Meditation is good, but non-meditation can be better

My previous post, "The Elephant and the Blind -- a provocative book about pure consciousness," was an introductory look at this book, which covers a lot of interesting ground in its 500 or so main pages.

It won't appeal to everybody.

But for those such as me, who like their spirituality founded in the natural world, common sense, and science (insofar as this is possible), Thomas Metzinger's discussion of how meditators in 57 countries look upon "pure awareness" is a breath of fresh air.

I say this because it is refreshing to have someone discuss meditation from the standpoint of lots of ordinary people who are meditating, as contrasted with the view of an organized religion such as Buddhism.

However, Metzinger acknowledges that some of the more than 500 experiential reports from meditators  likely were influenced by the belief systems of those who wrote the reports. But he stripped out mentions of where a meditator was from, or their faith, if they had one.

In addition to the 500 or so narrative reports, the book also is based on 1,403 completed questionnaires that asked about 90 questions, if I recall that number correctly. This is some demographic information of the respondents.

We had 1,403 usable questionnaires; our participants had a median age of fifty-two years (ranging from seventeen to eighty-eight), and were roughly evenly split between men and women (48.5% versus 50.0% stated their sex). 

The majority of meditators practiced regularly (77.3 percent), were free of diagnosed mental disorders (92.4 percent), and did not regularly use any psychoactive substances (84.0 percent). Vipassana (43.9 percent) and Zen (34.9 percent) were the most frequently practiced meditation techniques.

I'm skipping around in the book a bit, as Metzinger says in an introductory chapter that it isn't necessary to read it straight through. Today I read part of a chapter called "Meditation and Nonmeditation." 

I liked the passage below. The non-meditation mention (I prefer a hyphen in the word) reminded me of Zen, Advaita, and Joan Tollifson's writings, which I've become enamored of.

After meditating for most of my life in a manner that required concentration and the suppression of meandering thoughts, I now understand the value of non-meditation, which seems more productive and natural to me, as well as being more useful in everyday life.

I wasn't familiar with the term, "affordance." Here's a definition: the quality or property of an object that defines its possible uses or makes clear how it can or should be used. 

Metzinger writes:

Let us stay with actual meditation practice for a moment. Installing false beliefs may work for some people, but I think there is a better, more direct route to effortless pure awareness. When discussing the phenomenon of mind-wandering in chapter 25, we saw that mind-wandering creates an inner affordance landscape.

Every single thought can be seen as an action affordance. In one way or another, they all say "Think me!" or Pursue me, follow me into the future!" or "Can you remember this? Try it!"

However, there is one type of thought that is special: the thought of "noticing" that you, the meditator, have strayed; the thought that you, the meditator, have obviously just had an attentional lapse. If Schooler is right, this thought might be an illusion of control. But there is more to be seen.

That thought ("My mind just wandered!") is an inner affordance as well. It tells you to do something: Return to the breath; bring your attention back to the present moment.

If the system falls for it, that special thought swiftly creates yet another agency illusion, a hallucination of what in chapter 4 I called "attentional agency": the experience of deliberately and actively controlling the focus of attention in a goal-directed manner. 

It includes a subtle sense of effort and successful mental control: I, the meditator, must act with my attention now because I "have noticed" a stray thought, and as I have learned in the past, I must now bring "my own" focus of attention back to the present moment.

I think that not doing this is what is meant by "nonmeditation"; it means not falling for the very last affordance that happened to pop up. There is a deep, but very subtle phenomenological insight to be had: The silence, clarity, and epistemic openness are already there. You do not have to act.

The "special thought," the thought of "noticing," is actually sculpted of that silent clarity, if one looks very closely. This [is] what I mean by the better, more direct route to effortless pure awareness. Perhaps one could say that the noticing itself has already given the silence -- and the only thing that could ruin it would be an attempt to meditate. 

Comments

[sant64]

Speaking of spiritual books (and their enthralling powers) I recently revisited a couple of Da Free John books. I'd read most of Da's books in the 90s. Like many, including scholars such as Ken Wilber and George Feuerstein. Like them, I was very impressed by Free John's incisive insight.

However, I was much less impressed re-reading Da's Scientific Proof of the Existence of God Will Soon be Announced by the White House. This was one of Da's most popular books. Why less impressed? Because for all its eloquence, the 500 pages boils down to "you have to be a responsible person and surrender to God/the Dharma/life force/the Great Mystery/Tao/Whatever, and I Da am the Way." Da is not so simply saying the same thing every other spiritual author is saying, viz, life is an existential crisis, and the only truly sane response is surrender to one's intuition of life's primal Source.

