Furthermore you're merely watching your breath, not controlling it. So it could be argued that the concentration arises secondary like it does when you focus on a game.
But then again arguing takes places on a dualistic level, so what's the point (in this specific case)?
You confirm it yourself by pointing out that one merely 'watches' the breath. Indeed proper watching _is_ the skill of concentration. On the other hand you can't play Flappy Birds by merely watching it, you have to actually play it. In this case concentration arises as a consequence of repetitively and successfully achieving the game goal (not hitting the pipes). In case of meditation the reward and meditative joy are the results of the concentration (successfully sustaining attention) itself.
The handout linked above and Culadasa's book explain it in great detail.
BTW I agree that the distinction is far from trivial.
It's not a coincidence that so many schools decided to teach focusing on the breath.
Your breath is correlated strongly with both your metal state and physical state.
Also your breath is always with you, and can be put under the control of your will, or become completely automatic. (New meditators often struggle with this.)
Because of this it makes a uniquely useful focus for meditation.
This is the single, best reason to use it after how tied it is with unconscious mind. You can't loose your breath except for brief moments. ;)
As for the relevance of arguing / debating: not everything is non dual (in a manner of speaking). In Tibetan Buddhism this is reflected in the Two Truth doctrine, where there are two levels of truth: relative and absolute. Absolute is non-dual, whereas the relative is where we live our dualistic lives. Tibet has a long history of debate.
[1] http://www.lionsroar.com/chogyam-trungpa-on-cool-boredom/ [2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-nichtern/boredom-as-medi...
Meditation is a skill. To practice any skill, you first have to understand it conceptually. So clear understanding is important.
On the other hand speaking of duality vs non-duality doesn't seem to be useful, as it's something one has to realise non-conceptually. The only way to do it is through practice. Which, again, to be done correctly requires some proper conceptual understanding (of the practice method, not of the end goal).
That's why sometimes it's useful to argue about such distinctions.
There's a dramatic difference - when playing a game you're reacting to the game. When meditating your entire goal is to not react.
The similarities are only in that in both cases you cease to react to your own internal state - the most harmful of all reactions because it forms self-reinforcing feedback loops.
My take is that "no reaction" is just another way of reacting.
Even with more zen type mediation where you try to empty your mind, it's still very different from a game flow state. The entire point of concentrating on your breathing is that your breathing is always there and is boring!
Once you reach some level of mindfulness, you start to notice that your breath is very seldom there. There are all kinds of distractions that your attention is moving to. You may not notice it and 'think' that you are watching the breath, while in the center of your attention is eg. an internal monologue or concept of the breath or mental image of the breath (how you imagine it).
> The entire point of concentrating on your breathing is that your breathing is always there and is boring!
Here you go. If there's boredom, there's no breath. If your attention is on the breath there's no boredom. Boredom is a specific mental object (state and story) and it's a distraction from the breath. 'Breath' is a concept and looking at a concept is boring indeed. If you look at the actual breath, however, you see something that's never the same, constantly changing stream of sensations, reality behind the concepts. It's always amazing, it's more interesting than anything you can ever see in ordinary closed, story-driven state of mind.
Concentrating on the breath is an excellent entry point to a set of much deeper and more interesting experiences.
A video game is not going to lead you to these, because it is too distracting/complex/engaging. The breath can. Boring was perhaps not a good way to express this, but it was simple, without the pull of these subtler sensations being noticeable there is no path forward.
This stream is exponentially less noticeable while doing something less boring, like gaming, to a beginner.
Perhaps "stimulating" is a better concept than "boring" to explain it?
It is something available to all beginners at all times and works well as a place to refocus. And at that stage the main challenge is stopping constant mind wandering and narrativising.
Having the patience to mediate for the entire year without results pretty much dooms you to success.
Will be happy to answer any questions you have if you describe me your practice and problems you're having via email (@ at my profile) - I've been practicing with several teachers / approaches and having this wider perspective is quite helpful when you reach any significant block.
I agree with the other poster that going to retreat is a great way to jumpstart the practice - often our daily life is causing of so much constant stress that we have to step out of it to even notice it. When we see it coming back in low doses, we're more likely to understand the patterns and what our personal mental antidote should look like.
BTW, there's a reddit group dedicated to his book, quite helpful.
By far the most amazing technology available for improving the mental condition of human beings. There is a reason people can super focus on things they enjoy, your emotions are the guide to what you choose to put attention on. When you have nervous, anxious or negative reactions to anything because of past experiences and preconceived notions you cannot fully concentrate or go in and out of flow states.
