Hacker News Reader

Comment by jds375 | Hacker News Reader

Interesting read. Based on the author's findings, I'm not sure if I could justify it. I feel like there's probably something better I could do, especially if the effects of meditation aren't as noticeable outside of your meditation period as the author suggests. Still worth a shot at some point I guess.

View on HN

What the OP failed to do with his practice, which is a cornerstone of classic buddhist, yoga, and hindu practices, is that once one gains enough skill at the sitting or asana practice one is supposed to start progressively expanding the practice to daily life. You do the 30 minute meditation thing everyday until you start to get the hang of it, then you expand that to walking or asana meditation, then start doing breath check ins throughout the day and gradually expand mindfullness to as many activities as you can. I do it washing dishes, sitting in traffic, listening to people, etc. There are little tricks to help, I make up games for myself that essentially bring me to some kind of awareness about the present moment without getting lost in the normal thought garbage. Games like, count how many times I say "I" in this conversation, can I do the dishes while counting 5 counts on each inhale/exhale, where is the balance on my feet at when I am walking/standing in line, etc. These are tricks that train the mind to start to gain ever more mindful awareness of the present moment, which is training the mind to essentially do the meditation thing during daily life. It the most beneficial practice I've ever found, because it makes you better at literally EVERYTHING. Its giving you the ability to be more conscious of everything you do, without reacting mindlessly to everything, and an ever more subtle experience of life. Trading up to manual transmission driving and higher resolution vision

I feel like there's probably something better I could do, especially if the effects of meditation aren't as noticeable outside of your meditation period as the author suggests.

Not to diminish the OP's accomplishment, but he only meditated for 100 days. Even if you're as disciplined as he was, you're only scratching the surface at 3 months. If you want the perennial peace of a monk or a master, that takes years. But it's about the process and the work as much as the result.

Most of us have decades of conditioning in a high-stress, competitive society (and, if you believe in karma, possibly eons of difficult karma). We're also evolved to survive in a much harsher environment than the one we're in now. You're not going to undo all of that in 3 months, but you can make a surprising amount of progress.

To me, meditation seems like an entirely self serving activity. As an analogy (and probably not a very good one) what if electrons began to meditate 60 minutes per day? They lose their charge and basically do nothing? Or what if birds and bees began to meditate? I think the result of all that would be pretty obvious.

Your first error is assuming that meditation is "doing nothing". Meditation is an attempt to get past the shallow chatter of mostly negative thoughts that drains us, and closer to the deeper nature of mind.

Perhaps the electron, which fulfills its physical contract perfectly, is already in a state of pure meditation. Who knows?

As for whether animals meditate and what would happen if they did, I have no idea.

You could say something similar about sleep. Yet our bodies and minds need sleep to recharge. I could say something similar about meditation, but it's something you must experience. If you're curious, try it and see what happens, an experiment, as it were.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com