I've collected lots of material, techniques and methods over the past few years on mindfulness and applied it to my own (hacker) brain.
My question(s)
- what mindfulness techniques do you use? - do you find the mindfulness material out there a bit hippie? - what apps/hacks do you use? - do you know of any books specifically for hackers/programmers/techies?
Cheers!
The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science by John Yates (Ph.D.). This is the best book I've read on meditation. It takes you through why it works, how to do it, how to keep improving at it, and all the common pitfalls you'll encounter.
I take a bit of issue with this idea in general that because something has worked for thousands of years, we shouldn't try to apply modern ideas to it. In this case, I think for the actual practice of mindfulness, it's mostly true that helpful technology aids are ironically unhelpful, but building a habit can be hard. Apps like Headspace and so on help a lot of people build the habit.
Seconding the book recommendation -- it's by far the best book I've read on the topic too.
I bought one of those $300 headbands that "monitored your brain wave" while meditating and had all the apps. A chapter or two into the book I realized how ridiculous it all was. They might have helped establish a habit, but I was never going to progress very far while using them.
That's not the point Lom7 made. Some "modern ideas" like neurology seem to go very well with meditation. Some.
What I personally take issue with is the idea that mindfulness and enlightenment can be boiled down to 10 min intervals without even having to remove your earbuds.
I'm glad more and more people are getting into mediation and seeing the benefits, I just hope that developing mindfulness as a skill doesn't get lost in the app-of-month trends.
http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_eng...
Yates also makes the admirable choice of retaining traditional terminology and outlook in cases where modern science wouldn't have anything useful to add (he resists scientizing, in other words.)
"If your body was turned over to just anyone, you would doubtless take exception. Why aren't you ashamed that you have made your mind vulnerable to anyone who happens to criticize you, that it automatically becomes confused and upset?"
"It is in your power whenever you choose to retire into yourself. For there is no retreat quieter or freer from trouble than a man's own soul."
Similar to Zen and Minimalism, but with the built-in goal of searching for virtue as the best way to live a life. It's the basis for modern CBT/DBT therapies as well. Good stuff.
First time I tried meditation was in a small Tibetian temple/monastery whilst in UK. I fell in love with experience.
The method and mechanics learnt there are simple and I take them as guide.
> sit in a comfortable position. (on a meditation pillow / chair / with legs folded etc)
> keep your spine straight (mind to be alert).
> head slightly down with hands together at navel (look up in internet - it is some mudra - I forget which).
> a hint of smile on lips
> tongue touching your upper jaw (so we can breath only from nose).
> deep breathing slowly (5-10+ secs for each breath in and breath out)
> observe breath nothing else
+ variations (both were really good):
> Send good feelings for world to be happy. This happened to be a very powerful experience unlike all methods - it would be wrong of me to claim it works wonders since have tried it only few times communally whilst in monastery. Wish I could do more.
> guided gong meditation (observe breath and sound of gong - both kind of sync in meditation).
= = = =
vipassana. Came across this meditation method whilst reading about Yuval Harari (author of Sapiens) who seems do it like an olympian for two hours everyday.
I have tried vipassana intermittently - the emphasis is on long meditations where you 'learn to observe' your own thoughts (and nothing else). Google for Goenka's vipassana lectures. This appears to make one slightly analytical of one's thought than previous methods.
Anyway, if you don't want to waste your time, find a real teacher, ideally a monk/nun who's been trained, and study under him/her. Thai Buddhist monks are renowed for their mindfulness practice. Meditation practice is a risky thing, meaning you can practice 10 years without going very far, and you will never know you wasted your time.
"It's basically recycled Buddhism without all the frilly stuff."
Video essayist Exurb1a recently applied his remarkable ability to distill complex topics into a few insightful paragraphs (combined with extra dry sarcastic humor) to mindfulness and made a simple, direct, no-frills summary that explains the key points. He also included many links to various resources in the video description.
That said, I like the guy's voice and find him overall calming, and it's easy to use with just enough variety (not much, mind you, just a little) in the different packs/days to keep me from completely tuning out. It's honestly not all that hippie--there's not a ton of content past the exercises themselves, but what there is seems pretty relevant to real world stuff, not "expanding your aura" or whatever. The subscription nature of it also makes me slightly more aware of the wasted opportunity (and money) if I don't use it, so I have a slightly higher level of accountability.
I'd compare it to a gym membership vs. doing ad hoc workouts at home, with all the pros and cons that implies. I personally find it worth the money. YMMV, but they have some content up for free to try out.
Edit: having just read the Wired article that probably inspired this, I should mention I have notifications turned off and don't track any gamification features aside from generally having meditation in a habit tracker (which I'd do regardless of technique).
Catch your luminous mind early in the day and sit in the in-dwelling Nature of Expansiveness and Clarity. Mind has a natural state beyond the vicissitudes and temporariness of all manifestation. Resting in this natural state is the key instruction.
A single drop of water every day can bore a hole through a stone. But splash a bucket of water on a boulder all at once and there's no progress. Steadiness and Regularity in commitment to "polishing" of mind state, clarity, joy, altruistic and beneficent intent and attitude, all lead to serendipitous unfolding.
I'd say find a nice list of skillful mental qualities to cultivate and work on one each day in a rotation. Training diligently in the Four Limitless Abodes or Four Divine Modes of Being (Brahma-Viharas) is my heart's advice to you.
