Meditation Sam Harris
Mindfulness is in very much in vague at this moment, as many of you probably know.
It is often taught as though it were a glorified version of an executive stress ball.
It is a tool that you want in your toolkit.
It prepares you emotionally to go into a new experience with the positive attitude and you are hauling around baggage from the past.
That is true.
Actually, it having focus and having your mind in the present moment is a little bit of a superpower in a situation that we are all in from day to day.
Nevertheless, that actually undervalues what mindfulness really is and its true potential.
It is more like the large hadrons collider in that it is a real tool for making some fundamental discoveries about the nature of the mind.
Moreover, one of its discoveries is that the sense of self that all carry around from day to day is an illusion.
In addition, cutting through that illusion I think is actually more important than stress reduction, or any of the other conventional benefits that are accurately ascribed to mindfulness.
The enemy of mindfulness and really of any meditation practice is being lost in the thought is to be thinking without knowing that you are thinking.
Now the problem is not thoughts themselves.
We need to think to do almost everything that makes us human - to reason, to plan to have social relationships, to do science.
Thinking is indispensable to us but most of us spend every moment of our waking lives thinking without knowing that we are thinking.
Moreover, this automaticity is a kind of scrim thrown over at the present moment through which we view everything.
In addition, it is distorting of our lives/ our emotions.
It engineers our unhappiness in every moment because most of what we think is quite unpleasant.
We're judging ourselves, we are judging others, we're worrying about the future, we're regretting the past, we're at war with our experience, in subtle or coarse ways.
Much of this self-talk is unpleasant and diminishing our happiness in every moment.
Therefore, meditation is a tool for cutting through that.
It's interrupting this continuous conversation we're having with ourselves.
So that is - that in and of itself is beneficial.
However, there are features of our experience that we do not notice when we're lost in thought.
Therefore, for instance, every experience we have ever had, every emotion, the anger you felt, yesterday or a year ago is not here anymore.
It arises and it passes away.
Moreover, if it comes back in the present moment by virtue of your thinking about it again, it will subside again when you are no longer thinking about it.
Now, this is something that people tend not to notice because we are rather than merely feel motion like anger, we spend our time thinking of all the reasons why we have every right to be angry.
Therefore, to conversation keeps this emotion in play for much, much longer than its natural half-life.
In addition, if you are able, through mindfulness to interrupt this conversion and simply witness the feeling of anger at it arises, you will find you can't be angry for more than a few moments at a time.
If you think you can be angry for a day or even for an hour without continually manufacturing this emotion by thinking without knowing that you're thinking you're mistaken.
In addition, this is something you can just witness for yourself.
Again, this is an objective truth claim about the nature of subjective experience, and it is testable.
In addition, mindfulness is the tool that you would use to test it.
One problem is that most of the people who teach mindfulness - and I know many of the great Vipassana teachers in the West and in the East and I have immense respect for these people.
I learned to meditate in a traditionally Buddhist context.
Nevertheless, most people who teach mindfulness are still in the religious business.
The connection to the traditional Buddhism, in particular, is explicit and I think that there are problems with that because when you, if you are declaring yourself a Buddhist you are part of the problem of religious sectarianism that has needlessly shattered our world.
I think we have to get out of the religion business.
They are still - they are propagating Western Buddhism and American Buddhism.
The connection to the tradition of Buddhism, in particular, is explicit and I think their problems with that because when you, if you are declaring yourself a Buddhist you are part of the religious sectarianism that has needlessly shattered our world.
Moreover, I think we have to get out of the religion business.
It is no more Buddhist than physics is Christian.
You know the Christians invented physics or discovered physics but anyone talking about Christian physics clearly doesn't understand the significance of what we've understood through that means.
It is the same with meditation.
There is going to come a time where we no larger are tempted to talk about Buddhist meditation as opposed to any other form.
We are just talking about turning consciousness upon itself and what can be discovered by
That whatever is the truth about mindfulness, meditation, and introspective methodology that will deliver truths about the nature of consciousness is non-sectarian.
We are just talking about turning consciousness upon itself and what can be discovered by that process.
Now it is just so happens that Buddhism almost uniquely has given us a language and a methodology to do this in a way that is really well designed for export to secular culture because you can get to the core truths of Buddhism, the truth of selflessness, the ceaseless impermanence of mental phenomenon, the intrinsic unsatisfactoriness of experience because you can't hold on to anything.
No matter how pleasant an experience is it arises and passes away.
Moreover, no matter how much you protect yourself, the unpleasant experience is destined to come.
These features of our minds can be fully tested and understood without believing anything on insufficient evidence.
Therefore, it is true to say that despite all of the spooky metaphysics and unjustified claims within Buddhism you can get to the core of it without any faith claim and without being intellectually dishonest.
However, it is intellectually dishonest, I think, to keep talking about these truths is an exclusively Buddhist context, because it is misleading.
It subtly gives the message that in order to have rich, meaningful; important spiritual lives we must somehow continue to endorse religious sectarianism.
We must still frame this inquiry with an ancient allegiance to one accidental strand of human culture as opposed to using all of the concepts and tools and conversations, that are available to us in the (21st) century.
