Off topic: meditation

[Faustus]

For beginners looking to explore meditation without dropping cash, I would recommend the guided meditations at calm.com.

 

It's free, a gentle-voiced narrator provides instructions, there is a an app for the phone, and you can select programs of different lengths.

[augustabound]

Thanks for all the info everybody.  :)

 

 

[yadayada]

did anyone here try sensory deprivation tank? You float in salt water that is the same as your body temperature. In complete darkness without any sound. So it basicly feels like your floating in deep space. And I heard of a few people who said it was actually life changing.

 

http://i.imgur.com/BHHK7S9.jpg

 

It is sorta like forced meditation. When your brain does not get new sensory information after a while your head becomes completely empty. 

[leftcoast]

did anyone here try sensory deprivation tank? You float in salt water that is the same as your body temperature. In complete darkness without any sound. So it basicly feels like your floating in deep space. And I heard of a few people who said it was actually life changing.

 

http://i.imgur.com/BHHK7S9.jpg

 

It is sorta like forced meditation. When your brain does not get new sensory information after a while your head becomes completely empty.

 

I remember reading about this in a Tom Clancy novel many years ago. In the book it was used by the Soviets as an interrogation technique. After 30 minutes in the tank the guy cracked (it felt like many hours had passed to him).

 

Not sure I'd pay for this experience.

[yadayada]

haha that guy must be a bit of a wimp then.

[Kraven]

did anyone here try sensory deprivation tank? You float in salt water that is the same as your body temperature. In complete darkness without any sound. So it basicly feels like your floating in deep space. And I heard of a few people who said it was actually life changing.

 

http://i.imgur.com/BHHK7S9.jpg

 

It is sorta like forced meditation. When your brain does not get new sensory information after a while your head becomes completely empty.

 

I remember reading about this in a Tom Clancy novel many years ago. In the book it was used by the Soviets as an interrogation technique. After 30 minutes in the tank the guy cracked (it felt like many hours had passed to him).

 

Not sure I'd pay for this experience.

 

Bad things can happen. See Altered States - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States

[Tranloi]

Check out my big toe by Tom Campbell.  He got started in TM and has his book on Google books for free.  You can listen to him on YouTube as well. 

[meiroy]

 

I've been doing breathing meditation for several years now and find it to be extremely effective, just as my cardio exercise twice a week, meditation is just an exercise for the mind. There's nothing spiritual about it unless you decide to make it so (personally I dislike these extra layers of nonsense) I've started after watching some youtubes clips which explained the basics and that was enough, really.  You concentrate on breathing in, than out  and you say to yourself "in", and "out", while trying to ignore those thoughts which keep disturbing you, then after awhile you do not require the breathing part anymore or saying in and our to yourself, you can just "do it". What I really like about it is that you can implement it at any time, for example you are at a meeting with a client and notice yourself getting pissed off, you just turn your focus on your breathing and that's it, you relax and calm down and it will cause the other side to calm down as well. Last week I bought my first arduino kit and on the project list is a biofeedback setup to see the impact of meditating among other things.

 

[Liberty]

 

I've been doing breathing meditation for several years now and find it to be extremely effective, just as my cardio exercise twice a week, meditation is just an exercise for the mind. There's nothing spiritual about it unless you decide to make it so (personally I dislike these extra layers of nonsense) I've started after watching some youtubes clips which explained the basics and that was enough, really.  You concentrate on breathing in, than out  and you say to yourself "in", and "out", while trying to ignore those thoughts which keep disturbing you, then after awhile you do not require the breathing part anymore or saying in and our to yourself, you can just "do it". What I really like about it is that you can implement it at any time, for example you are at a meeting with a client and notice yourself getting pissed off, you just turn your focus on your breathing and that's it, you relax and calm down and it will cause the other side to calm down as well. Last week I bought my first arduino kit and on the project list is a biofeedback setup to see the impact of meditating among other things.

 

Thanks Meiroy. Do you happen to have the links to the youtube videos that got you started?

[Liberty]

Leftcoast/Liberty: Check out Mental Resilience: The Power of Clarity: How to Develop the Focus of a Warrior and the Peace of a Monk by Kamal Sarma http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1577316258/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's more secular, from a former business person and covers the basics.

 

That sounds like a good starting point. Thank you, I think I'll order it and see where it leads me.

 

Amazon is so ridiculous. I ordered it late Saturday night, iirc, and I got it today. That's the free shipping option. No idea why I would ever need to upgrade shipping...

 

Good timing too because I finish the Ed Catmull book last night (and in a later chapter, he talks about how he discovered meditation and silent retreats...).

[Liberty]

This is exactly what I'm looking for. Please let us know if you find something. Thank you.

 

Thanks for the suggestions above. I did some more research on meditation practices this weekend. Here's what I found.