If you're trying to find "mindfulness hacks" I think you'd probably be missing the point.
There's plenty of "non-hippie" books out there on the subject these days... Waking Up by Sam Harris and 10% Happier by Dan Harris come to mind.
Then do anapanasati, or get The Mind Illuminated, as others suggested, if you need a more thorough explanation on what to do.
The only other enhancements I can think of are earplugs or a sensory deprivation tank.
You don't need to listen to some narrator, you need to anchor your mind, and then watch what it's doing.
I'm in love with a meditation app called Timeless on iOS. So there are tools like that one can use to start and maintain a meditation practice.
I find mindfulness to be at the core of developing emotional intelligence, and self awareness. These are equally beneficial both privately, and professionally.
I also worked for a year and a half on the C++ SDK for Muse, which is an EEG headband designed for meditation training. I'm still a big fan of them, and recommend them to people looking for apps for this stuff. I don't Muse much these days, but that's not because of any flaw with their program. It's actually quite good in this line of work to create something that people stop depending on eventually.
In terms of techniques, these days I mostly practice a sort of focus on the breath in the belly, and during non-practice periods I generally practice merging with the task at hand, using the act of, say, writing an email as my focus space. But I also have worked with a lot of other techniques for a few days or a few months.
I second the recommendation for The Mind Illuminated. It's a fantastic book. I'd also add Shinzen Young's The Science of Enlightenment.
My main recommendation, though, is to do what I'm doing: join a community that's devoted to practice. There's a depth and rigor that comes from that sort of accountability that I haven't been able to find any other way. Of course you could decide to commit to an extended period of training—say a year or more—but it's generally not necessary. It's also good to come for a few weeks or a few days, or even to come by for lunch some time. There are lots of places that are good—maybe you have a local Zen center or Shambhala center. There are also lots of good secular meetups, like Consciousness Explorers Club in Toronto.
In case you're interested in visiting me at my place of training, we have a website: https://www.monasticacademy.com/ and you should also feel welcome to email us: info AT monastic DOT academy. We welcome guests, and one of our specialties is in creating space to practice integrating mindfulness into your existing work and life. So we operate as a sort of coworking space, with free wifi and unlimited coffee.
"modern project-based learning and leadership training"
I wonder what they are really trying to sell and how much this is compatible with Buddhism (given the pictures clearly hint at Zen).
I'm speaking personally in the following, not on behalf of the organization, because it's late, I'm about to go to bed, and everyone else is off on a vision quest or traveling. So this is all my opinion, probably wrong, but maybe of use to you.
From my own knowledge, I can tell you everything we are trying to sell: we charge a modest rate for overnight visits, we have an initial training fee, and we have a mindfulness in schools program that we charge money for. Of these, the only thing that comes close to being a significant source of income is visits. The training fee is largely there because we've found that there is an extremely high correlation between "not willing to pay a modest training fee" and "not actually all that interested in this training" historically, so having it helps to not waste anyone's time. Once upon a time, we tried to make our main living from the schools program, but at this point it's purely a service project and the charges are mostly to offset costs.
Our main source of income is donations. We rely on people seeing this training as important enough for them to give significant amounts of their own money to it. That has so far in our history happened enough for us to continue to exist. If it ever stops happening, we will probably stop existing. (FWIW I'm currently one of the largest donors. I'm not doing it because anyone asked me to.)
There is a more general thing though, behind what you're saying, which I'm reading—correct me if I'm wrong—as "this is a super confusing, suspicious-looking online presence, what is these guys' deal?" That, I can definitely affirm. We are, as an organization as well as a demographic (people who are apt to give significant portions of their lives to monastic training), not super good at the art of marketing, presentation, or taking people's money. This is why there's a stereotype of spirituality and religion as fluffy, nonsensical, and counterproductive.
There is another side of that phenomenon: people who are very good at marketing, presentation, and taking people's money tend, as a demographic, not to be super good at caring about the world or indeed anyone else. (Which of course is why there's a stereotype of business and corporations as evil, soulless, and greedy.)
Fixing that, you may or may not have gathered from our confusing online presence, is our organization's raison d'être. We think it is great when being good at doing stuff is correlated with caring about the world and things other than yourself. We would like it to happen more often. Hence the leadership training, the business skills, the other stuff that is kind of weird to see for monastic organizations.
I'm curious what you mean by "compatible with Buddhism." I'd also like to know which pictures hint at Zen.
Personally, what I find confusing about the website is that it conveys a feeling of a Buddhist monastery (with the leave and meditation posture as symbol, the domain name clearly aims at monasticism) but I'm not sure if it is a monastery or not; not sure if the teacher is a monk or not; the meditation section also notes that there are talks about Buddhism but not exclusively.
If people want to teach mindfulness its none of my business, but if you want to teach some kind of Buddhism I believe it is best to leave it at the Buddhist monks and nuns - those are the ones that can/should teach in the first place.
I suppose it might have helped you for that info to be on the "Meet Us" page. Is that true? Where else did you expect to find it?
We are not a monastery, in that none of us except Forall are ordained. But we wake up each day at 4:30 AM, chant and sit for multiple hours a day, and set aside time regularly to devote all our attention to formal practice. "Monastic Academy" is our current best attempt at conveying something like that in two words that people can remember. I welcome any feedback for how to do it better.