Meditation and Performance
al3x.net
al3x.net
This is when I stopped reading the article. Asking teammates to do meditation before coding is one thing, but asking them to read a passage from the Bible. whoa..
No, the reason I disagree with your position is because you've made a piece of information taboo merely because of the source. Not all passages from the Bible are religious, and even the ones that can have meaning in non-religious contexts. The fact that the book is holy to someone should not provide the impulse to discard its entire contents without a second thought.
Even if all of the above rings hollow to you, the suggestion that people contemplate a Bible verse in the initial incarnation of "MDD" is actually somewhat pertinent to the parable, in that later groups practicing "MDD" throw out the Bible verse and instead meditate reflectively on famous poems, and the story notes that this substitution is no less effective.
Yet you stopped reading an insightful story because you're concerned that a made-up person in a made-up situation suggested thinking about a Bible verse.
Sorry if this sounds like concern-trolling.
If you've heard of that conference but not Mindfulness in Plain English, I'd recommend reading the latter. It's free to read online here: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
At the risk of sounding a little too touchy-feely, Meditation helps you:
a) Be more compassionate and choose what is right, instead of what brings more material wealth.
b) Bring more clarity and focus to what you are doing.
c) Understand yourself and others better, forgive yourself and others easily, love yourself and others unconditionally.
While those might seem abhorrent to us, a mind improving practice should work for any goal. It's not like exercising doesn't work to your advantage if you're evil.
To the point: if one is not interested in A or C, just B, is it still helpful?
Increased awareness of them allows us tackle them effectively, but requires lot of brainpower most of us are unwilling to spend.
Meditation allows one to simplify a problem so one can see its dimensions clearly (less brainpower needed), then allows one to weigh solutions along with their side effects (to get an overall better solution).
Let's actually put this into context: you sit there and do stuff with your mind that is supposed, over time, to make your mind work better (even if better means silently!). This is not in principle different from exercise: you do thing with the body that result in a better body. The argument between dancers and cross fit enthusiasts about the real benefits of exercise would be a good parallel to the discussion about meditation for a better mind vs. meditation for enlightenment.
To expand a hair more: meditation is a tool on the path to enlightenment. You certainly need it, but you may also need other things: "wisdom teaching" that show you what to look for, or membership in an enlightened society to provide models to step into as your practice matures. Climbing might be an analogy: a lot of time in the gym, but the real action is on the peaks. It's just that in meditation, the gym and the peaks are both on the meditation cushion, in different parts of your mind.
One thing that I don't think anybody has discussed here is the role of time. I'm willing to believe that a fair number of the people who are meditating for better minds now will meditate for other reasons as they age and their mortality presses in on them. Others will find a deeper practice during personal tragedy, or moral crisis, or any other deep impetus for change. I don't see anything wrong with a whole bunch of people hitting the gym - those who choose to climb later will be in good shape.
But, and this does need said: the enlightenment tradition must be protected through all this popularity. The dance, the mountain climb, all of that - those are analogies for something far above-and-beyond one's regular sitting practice: you build CERN in your mind and look for the fundamental nature of consciousness through introspection. It's not done one mantra at a time.
Is this really true? A lot of people want to meditate and learn to meditate (me included), and a lot of us have tried a bunch of books, so called courses etc. But eventually gave up, because we couldn't succeed. I think having a good/experienced teacher would make a world of difference to people like us.
In "The three pillars of Zen", zen master Yasutani-roshu tackles this issue decisively. There is no problem with people just going after the goal of increased concentration, a state he describes as: "more than the ability to concentrate in the usual sense of the word. It is a dynamic power which, once mobilized, enables us even in the most sudden and unexpected situations to act instantly. Those who have developed 'it' are no longer slaves to their passions."
It does say that this "quality" recedes without practice, it's something you have to maintain by meditating every day, as opposed to the actual deep changes that come from seeking enlightenment.
But discussing which is better is, imo, a fool's errand.
I'm referring to talk about "Life force" or "true nature" etc. Those are matters of biology and physics, so writing about them when your only source of knowledge is sitting by yourself thinking private thoughts, stretches credibility a bit.
I'm sure I would gain a lot by being able to shut my mind up at times. And indeed, I find induced mental states to be great. But while I can lie to myself about many things, I can't seem to do it with mysticism around mediation. I'd like to eliminate that hurdle.
There is nothing much more to understand. The single best piece of advice I ever got came from an Indian guru named Muktananda who said "Meditation is not very difficult and meditation is not very easy". That is, you need to find a balance between trying too hard and not trying hard enough.
The mind is much closer to computer science (with multiple processes) than biology and physics as currently understood. Think of how a computer shuts down cleanly (vs after corruption or out of memory) and then bootstraps clean (clarity). Or a tall office building that is lit all the way up, that is gradually shutting out its lights level by level. A physical analogy that is useful is of a train that is slowly coming to a halt. One cannot stop it suddenly as it has a lot of momentum, but one can reduce momentum gradually and let it coast to a halt. The mind is similar to the train - it does not really want to stop when awake - that's why it takes practice. Sometimes one of these images work, sometimes none do. I'm curious about other's experience as well.
So the foundation that was eventually created after Maharishi moved on is actually based in Iowa. But they have TM Centers in most places. You can find your local contact through the website and make an appointment.
It's not a big deal, you go, you pay once, you get a mantra and then you're on your own depending on whether you feel it's beneficial or not.
As an East Coast skeptic I was surprised by how legit the results were.
The reason why I wanted to share it was because of my own experience with TM results despite being a life-long an East Coast skeptic.
The mantra repetition is a very simple thing but it does actually have the ability to alter brain wave activity and I believe it has something to do with the cyclical nature of the repeated thought.
You can check out http://www.tm.org/ and other TM related sources for more on the scientific research that they have completed.
Also there are plenty of other reports from successful, creative people who have made TM a part of their daily lives, some for decades e.g. David Lynch, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, etc.
In addition, in my personal experience there has been a "lucid dreaming" or "inner hallucination" component to my meditations which are sometimes quite visceral in nature....all from just repeating a simple phrase.
That along with its other benefits that I have experienced personally prompted my belief that a mantra based practice is worth trying.
If you're interested in meditation, Taoist practice is much harder to ruin. There is way less expectation as to what you should and shouldn't be doing. Just practice. :)
Its not tech specific, but anything with a large potential for "success". This is nothing new. Zen has been commercialized repeatedly within economic bubbles.