Meditation
I've been on and off attempting at a meditation practice for the last couple
years. This past month marks my latest attempt, this time guided and informed by
a bit more reading.
My mental models for meditation are what guide my practice and they've evolved a
lot. This is my attempt to document them in as simple terms as I can manage. If
they change I'll update this page, and over time the history of this file should
track how my practice evolves. This is short right now as I don't know much.
Practice
- Meditation is the process of gaining knowledge of the functioning of the
mind through observation of it.
- This requires that observation be the sole focus and so meditation requires
deliberate intentional practice
- A good starting point is observing sensation
- A good sensation to observe is the breath, as it's ever present, deeply
integrated with one's mental state, and nuanced.
- Your goal is to hold your attention on your breath, and perceive it as
precisely as you can, while keeping awareness of your mental state and the
world around you.
- Through this you're training:
- Attention
- Awareness
- Perception
- Training these has external benefits and enables closer observation of
the mind.
Goals
- Enlightenment is the "end goal" of meditation
- It's not a singular experience but a continous state where your actions are
in line with your intentions and your relationship to the world
- It can be initiated by a singular experience, a visceral felt realization
of the non-existence of the self.
I would like to experiment more with the structure of my meditation sessions:
- attempt to make the breath as light as possible and continue to observe it
- Write down any thought that distracts and let it go
- My mind creates a ton of meaningless chatter, just loose images and sentences
that don't make sense.
- I think having some scientific model of the mind/conciousness helps