[Falandafa2021]

Meditation is about quieting ones mind to ultimate stillness. This is where the ego disolves which is not exactly in alignment with the culturally dominant materialism that we find surrounding us (i.e. the quest for money power and status) all things that rely on an inflated ego.

Using meditation to improve in moving up in society is like using wood logs to put out a fire.

[pmoriarty]

"Meditation is about quieting ones mind to ultimate stillness."

There are probably hundreds of different techniques of meditation, in many different traditions, and with different aims.

For some, like in many types of Christian meditation, the purpose can be to deepen one's relationship with God. Quieting the mind or stillness might be part of a way to get there, but not the ultimate aim.

Even in Buddhism, there are, say, so-called loving-kindess-meditation which is less about quieting the mind than about increasing compassion and goodwill towards oneself and others.

In Buddhism there are also forms of meditation that seek simple nonjudgmental awareness, and others (like "just sitting") don't have any aim at all.

In various tantric forms of meditation the goal might be to liberate sexual energy.

Vajrayana Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sufism have many of their own forms of meditations with various aims.

[Falandafa2021]

> For some, like in many types of Christian meditation, the purpose can be to deepen one's relationship with God. Quieting the mind or stillness might be part of a way to get there, but not the ultimate aim.

A true Buddhist would argue that divinity is within a truly quiet mind.

See my username for one such practice

[pmoriarty]

Who gets to decide who's a "true Buddhist" and who's not, and what relevance does that have to Christian meditation?

[Falandafa2021]

The words and standards of the Buddha or other masters, just like Scientology isn't true Christianity even though it has Jesus in it all Buddhist practices aren't necessarily Buddhist if they have meditation in them...

And it's also what Christian mystics like Meiser Eckert and and Gnostics also believe.

[PraetorianGourd]

I wouldn’t distill an entire region of the globe down to wanting money, power and status. Nor would I say that wanting those things, especially money, requires an inflated ego.

The stereotype of the noble destitute is overplayed. Wanting to be able to provide for my family and have financial security can be noble as well. It’s how one accomplishes those things that can be unethical.

Perhaps mindfulness helps someone stay grounded so that their focus on money doesn’t inflate their ego?

But seriously please don’t use stereotypes even if the stereotyped is of a group that is commonly thought of as in power.

[thewarrior]

You’re being a little unfair to the commenter here.

The western interpretation of meditation is that the rat race can stress you out so meditate once in a while so you can keep running. Hence the name mindfulness based stress reduction.

This can help a lot of people but this was not what the Buddha was about. Buddhism goes far deeper and it’s understandable why they want to sell a more sanitized version. I can’t imagine a corporation paying for a spiritual practice that would make their employees question if working their lives away was really worth it.

The Buddha wanted us to transcend ourselves. To realize the illusory nature of most of our conceptions of ourselves. It’s not an app or a success technique. It’s something beyond all such ideas.

[Falandafa2021]

Thank you for explaining much better than myself friend :)

As a practitioner of a Buddhist practice (see my username), meditation is about developing and mastering concentration the mind. The Buddha taught Meditation with out precepts (or living a moral life properly aligned with the universe) was in vain. This is this the reason the Buddha stressed precepts on how one should live as ultimately a mind focused on the material world and self interest will never have the stillness of one living a life of virtue for others which is why many people find meditation so awesome until they try to still there minds and blame the practice for this inability like in this article.

The problem I see is the framing of meditation into the portrait of modern society.

[Falandafa2021]

You are right it is not just the western culture was mainly using the stereotype to prove a point specifically that moving up in a materialistic society is antithetical to what true meditation and spiritual practice aims at which is beyond the material world.

[300bps]

All the meditation I've done taught me that it was about being aware of what was happening in the present moment - i.e. mindfulness.

Most of the meditation I've studied taught me that quieting one's mind was not the goal and further not possible.

[_y5hn]

It is possible, for some, through extreme practices. But it is also regarded as destructive to the person.

It's a science to this, not just one end game. Different meditations have different purposes, etc.

What is my purpose? May be a good question to ponder for direction.

[beebmam]

Stereotyping is extremely rude. How would you like it if someone stereotyped whatever regions that you are part of? You are certainly aware that even within your own set of cultures, there's a wide diversity of opinions on what people want in life.

Let's stop making these kinds of silly generalizations. Within the United States there is a vast, vast diversity of opinion on basically any idea. I'm sure its similar virtually everywhere.

[meristohm]

“Western” is the dominant paradigm for many (some in China might disagree? That empire is maybe just having a cat-nap), so taking the piss out of Western society seems a fine thing, especially since much of the climate trouble we’re in is due to Western ways of thinking and doing (this is largely the culture I was raised in).

Much like it’s not really a thing to be racist against those who identify as White; they’re in power and might be expected to have the wherewithal to take it without getting defensive.

Another more palatable example might be “roasting” celebrities; would it be okay to pick on in such a way those far lower on the economic ladder as they struggle to meet their basic needs in the face of generational stress and trauma?

[goodpoint]

Criticizing traits of a culture is different from stereotyping.

"culturally dominant materialism that we find surrounding us" is not implying that each and every person is materialistic.

The word "dominant" implies the presence of other, non-dominant cultures.

[Falandafa2021]

I edited the comment I initially had it more aimed at westerners which I realized was a mistake.

[acituan]

Ultimate stillness is death, and the ideas of nirvana while leaving folks behind is but a single school in Buddhist thought. I find it to be anti-humanist romantic escapism.

Another version of nirvana brings back the learnings to other humans and help alleviate their suffering.

Ego inflation causes a lot of the suffering for sure, but you can’t function as a human without ego either. To deny it is to deny humanity, to escape into a baby or animal like state.

On the other hand spiritual inflation (i.e bypass) of this sort can be just as bad; ego evolved because it was evolutionarily adaptive (despite having massive failure modes). You can meditate in complete peace only if you free ride others taking care of business of the real world.

Sati also means to remember, anamnesis in Plato’s terms. Among many, to remember who you are; not a god, not a devil, a human that evolved into consciousness and now has to reconcile the upstairs and the downstairs of reality with your fallacious cognitive machinery the best way you can.

[_y5hn]

Death is never the first step, though it will be the last. Well-written :)