Meditation Flashcards
What is meditation?
A form of mental training derived from yoga and Buddhism
What meditation is not:
a) sleeping or dreaming
b) praying
c) intentional thinking
d) daydreaming
In brief, what is the point of meditation?
- To achieve a peaceful state of mind not just in the short term but also in the long term
- To strengthen the mind to better respond to life’s difficulties
- To achieve insight into ourselves and the nature of the self
What is the theory behind the point of meditation?
- Unhappiness is a mental state
- Our mental state seems to be largely out of our control and just a product of what happens to us, but yoga, Buddhism, and modern science tell us otherwise
- In other words, what happens to us and how we react to what happens to us are two different things
- Meditation is a form of mental training that helps to control the reaction to what happens to us
What leads to a negative mental state?
- A constant state of distraction and stimulation means people often have no control over what they pay attention to
- Similarly, our thoughts about what we pay attention to are out of control or random, even though we tend to accord great value to those thoughts
Is the goal of meditation to never feel bad?
- “Regular misery” vs. “mental illness”
- Feeling bad at least sometimes is part of life and doesn’t mean something is wrong, but feeling bad all the time or in a way that seems entirely out of your control is unnecessary suffering
What is true of all skills?
- Some people may start out “better” than others
- Everyone improves with practice and very few people improve without practice
- “Practice” can be miserable or enjoyable depending on your attitude
- To have a high level of skill requires a high level of dedication
What is mindfulness?
A particular type of meditation that involves paying attention to the present moment with bare awareness.
What is the origin of mindfulness?
Derived from certain practices in Theravadan (and to a lesser extent, Zen Buddhism).
A ‘de-spiritualized’ meditation practice.
What is the secularized form of mindfulness?
What is the essence of mindfulness?
Paying attention to the present moment and ONLY paying attention to the present moment.
Why is mindfulness different or special?
The waking mind is almost always engaged in evaluating or critiquing the past or future, but mindfulness involves focusing on the present moment without judgment.
What is the ‘doing’ mindset?
- The frame of mind needed to get things done in life, to accomplish anything, to solve problems.
- Can be external or internal.
What is the ‘being’ mindset?
- The frame of mind where you are not consciously trying to ‘do’ anything, but instead just ‘being’ in the moment.
- Being consciously aware of what you are experiencing but not reacting to it, evaluating it, or trying to understand it.
What is the difference between ‘doing’ and ‘being’?
- Neither is inherently good or bad, but in the modern world, we are often stuck in a ‘doing’ mindset or immediately feel guilty if we are not in a ‘doing’ mindset.
- The ‘doing’ mindset is often misapplied to ‘fix’ emotions, which is a misunderstanding of what the ‘doing’ mindset can accomplish.