You can use EEG sensors to see the reactions your brain has to any task, concentrating, reading comprehension or math problems. With the technology you can see how your brain is reacting, how it "focuses", how "calm/alert" it is and if its "daydreaming" and my major problem which was "busy-brain". When you can see and hear feedback, you can "feel" how flow/concentration are constantly being interrupted. Eventually you can train your brain get into these flow states, get into them faster and under stress. I am only 25% through all my sessions and I have just begun to feel and see the magic that is flow. You conscious mind just shuts off and you just "do it".
This is makes a huge impact of meditation as well, you can sit still and focus on your breath, but I find it far more effective to focus on your feelings. I try to guide them and bring them towards courage, passion, love and appreciation. Which brings them closer towards inspiration and happiness and a better functioning mind.
This is all just from physically/emotional painful experiences. So I guess just take with a grain of salt. But it's made huge differences in my physical/mental well-being.
Even perfectly 'healthy' human being will still have the layer of basic fear, whenever what he considers to be his core identity is under threat. In meditation everyone at some point needs to face it. So I wouldn't take what you're saying with a grain of salt - on the contrary, you may now have much greater clarity, as you had to be much more systematic and determined in your training.
I'd also love to hear more details about the tools you used. Are these consumer grade or hospital type of equipment?
Home life certainly has a lot to do with it, encouraging kids to get through their homework (and homework itself is of arguable benefit), but the standards and expectations of schools really set the underlying tone. We need to be trained in overcoming challenges ourselves, with assistance and guidance where appropriate, and with real consequences if we don't.
The fact that so many people hit adulthood without this basic self-determining ability is apocalyptic.
For anyone who hasn't read it yet, or isn't familiar with these ideas of praising effort and relative improvement over ability and talent, checkout Mindset - it's a great book which I'm about half-way through right now: https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0...
I learned that through a shamanic thing and cultivated it with meditation. My ability to practice the things I wanted and take on challenges really accelerated. (I got a taste for climbing up mountains, heh).
I also went to the other extreme where work became just an endless death march of anxiety and stress. (If you can eat suffering, then you can just keep on going, right?) That took reading a book on classical, non-dual Shaiva Tantra and it's philosophy (it's View) before things clicked for me there. Up until then, I had difficulty reconciling some things. I didn't want to lose being able to work hard, but sustaining that was deteriorating things for my health and my family.
we tend to make things like exercise and so on into these grueling things that we do as if out of this sense of duty. we don't really have to do anything - we can never get out of bed and starve to death. nobody's going to judge us for that, and if the only thing that makes you choose different is feeling guilty then you need to find your motivation. for me, the less I judge myself for not doing, often the quicker I get started. it's been tough to remember that - I can still agonize with patterns like "analysis paralysis" and I have to just stop, and go do something totally unproductive until my motivation returns. It's kind of like diffused/focused thinking as applies to learning, or anabolic/catabolic processes for weight lifting.
When you try to make something into something else in order to make it more pleasant, that is a form of a story in the head. It will work for awhile until it doesn't. The whole point of mindulfness meditation is awakening to what is, not what you wish things are.
It doesn't matter whether you are doing something you think is pleasant or not, dukkha is present there. Strain and tension contains pain. Dukkha is only there when someone is not mindful. Ironically, by being present to the actual amount of pain, the dukkha lessens:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-coolest-psychological-tric... (Quora answer, not mine's, that explains this very well).
Learned helplessness is a story in the head. There are methods to dissolve and deconstruct that which I will not mention here. When you replace that story with a different story, you are creating the conditions for your next disappointment. Real power and freedom comes from releasing the stories that prop up your identity.
Now having said all of that, I had written about "supports" here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13091341 ... So long as those support help you in your practice, it's great. At some point, those supports become obstacles themselves. They are, after all, stories in the head.
> we tend to make things like exercise and so on into these grueling things that we do as if out of this sense of duty. we don't really have to do anything
If we don't have to do anything, then what is the point of living and struggling? If you lose your motivation for living and struggling, then what happens when you really need to make it through? This was the paradox that was resolved for me with non-dual Shaiva Tantra.
I'm not trying to put lipstick on a pig either. I'm trying to explain very real experiences I've had in a way that people who don't understand delayed gratification (yet) won't misinterpret due to false definitions instilled in their past.
>When you try to make something into something else in order to make it more pleasant, that is a form of a story in the head. It will work for awhile until it doesn't. The whole point of mindulfness meditation is awakening to what is, not what you wish things are.
Okay, why are you responding to my comment with this? Did I somehow contradict this notion?
>It doesn't matter whether you are doing something you think is pleasant or not, dukkha is present there. Strain and tension contains pain. Dukkha is only there when someone is not mindful. Ironically, by being present to the actual amount of pain, the dukkha lessens:
Strain and tension don't necessarily contain pain. During physical exercise the body releases a flood of endorphins (ie natural painkillers) that numb it. I believe I've heard meditation does something similar. I can think of numerous other examples of strain that doesn't contain pain - working really hard to solve a puzzle, learning a new skill, or completing a really difficult project. Flow state is when we have high strain and tension but a high sense of efficacy and well-being.