Mindfulness is in very much in vague at this moment, as many of you probably know.
It is often taught as though it were a glorified version of an executive stress ball.
It is a tool that you want in your toolkit.
It prepares you emotionally to go into a new experience with the positive attitude and you are hauling around baggage from the past.
That is true.
Actually, it having focus and having your mind in the present moment is a little bit of a superpower in a situation that we are all in from day to day.
Nevertheless, that actually undervalues what mindfulness really is and its true potential.
It is more like the large hadrons collider in that it is a real tool for making some fundamental discoveries about the nature of the mind.
Moreover, one of its discoveries is that the sense of self that all carry around from day to day is an illusion.
In addition, cutting through that illusion I think is actually more important than stress reduction, or any of the other conventional benefits that are accurately ascribed to mindfulness.
The enemy of mindfulness and really of any meditation practice is being lost in the thought is to be thinking without knowing that you are thinking.
Now the problem is not thoughts themselves.
We need to think to do almost everything that makes us human - to reason, to plan to have social relationships, to do science.
Thinking is indispensable to us but most of us spend every moment of our waking lives thinking without knowing that we are thinking.
Moreover, this automaticity is a kind of scrim thrown over at the present moment through which we view everything.
In addition, it is distorting of our lives/ our emotions.
It engineers our unhappiness in every moment because most of what we think is quite unpleasant.
We're judging ourselves, we are judging others, we're worrying about the future, we're regretting the past, we're at war with our experience, in subtle or coarse ways.
Much of this self-talk is unpleasant and diminishing our happiness in every moment.
Therefore, meditation is a tool for cutting through that.
It's interrupting this continuous conversation we're having with ourselves.
So that is - that in and of itself is beneficial.
However, there are features of our experience that we do not notice when we're lost in thought.
Therefore, for instance, every experience we have ever had, every emotion, the anger you felt, yesterday or a year ago is not here anymore.
It arises and it passes away.
Moreover, if it comes back in the present moment by virtue of your thinking about it again, it will subside again when you are no longer thinking about it.
Now, this is something that people tend not to notice because we are rather than merely feel motion like anger, we spend our time thinking of all the reasons why we have every right to be angry.
Therefore, to conversation keeps this emotion in play for much, much longer than its natural half-life.
In addition, if you are able, through mindfulness to interrupt this conversion and simply witness the feeling of anger at it arises, you will find you can't be angry for more than a few moments at a time.
If you think you can be angry for a day or even for an hour without continually manufacturing this emotion by thinking without knowing that you're thinking you're mistaken.
In addition, this is something you can just witness for yourself.
Again, this is an objective truth claim about the nature of subjective experience, and it is testable.
In addition, mindfulness is the tool that you would use to test it.
One problem is that most of the people who teach mindfulness - and I know many of the great Vipassana teachers in the West and in the East and I have immense respect for these people.
I learned to meditate in a traditionally Buddhist context.
Nevertheless, most people who teach mindfulness are still in the religious business.
The connection to the traditional Buddhism, in particular, is explicit and I think that there are problems with that because when you, if you are declaring yourself a Buddhist you are part of the problem of religious sectarianism that has needlessly shattered our world.
I think we have to get out of the religion business.
They are still - they are propagating Western Buddhism and American Buddhism.
The connection to the tradition of Buddhism, in particular, is explicit and I think their problems with that because when you, if you are declaring yourself a Buddhist you are part of the religious sectarianism that has needlessly shattered our world.
Moreover, I think we have to get out of the religion business.
It is no more Buddhist than physics is Christian.
You know the Christians invented physics or discovered physics but anyone talking about Christian physics clearly doesn't understand the significance of what we've understood through that means.
It is the same with meditation.
There is going to come a time where we no larger are tempted to talk about Buddhist meditation as opposed to any other form.
We are just talking about turning consciousness upon itself and what can be discovered by
That whatever is the truth about mindfulness, meditation, and introspective methodology that will deliver truths about the nature of consciousness is non-sectarian.
We are just talking about turning consciousness upon itself and what can be discovered by that process.
Now it is just so happens that Buddhism almost uniquely has given us a language and a methodology to do this in a way that is really well designed for export to secular culture because you can get to the core truths of Buddhism, the truth of selflessness, the ceaseless impermanence of mental phenomenon, the intrinsic unsatisfactoriness of experience because you can't hold on to anything.
No matter how pleasant an experience is it arises and passes away.
Moreover, no matter how much you protect yourself, the unpleasant experience is destined to come.
These features of our minds can be fully tested and understood without believing anything on insufficient evidence.
Therefore, it is true to say that despite all of the spooky metaphysics and unjustified claims within Buddhism you can get to the core of it without any faith claim and without being intellectually dishonest.
However, it is intellectually dishonest, I think, to keep talking about these truths is an exclusively Buddhist context, because it is misleading.
It subtly gives the message that in order to have rich, meaningful; important spiritual lives we must somehow continue to endorse religious sectarianism.
We must still frame this inquiry with an ancient allegiance to one accidental strand of human culture as opposed to using all of the concepts and tools and conversations, that are available to us in the (21st) century.
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