 

Basically, it seems like there are 3 major types of meditation:

[*]Concentration - to focus exclusively on one thing, such as your breath or a rock in the grass (Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Samatha);

[*]Mindfulness - to experience and observe all your sensations and thoughts without attachment (Vipassana, MBSR);

[*]Transcending - to think or experience nothing at all (Transcendental Meditation, NSR, Hindu meditations).

From these buckets, I found 2 specific techniques that are both widely taught in the West and claim to be backed by scientific research:

 

Transcendental Meditation

• A meditation in which one silently repeats a specific, meaningless phrase (mantra) while sitting quietly for 20 min twice daily.
  
• Popularized by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who turned the technique into a "movement" backed by programs and organizations starting in the 1960s.
  
• Maharishi Foundation owns the registered trademark on "Transcendental Meditation" and charges $1500 to teach the basic technique.
  
• Claims to be backed by hundreds of scientific studies, but the validity of this research is widely disputed. From my own cursory review, it does seem that much of the research on TM is seriously flawed at best.
  
• Personal opinion: It smells a little cult-ish and reminds be of scientology in some ways. Charges big money for something no one else does. Touts a long list of celebrity practitioners, a few of whom evangelize for the "movement" (David Lynch, Ellen Degeneres, Jerry Seinfeld). Used to make crazy claims about levitation and "yogic flying" (not anymore). Claims to be completely secular, but requires the practice of some ancient Hindu ceremonies and incantations. Appears to have a well-funded marketing infrastructure and a very active PR strategy.
  

 

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

• Combines mindfulness mediation with yoga for 45 min daily.
  
• Developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusets.
  
• Now widely taught as a 8-week workshop course in medical centres, hospitals, clinics, and non-profit organizations. There are also numerous self-study books written by Kabat-Zinn and others.
  
• Completely secularized, with no religious or mystical theory or practices.
  
• Lots of peer-reviewed research available. Conclusion from one literature review done at Johns Hopkins in 2008: "MBSR is an effective treatment for reducing stress and anxiety that accompanies daily life and chronic illness. MBSR is also therapeutic for healthcare providers, enhancing their interactions with patients. No negative side effects from MBSR have been documented."
  

 

Liberty, I think you might enjoy these blog posts by Sam Harris, a neurologist, meditation fan, and outspoken critic of religion:

How to Meditate

Killing the Buddha

 

For me, I am now going to look further into MBSR and mindfulness meditation. In particular, I'm looking at these books and CDs:

Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

A Mindfulness-Ba​sed Stress Reduction Workbook

Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

Guided Mindfulness Meditation Series 1

 

It looks like there are also MBSR classes offered in Vancouver by certified trainers (mostly clinical counselors and therapists):

http://www.mbsrbc.ca/pages/classes.htm

I may look into those further after reading some of the books.

 

Thanks to this thread for prompting me to pursue this area of interest again!

 

Thanks Leftcoast, this is golden.

 

I had a similar reaction after doing some quick research on TM; if it's as easy and simple as you say it is, why do you need to be to pay someone hundreds of dollars to show you and select a mantra for you? It had kind of a bad smell to it... At first glance I was expecting something more like Toastmaster..

 

I just got the book mentioned earlier in the thread, Mental Resilience, so I'm going to start there. If that doesn't satisfy me, I'll dig deeper into MBSR.

[leftcoast]

Thanks Leftcoast, this is golden.

 

I had a similar reaction after doing some quick research on TM; if it's as easy and simple as you say it is, why do you need to be to pay someone hundreds of dollars to show you and select a mantra for you? It had kind of a bad smell to it...

 

I just got the book mentioned earlier in the thread, Mental Resilience, so I'm going to start there. If that doesn't satisfy me, I'll dig deeper into MBSR.

 

Cool... let me know what you think of the book once you've read it. Were you able to have it shipped by Amazon.com to Canada in 2 days? Amazon.ca says there's a 3-5 week wait for it.

[Liberty]

Cool... let me know what you think of the book once you've read it. Were you able to have it shipped by Amazon.com to Canada in 2 days? Amazon.ca says there's a 3-5 week wait for it.

 

I got it from Amazon.ca, and I think I got the last copy they had. Sorry about that  :-\

[leftcoast]

I got it from Amazon.ca, and I think I got the last copy they had. Sorry about that  :-\

 

That's okay, I've got a ridiculous backlog of reading material to plow through. I'll be happy to get your review before ordering this one.  :)

[intensityjp]

This article is quite relevant to this thread

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-28/to-make-killing-on-wall-street-start-meditating.html

 

I thought the article was a little immature in its presentation of meditation but was an interesting read nonetheless

 

I also wanted to share my experience with meditation.  I sat my first Vipassana 10 day meditation course in 2008 and have had a daily practice (usually 2 hours/day) for the past 3 years as well as having completed three more 10 day courses.

