Basically title. I want to retake meditation since I need to get a hold of my escapism and bad habits to change them and be more healthy mentally for the revolution.
However, upon reading Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana, it mentions how meditation should eventually dissolve any wants and cravings in the mind and try to meditate for hours every day and I can’t help but think that this is something that will try to make you be a bit numb to the pains of injustice, since it sounds like being dissociated from the world.
Is there a revolutionary way to think about meditation?
i think that you can make it what you need to. how else could there have been warrior buddhist monks?
I don’t know if it’s a revolutionary way to think about it but I am inclined to consider meditation a practice of phenomenological control where you will experience that which you expect to experience based on your understanding of meditation from reading books such as the one you mentioned and from cultural osmosis from media depiction, conversation etc. All this of course is also dependent on your ability to actually exercise phenomenological control which can be affected a lot factors like your ability to maintain focus, openness to experience, comfort, environment and so forth. Dissociation is something that you are likely to experience but it is nothing to worry about just a consequence of being in a flow state. You are not changed into someone who cares any less about the world you are just temporarily focused on the task at hand.
Your mind is capable of creating whatever experience it decides to which could be “dissolving wants” or it could be “feeling revolutionary fervor guided by a great feeling of love”. The extent to which you will carry any attempt at changing behavior once you stop meditating is I think greatly exaggerated by the industry of meditation promoters but you will almost certainly feel less stress afterwards.
The best thing you can do is not put an expectation on yourself to achieve or experience anything in meditation. It will only psyche you out and make you continually question if you’re doing it right. It’s just relaxation with control of focus, everything else is a palor trick. If you feel relaxed then you’re doing it right and with time you will get better at controlling what you can experience.
There are different types of meditation. Can look into “loving kindness” meditation to feel more connected. And mix it up for variety and to help with different aspects of becoming more of who you want to be.
Some meditation, especially derived from Buddhism, will focus on reducing suffering. One way to do that is to want/crave less and let the feelings flow through without addressing them, knowing that they shall pass. Other types are about getting into a loving kindness state to pass that along and reduce suffering in others. That type can be revolutionary. Even just getting yourself in a good headspace to be able to help others, like the airplane oxygen mask metaphor, can be revolutionary and associative.
Meditation is one tool in my toolbelt that keeps me mentally sharp and emotionally stable enough to contribute to revolutionary activities without becoming burnt out, depressed, or overwhelmed. Other tools include a healthy diet, a regular exercise regimen, and emotionally nourishing friendships. No one of them works in a vacuum, all are essential and work in tandem to bring balance and peace to my life.
Personally, meditating for hours a day sounds like a lot. I probably do it for 10-15 min a few times a week, and it helps. But it is definitely a practice, and I find that getting out of the routine does make it harder to do.
The podcast “Revolutionary Left Radio” has 20 episodes on this exact topic.
I have a hard time believing the cessation of your compulsions can, in any way, be numbing. Call me the Kool Aid Man the way I’m chugging it, but I see it ontologically good to meditate in a world that’s designed by every company to be intensely overstimulating. Meditating is like putting on your oxygen mask before assisting someone else.
I think of the classic newbie mistake in BJJ where you draw in a bunch of air and grunt while executing a maneuver. If I hear you do that then it’s trivial to be out of the way of your big move. Also you’re 10x more vulnerable to having the shit squeezed out of your torso (it’s a cruel pleasure to see them try to take a deep breath and deny it with a well timed leg squeeze). In other words, that calm breath is an essential nutrient in thinking a situation through and operating in discomfort.
If there is work to be done, then you’re better off doing it with a clear mind and a deep breath. The work means you unfortunately can’t meditate for hours a day.
dumb guy here: how to start meditation
idk sounds unverifiable and fake
