[wayoverthecloud]

"Meditation can even exacerbate depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions in certain people."

If the author had put enough serious time in meditation, he would notice that meditation doesn't exacerbate negative emotions, it just makes you aware of the negative emotions that were already there and that you were ignoring by social media, alcohol, drugs, tiktok, etc. Meditation makes you aware of where the problem is and why the negative emotions come up. Think of it like a very good debugger. It's no substitution for solving the problem. It gives you the tools to solve the problem. Imagine your boss gave you a buggy code but seemingly it seems to compile and work but he keeps saying the code has errors, it's not supposed to work that way. You will go nuts if you don't know where the problem is. You don't even need the solution, just knowing the problem is enough to save you a lot of trouble. Meditation on the initial stages works that way. Later, you'll figure out as you go. Buddha said just do it, don't analyze l, just do it. The author here didn't have the patience to just do it and see it for himself, instead he focussed on the philosophy too much.

Meditating on a cushion for hours everyday is no substitution for being kind to strangers. Meditation brings you clarity even if the clarity is something you don't like. Hell, even Buddha was enlightened when he actually left meditation and gave up meditation altogether (which the author seems to have completely miss it here). Buddhism may not be perfect(what's perfect anyway?) but as George Box put it "All models are wrong, some are useful" Buddhism tries the best to be the most right and the useful model of the world.

[strken]

The anecdotal claims from you and the author are the sort which I'm hesitant to believe without a study of more people.

[wahern]

It's not entirely anecdotal. There's research that shows meditation can hasten the progression of mental illnesses like suicidal depression and schizophrenia. For example, suicide rates spike among neophyte practitioners of meditation, and those with latent schizophrenia are more likely (i.e. earlier than others) to experience their first psychotic break when beginning meditation. AFAIU, Buddhist teachers, pre-modern and modern, were and are taught to pay attention to warning signs of people experiencing pathological mental issues brought on by meditation. And while I haven't read of it specifically, I would think the phenomenon would also be found in, e.g., contemplative Christian communities (e.g. monastic communities or contemplative retreats). None of this implies meditation is bad, just that it's important that people learn meditation techniques in a supportive, non-isolating environment (i.e. with a well-trained teacher or experienced community) so that the small fraction of those who might respond negatively can be helped. This type of environment would indeed tend to be found within traditional religious institutions and communities, as opposed to following a YouTube video or website howto at home.

[jack_pp]

It is sort of known that meditation can be a double edged sword, it is a tool and like any tool it can be used badly which is why traditionally you would have a teacher.