Seems to me that modern life full of distractions. As a smart person, you probably have a work that requires thinking (not just moving your muscles in a repetitive way). In your free time there is internet with all the websites optimized for addictiveness. Plus all the other things you want to do (books to read, movies to see, friends to visit). Electricity can turn your late night into a day; you can take a book or a smartphone everywhere.
So, unless we choose it consciously, there are no silent moments, to get in contact with yourself… or whatever higher power you imagine there to be, talking to you.
I wonder what is the effect ratio between meditation and simply taking a break and wondering about stuff. Maybe it’s our productivity-focused thinking saying that meditating (doing some hard work in order to gain supernatural powers) is a worthy endeavor, while goofing off is a sin.
“Simply taking a break and wondering about stuff” is a decent way to get in touch with this thing I’m pointing at. The main downside to it is that it’s slow, in that for it to produce effects similar to meditation probably requires an order of magnitude more time, and likely won’t result in the calmest brain states where you can study your phenomenology clearly.
Seems to me that modern life full of distractions. As a smart person, you probably have a work that requires thinking (not just moving your muscles in a repetitive way). In your free time there is internet with all the websites optimized for addictiveness. Plus all the other things you want to do (books to read, movies to see, friends to visit). Electricity can turn your late night into a day; you can take a book or a smartphone everywhere.
So, unless we choose it consciously, there are no silent moments, to get in contact with yourself… or whatever higher power you imagine there to be, talking to you.
I wonder what is the effect ratio between meditation and simply taking a break and wondering about stuff. Maybe it’s our productivity-focused thinking saying that meditating (doing some hard work in order to gain supernatural powers) is a worthy endeavor, while goofing off is a sin.
“Simply taking a break and wondering about stuff” is a decent way to get in touch with this thing I’m pointing at. The main downside to it is that it’s slow, in that for it to produce effects similar to meditation probably requires an order of magnitude more time, and likely won’t result in the calmest brain states where you can study your phenomenology clearly.