>Learned helplessness is a story in the head. There are methods to dissolve and deconstruct that which I will not mention here. When you replace that story with a different story, you are creating the conditions for your next disappointment. Real power and freedom comes from releasing the stories that prop up your identity.
beliefs are just descriptions about reality that can be either true or false, but we can indeed be fooled by false beliefs or become dependent on true ones which may change in the future. I agree that equanimity is a great virtue which can be cultivated through regular meditation. you don't have to overcomplicate something by alluding to some mysterious methods which you know but won't explain. you can break down false beliefs through mindfulness which is the technique behind cognitive behavioral therapy. there is nothing wrong with forming new positive beliefs as long as they are accurate and you understand that reality is always changing and they may become false in the future. you must maintain a regular practice of mindfulness if you want to minimize false beliefs.
>If we don't have to do anything, then what is the point of living and struggling?
There's no objective reason to live and struggle floating out in reality. They are impulses generated within human beings through genetic, internal (ie mental/cyclical), and environmental influences. If you don't have them, you can try to cultivate them, if you don't believing that you "have to" do things is a very hollow substitute.
>If you lose your motivation for living and struggling, then what happens when you really need to make it through?
You find it or you die. This is self-evident, if this wasn't true, then suicides wouldn't happen. You need to find a strong, positive, inner source of this motivation and remain vigilant once you do or you will find half-ways to slowly kill yourself - purposely getting in unhealthy relationships, acquiring addictions or bad health habits, or overworking yourself.
>This was the paradox that was resolved for me with non-dual Shaiva Tantra.
I have no idea what paradox you're referring to. I'm not seeing one here. If you think that we either objectively have to do things or there's no point in living and struggling, that sounds like a pretty dualist concept to me. I have no idea what the "shaiva tantra" is and honestly I think it's best for those trying to find a way out of a dark place, as well as those trying to understand these life principles, to abandon these cryptic terms and speak simply or using well-established modern language. Isn't the point of communication to transmit knowledge? You're doing a poor job when you use obscure terms without defining them.
Because I am doing something similar to when you say, " I'm trying to explain very real experiences I've had ... " although I am not trying to explain about delayed gratification. I'm trying to state a lot of things that come from mindfulness meditation. Take stories in the head for example: You say, "beliefs are just descriptions about reality that can be either true or false, but we can indeed be fooled by false beliefs or become dependent on true ones which may change in the future."
From my experience, any belief is always going to be false. No description of reality can ever substitute for reality. There are no beliefs that inherently exist or are inherently true. When you have a belief, that is something that will always sit between what is present right now. When I say "stories" I do not just mean beliefs. "Story" is a translation for a Sanskrit term with a complicated pronunciation that I have not memorized. They are not just referring to ones you know about. They also refer to these filters that, often, people are not aware of. When it releases, there is a palpable, if subtle, experience as if some guazy layer of perception had been removed. The world gets a little bit clearer, and so does the mind.
When you use the word construction, "I prefer to call pain X", and your explanation, "Strain and tension don't necessarily contain pain. During physical exercise the body releases a flood of endorphins (ie natural painkillers) that numb it." That is an example of what I'm talking about. The pain is still present, even when numbed out. There is nothing wrong with pain in and of itself. Pain does not need to be something to avoid, and if anything, should be listened to as a guide for when you are pushing too hard. People usually conflate pain with suffering, and try to avoid the pain because the suffering is associated with that pain.
> you don't have to overcomplicate something by alluding to some mysterious methods which you know but won't explain.
I'm not overcomplicating this. From my perspective, people who carry a lot of stories in the head look like they are overcomplicating things. I'm not being mysterious. You cannot use another story to dissolve another story unless that story itself self-dissolves. This is why people generally cannot talk their way out of something, and the stories in head goes around in loops.
> You find it or you die. This is self-evident, if this wasn't true, then suicides wouldn't happen.
This is not true. Suicides do not happen because someone loses motivation to live. It happens because someone wants to stop the suffering.
> I have no idea what paradox you're referring to. I'm not seeing one here. If you think that we either objectively have to do things or there's no point in living and struggling, that sounds like a pretty dualist concept to me.
I don't think you have come across this paradox in your experience yet.
> I have no idea what the "shaiva tantra" is and honestly I think it's best for those trying to find a way out of a dark place, as well as those trying to understand these life principles, to abandon these cryptic terms and speak simply or using well-established modern language. Isn't the point of communication to transmit knowledge? You're doing a poor job when you use obscure terms without defining them.