Whether it's the Bible, the Gita, the Quran or Sar Bachan -- or Watt's Wisdom of Insecurity -- it's ultimately the same book. Every book in the metaphysical genre is the same damn book. We keep hoping we find something new, but there's nothing new to find.

The other Da book I read was fairly new, one that I'd not read before. At The Feet of the Spiritual Master by Jerry Seinfeld. Actually, Gerry Sheinfeld. This guy was one of Da's earliest devotees, meeting him back when Da was still Franklin Jones and had an ashram on Melrose in Hollywood. Sheinfeld tells a fascinating story, recounting Da's visit to India meeting various gurus, all of whom completely dismissed Da, which Sheinfeld interprets as evidence of their spiritual blindness and Da's supreme majesty. Whenever a sevadar at one of the ashrams smiles at Da, Sheinfeld interprets the smile as "their Recognition of Who Da Is." Many pages recount the children's games Da would organize among his adult followers, where he invariably cheated to win. All involved interpreted their guru's cheating as a deep spiritual lesson in divine surrender.

From my perspective, Sheinfeld's book doesn't have a happy ending. After decades of serving his guru heart and soul, Da has a fit that his Work hasn't conquered the world and blames his followers for the failure. Sheinfeld is subjected to such a torrent of abuse from his Guru that he drops out of the sangat to regain his sanity. He was by no means the only one of Da's followers driven to that recourse by the guru who later called himself Da Love Ananda. There were many.

It must be noted that despite all the abuse, Sheinfeld did return to the Da devotee fold to write this glowing hagiography of, to my estimation, one of the most egregiously self-serving and exploitative gurus of our era. I'm not sure what to make of that. It would seem easy to judge Sheinfeld and damn him for his credulity, but I'm not sure I can.

I think all of us are helplessly loyal to our prized ideals. And all ideals are irrational. To keep loving despite all that impels us not to love, is irrational. And yet, what other path is there to follow.

[Appreciative Reader]

That was brilliant, Brian, that perspective.

Regular meditators will immediately understand the significance of that subtlety. Of merely observing the wandering mind; and thereafter settling into spontaneous return to the breath (or sensation, or mantra, or whatever), as opposed to consciously and deliberately directing that return. ...Come to think of it, if done right, this will do away with the need for the crutch. Which last, in any case, does happen spontaneously when your meditation deepens; but I can see how this perspective might help in facilitating that state.

[Kranvir]

Be careful what meditation you practice - the golden rule is don't do it. If you are tempted just being by yourself in a quiet room, is all that is needed. Never do any meditation given my another person, a so called guru, this is nothing but the path to kaal / Lucifer/ demonic entities. An example is Gurinder Singh Dhillon, RSSB leader, who worships Kaal, and initiates using 5 satanic mantra. The first is Jot Nirunjan , which means light of kaal/ devil. The others are Onkar, rarunkar, sohung, Satnam (satan). Do not repeat them, do not get initiated. You will be seeking the light and sound of kaal/ satan/ Lucifer ( the bright morning star). Do not repeat the satanic names and do not get initiated.

[Karim W. Rahmaan]

"the golden rule is don't do it."

Posted by: Kranvir | July 04, 2024 at 01:14 PM

This rule coming from a one name someone who ruminates much on the santanic.

"What we think, we become." -Siddhartha

[Kranvir]

Just think about it, Why would God, the almighty , want someone to suffer 2.5 hrs meditation daily when he can simply just set you free. The answer is , the god (dog) of meditation is kaal and actually enjoys your suffering. Shiva , the destroyer, is the lord of all meditation , look it up. There is also negativity in this world , look around you and open your eyes, and it definitely didn't come from a loving god. Conclusion, satanic forces , the king of liars , exist. It's the very reason you can't think clear. Gurinder singh dhillon is kaal incarnate , don't be fooled by his appearance, just look at his actions outside. The guy needs z listed security because he is afraid of death and loosing his billions. He also loves being worshipped as a god, the fraudulent dirty old crook.

[um]

@ KARIM ...For Your information.

This I found on the Internet:

[1] https://www.supremeknowledge.org/
what lead me to:
[2] https://www.jagatgururampalji.org/en/gyan-ganga-river-of-knowledge/true-saint-identification/

[um]

And for further reading:

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45874814
and
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41052605
and
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30110374

P.S.
Posting these links has nothing to do with my personal understandings etc. ... these sites tells me something about the meaning and value Indians are capable of; the psychology behind it and does not tell me anything of interest about gurus
It points also at the almost unbridgeable differences between western and eastern culture.

[777]

-
Our inner dialogue ( Dr Phil named it so )

Only stopping that for >15 seconds is meditation

Only extreme Love can
many 13 year olds can
We need Loaded Simran to generate it

777