 

My capacity to focus, analyze and identify my biases and remain mentally balanced have all been beneficial my 'capital allocation' research and decisionmaking.  The practice yields far more profound benefits than these and I recommend the course to anyone who is interested. 

 

You can find out more here:  www.dhamma.org

 

And for all you value investors, the course is 100% free for participants!  No excuses.

 

I have gotten so much from the members of this board and hopefully can pay you guys back by providing this seed of inspiration to attend the course and have a transformative life experience.

[yadayada]

a analogy I like is that the signals shooting through your brain when you think are like cars in a road network. And emotions are one of the biggest things affecting the travel of these signals. If they go too fast, they crash into eachother and it becomes a big mess, too slow and you have huge congestion etc. Meditation helps them travel at just the right speed, not speed up and down too quick etc.

[meiroy]

 

I've been doing breathing meditation for several years now and find it to be extremely effective, just as my cardio exercise twice a week, meditation is just an exercise for the mind. There's nothing spiritual about it unless you decide to make it so (personally I dislike these extra layers of nonsense) I've started after watching some youtubes clips which explained the basics and that was enough, really.  You concentrate on breathing in, than out  and you say to yourself "in", and "out", while trying to ignore those thoughts which keep disturbing you, then after awhile you do not require the breathing part anymore or saying in and our to yourself, you can just "do it". What I really like about it is that you can implement it at any time, for example you are at a meeting with a client and notice yourself getting pissed off, you just turn your focus on your breathing and that's it, you relax and calm down and it will cause the other side to calm down as well. Last week I bought my first arduino kit and on the project list is a biofeedback setup to see the impact of meditating among other things.

 

Thanks Meiroy. Do you happen to have the links to the youtube videos that got you started?

 

 

I think I've read a mindfulness book, and it did seem to make sense at the time yet I was not that motivated to implement it. BTW I'm reading Thinking Fast and Slow now (yes, 'bout time) and pondering about the relationship between meditation and the concepts which he writes about.

[Liberty]

Thanks Meiroy.

[racemize]

I'm reading the book "Search Inside Yourself", which I have found to be quite good (mindfulness meditation/emotional intelligence0.  The course is available online at:

 

http://www.siyli.org/

 

I haven't watched the videos yet, but plan on it once I get through with the book.

[netnet]

Excellent, excellent website.  It's the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center: marc.ucla.edu

 

This has practical information as well as research. 

Here are guided meditations:http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=107

Here are beginning meditations:http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

 

enjoy

[treehugger]

Excellent, excellent website.  It's the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center: marc.ucla.edu

 

This has practical information as well as research. 

Here are guided meditations:http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=107

Here are beginning meditations:http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22

 

enjoy

 

+1. Love the UCLA self guided meditation series.

[augustabound]

The science of meditation

 

[leftcoast]

The science of meditation

 

Thanks for posting this. After following the link, I read this guy's book over the weekend and quite enjoyed it. He basically tells the story of how he discovered meditation, from the perspective of a professional journalist -- skeptical, cynical, but also curious. Along the way, he humourously carves into the mystical and pseudo-scientific  baggage that surrounds meditation, and also takes aim at a few of the prominent self-help gurus who make their living selling this stuff. It's engaging, funny, and well-written, and gives a good overview of the whole topic. Recommended.

[Liberty]

I have been doing some meditation for about a month now, most of the time with my wife in the evening. I haven't been doing it every day, and mostly just 10 minutes at a time (the first few time we played the Sam Harris guided meditation audio, and after that we didn't because we had pretty well internalized the concepts), but I really like it. I think I'll try to be more disciplined about doing it more often.

 

It's really interesting how a lot of ideas pop into your mind when you're trying to just focus on your breathing and the moment. Not always mind-blowing ideas, but still, it seems like trying to calm your mind frees a creative part that gets drowned out at times because you're always actively thinking about stuff and never passively just letting it roam around.

 

I feel like still quite the beginner in this, but I'd recommend it to others. Just google Sam Harris guided meditations or check earlier in this thread and give it a try.

[original mungerville]

"but still, it seems like trying to calm your mind frees a creative part that gets drowned out at times because you're always actively thinking about stuff and never passively just letting it roam around."

 

Absolutely. My most creative moments come when I relax (eg, during a walk, over a beer), almost never at my desk during routine work...or if I think a bit about something at night, the morning after when I wake up with the house quiet and again looking at the same issue - a creative solution all of a sudden pops up. You seem to need to enter a state of mind that is both conscious and subconscious at once, focused/relaxed, ... 

 

The mind does seem to need the time to sort of float or roam around in order to be creative. I have actually purposely tried to let it do that over the course of my career. Emails and routine work all need to be blocked together during the day in order to free up time to think during second block of time. You can't mix/multi-task the two blocks and be efficient at both when you are targeting creativity/deep thinking. Not once has that worked for me - other than when trying to resolve superficial matters.