What is your reasoning for not inspecting the usefulness of meditation as part of your life?
Short answer: I do not know.
A (bit longer) elaboration: I claim to be a Rationalist to the extent that my experience is 100% consistent with rationalism being the single most valuable tool to solving the problems I have had to try and solve so far in my years of living. In the words of Daniel Robinson, rational thought is the thread of Ariadne by which we might escape from the many labyrinths, problems, which our lives in this world pose to us. He considers it our greatest debt to the Greeks.
It is not a panacea. It has little power for any love / sex relationship I have ever been involved in, for example. Meditation, in my experience, is also highly resistant to rational analysis or even empirical analysis beyond a crude treatment. I can be such a ruthless skeptic that I have said that skeptics in general are incapable of discerning their own viewpoint to be self-contradictory. I am skeptical that meditation is a proper discussion subject for this board, but I noticed the interest in the topic when it was posted and discussed previously, so I have tried to present something systematic (although not entirely rational) regarding my own experience.
This issue of “usefulness of meditation” makes little sense to me; but my interest in my meditation has continued for many years and I anticipate it will continue to do so for many more. I suspect many will find my elaborate answer pussyfooting so I will repeat and emphasize my short answer above: I do not know.
I believe I have a few of the same questions that you have.
Short answer: I do not know.
A (bit longer) elaboration: I claim to be a Rationalist to the extent that my experience is 100% consistent with rationalism being the single most valuable tool to solving the problems I have had to try and solve so far in my years of living. In the words of Daniel Robinson, rational thought is the thread of Ariadne by which we might escape from the many labyrinths, problems, which our lives in this world pose to us. He considers it our greatest debt to the Greeks.
It is not a panacea. It has little power for any love / sex relationship I have ever been involved in, for example. Meditation, in my experience, is also highly resistant to rational analysis or even empirical analysis beyond a crude treatment. I can be such a ruthless skeptic that I have said that skeptics in general are incapable of discerning their own viewpoint to be self-contradictory. I am skeptical that meditation is a proper discussion subject for this board, but I noticed the interest in the topic when it was posted and discussed previously, so I have tried to present something systematic (although not entirely rational) regarding my own experience.
This issue of “usefulness of meditation” makes little sense to me; but my interest in my meditation has continued for many years and I anticipate it will continue to do so for many more. I suspect many will find my elaborate answer pussyfooting so I will repeat and emphasize my short answer above: I do not know.
I believe I have a few of the same questions that you have.