Ask HN: Meditation
Can you change your mind through meditation? does neuroscience back all the buzz about mediation lately?
I also run http://OpenSit.com which is a free meditation journal and global community, where you can share your practice and connect with others. It's open source too ^-^
You can read my meditation journal, including goofy entries from when I first started meditating 6 years ago, here: http://opensit.com/u/danbartlett
I react a lot better to stress. On days at work when I was in tough situations, my mind would be racing for the whole day and I wouldn't be able to sleep. I feel like now, I can clear my thoughts and focus on what I should be focusing on.
I am very calm when in situations where I used to get angry(video games, lol).
I used to have major insomnia, now I can get to bed a little bit earlier. I'm still working on this part.
I thought this was my imagination, that it was purely coincidence that the solutions to my problem sets would come to me in the mornings, but my psychotherapist assured me it was real. Elsewhere I have read that one function of sleep, for humans anyway, is that it enables us to solve problems.
Did you use some form of presleep self talk, think about the problem just before bed... It's a fascinating idea.
However it also doesn't work to beat at the problem so hard that I stay up all night without sleeping.
I'm afraid that I didn't clue into this until _graduate_ school. As an undergrad I quite commonly didn't start my problem sets until the night before they were due.
While Buddhists commonly practice meditation, Siddartha Gautama's actual question was "Why are so many people so very unhappy?"
No amount of money, fame, power, sex or what have you will make someone happy. If one is happy, it's not likely the result of anything that one possesses.
The simplest answer to his question is that people are so unhappy because they are trying too hard. Perhaps it is better just to accept what we have, rather than striving for what we do not possess.
I personally am as poor as a churchmouse. There are times when it bothers me, but not a whole lot. By contrast, the very most miserable time I ever had, I was making $120.00/hour as a software consultant, but had to be far away from my wife so as to work on-site.
When I do get any significant amount of money these days, quite commonly I give it away. I find it odd that many of my colleagues, even my own mother, regard me as grossly irresponsible for doing so.
Alternatively you can be in resistance to what is, which tends to rob you of your serenity.
I meditate daily, using this app - http://stopbreathethink.org/
I don't know about neuroscience's take on it, but my experience is that mental health professionals all encourage me to meditate.
If you practice Buddhist meditation, be advised that it can be excruciatingly boring.
It's meant to be.
How often do you just sit and do nothing? Not reading hacker news, soylent news, tweaking your code?
I don't practice sitting meditation a whole lot, but quite frequently I walk aimlessly, most commonly late at night.
They distinguish between the development of concentration (samatha) and wisdom (vipassanā, inspiring the current "mindfulness" movement in the West), and the objective is to cultivate wisdom, and not merely tranquility.
The mind is always directed and purposeful, and the (historical) Buddha applied razor-sharp logic toward experiential existence, in a very practical way.
When I walk I generally let my mind wander, but while doing so often come up with really good ideas.
Not long ago I was questioned by a couple Portland Police Bureau officers. I expect they thought I'd just scored some drugs, in the end I was able to satisfy them that I just liked to walk around at night.
"You know, you shouldn't be walking around Crack Central at three in the morning with that computer. Someone is going to stick a knife in you and take it."
"Thank you officer, but no one ever messes with me because I look just like a Hell's Angel."