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Comment by dudefeliciano | Hacker News Reader

I never know what to respond to people when talking about meditation and they mention something like running/playing guitar/reading/etc is their meditation. I don't want to diminish their experience or sound like a contrarian but also know that

> doing something is not meditation.

so usually those conversations end with a "hm yes that's nice too"

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So prayer beads aren't meditation? Indian traditionalists are out. Walking isn't, so zen is out. Chanting isn't, so.i guess all bhuddism is pretty much not ok. Maybe there is no true meditation.

It is ok to be focused and mindful with different aids. Always has been. There are self focused (mindful) and also self-abnegating traditions, and all count.

No harm to.me if others have a different way. If music, or chants, or gardening, have at it.

I am not saying that it's harmful I just find it hard to explain or relate my experience of sitting meditation, having only "internal aids" (the breath, the body, or thoughts themselves) rather than external aids or activities like running. I also know what the flow state feels like when doing sports, playing music, drawing, etc, but to me that experience is something very different than just sitting. That difference is what I find difficult to convey.

All the things you describe can be meditative after one has experienced a meaningful glimpse. But the only way to initially get such a meaningful glimpse is through seated meditation.

There's this very annoying thing where meditation experts try to dumb it down until they're basically describing a state of not thinking about stuff, and then someone else goes "oh cool yeah I don't think about stuff when I run", and the experts immediately go "but not like that!"

I wish that meditation experts would either dumb things down better or not try at all.

Being mindful is sage advice. But equating some repetitive task with meditation is the same as equating riding a bicycle with deep REM sleep.

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