I am not using cryptic terms. I am using very precise terms that points to specific experiences. I can talk about the emotions of "fiero", or "naches", and those have no English equivalent, yet they are very real and precise for Italian or Yiddhish speakers. No well-established modern language has a handle on _dukkha_ or many of the things you might find in Vipassana. Those are better taught with "pointing out exercises", where someone brings your attention to something over and over again, as they arise.
Classical, transcendental non-dual Shaiva Tantra is a name for a specific set of teachings coming out of medieval India. It is very specific, it is very dense. If you want to read about it, the best book in English is Christopher Wallis's Tantra Illuminated.
If I seem to be obfuscating though, it is because I am, and what I am hiding takes more than one afternoon's conversation to cover. I do not mind talking to someone about it, but it isn't as if I have the skill to condense all of this into a tldr.
I'll try to condense some of it here: "Dark places" can be seen as a metaphor for experiencing depression, despair, or learned helplessness. Much of it comes from conditioning from the environment: parents, schools, and the way the reward-punishment system is set up. However, there are other sources in which one can enter into extended states like that. It might be inherited ancestrally, even from someone not directly blood-related. It may be from past lives. (Which, when you consider this frame with suicides, suicide is a terrible mistake because it does not stop the suffering; someone who lost the motivation to live finds that experience continue on eternally and cannot stop it even when they want to). There may be hungry ghosts eating your mind space like a zombie -- often indicated when you get arbitrary thoughts, such as suicide, appear without precedence and it does not feel like your own patterns of thoughts; the more successful hungry ghosts will make it seem like it is your idea. Beliefs in learned helplessness can come from any one of these, or even reinforced by more than one of these. What I included is not an exhaustive list.
There are numerous methods developed to work with this. They work at different layers or with different levels of understanding. Some are coupled to "local color", that is, the specific set of cultural beliefs and values. The ones that work all have one essential thing in common: mindfulness. That does not mean that mindfulness alone will take you all the way -- well, it does, just perhaps not as effectively. Some methods specializes in certain aspects of this and can an address those aspects better.
So you are right: what you are trying to say when you impart skills and knowledge like this will work for a lot of people. However, there may be other things going on, and require a different way of addressing it.
I come from more of a taoist background, when I read the tao te ching it changed my life. I would see how he tries to present his ideas - vague, contradictory, unprecise - as I think that is a much better way to communicate these attitudes (ie the insights of meditation/awareness/secular "spirituality") to most modern cultures today.
better than that, check out alan watts, he introduced much of eastern philosophy to the west and he is probably my favorite public speaker of all time, period. he makes everything sound profound and mysterious and yet a meaningless joke at the same time - just like the ideas really are.
back to our "disagreement" - I think we're just working from opposite directions of the same core fundamentals (yin/yang, in other words) - your approach is very rigid, precise, and ruthlessly blunt and honest. my approach is more boiled down to essentials, focused on a roughly correct understanding that will guide most people in the right direction over time, and forgiving - flowing like water as a taoist might say.
the fact is, unlike in many western cultures and ideas (unlike stoicism, which is arguably the western "version" of eastern thought and attitudes), there's no contradiction between our approaches I think - they're more like two different teachers where some personalities need your precisely rigid approach and some might benefit more from a more taoist approach. Ultimately in my life I've needed a bit of both but at different points - the strong harsh ruthlessly honest self-discipline most recently, and the relaxed, intuitively focused, flexible taoist approach when I was a stressed teenager.
I hope this helps make things clearer for anyone reading this as if reading a debate.
This makes so much sense of so many of the interactions I've had with younger people! Look at games nowadays. 80's arcade games used to pretty much throw you into the pool, and leave it up to you to swim. (Granted, they threw you into the shallow end.) Now, it seems like games hold your hand and praise you for every action you take.
We lost a lot of our traditional rites of passages. Some of the traditional ones goes against contemporary notions of childhood and would be considered child abuse.
In some cultures, for example, failing the rite of passage is fatal. Those cultures may consider that the spirit inhabiting the child was not serious or ready about being an adult. Try against next time.
I'm not suggesting we lost our way and we should go back to traditional practices. Rather, there are wisdom we learned with our modernity and there is wisdom we lost when we left behind traditional wisdom. There is some sort of way where we can have those teachings of self-reliance that's expressed natively, and emergently from our modern sensibilities.
I don't know what that is, though it's something in the back of my mind for a while.
Eventually, you kick away the support when the support no longer becomes supportive. By that I mean, you realize you are attached and relying on the support, which forms an attachment -- a story. "This too shall pass."
In the meantime, enjoy the support, just don't confuse it for the practice.
* Headspace
* Smiling Mind
* iMindfulness
* Mindfulness Daily