Meditation.

[Ob_Portu]

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Examples, descriptions..


Does this belong here or in the apple?

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

probably in TFYS.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

What kind of meditation are you talking about? What kind of uses are you looking at?

If you mean clearing your mind, relaxing your body and breathing deep, it's pretty well established that it does improve both mental and physical health and performance, as well as reduce stress.

[Jasper]

I do something akin to meditation.  It's not serene or anything though. 

It's really just a mental exercise where I try to jar my mind with pure cognitive chaos as hard as possible without breaking anything permanently.

I do this on average a couple times a day for brief periods.

(Spent a while trying to describe and explain it, and failed)

[SuperNull]

It helps to become more calm and self-aware, yes. It's like looking at yourself as an outsider.

There are some long-term unfortunate side effects though. Once you can distance yourself form your own emotions and ego-centric thinking well enough, you begin to see what a thoughtless and instinct-driven monkey everyone is, including yourself.
This kind of makes it hard to to be too bothered about anything. You lose your passions.

[Placid Dingo]

I've done very basic form in class as a way of looking at dealing with stress etc.

[Jasper]

It helps to become more calm and self-aware, yes. It's like looking at yourself as an outsider.

There are some long-term unfortunate side effects though. Once you can distance yourself form your own emotions and ego-centric thinking well enough, you begin to see what a thoughtless and instinct-driven monkey everyone is, including yourself.
This kind of makes it hard to to be too bothered about anything. You lose your passions.

You're just meditating on the wrong things.

Meditate on nuclear bombs sometime.  Tell me how dispassionate and serene you are after that.

This is no decade for calmness.

[Cain]

There is a Buddhist meditation where you concentrate on death and destruction.  I cant remember exactly what it is called though.

[Brotep]

There is a Buddhist meditation where you concentrate on death and destruction.  I cant remember exactly what it is called though.

Are you referring to the one wherein you visualize yourself as a corpse and watch yourself decay into nothing?

[Cain]

That was part of it, but you also had to visualise yourself being torn apart by wild animals and other violent deaths too

[Jasper]

I think I found a bit of information on it, and it seems like, again, the whole point is to make the person calm and detached.  Which is fine, for Buddhists.  I'd personally rather come out of a meditation session feeling deranged and unglued, ready to behave like a totally crazy asshole.

[SuperNull]

You're just meditating on the wrong things.

Why I call meditation is attempting to stop thought.
You just listen to your breathing (or non-vocal music) and try to let that be your only occupation.
Attempt not to think of anything, judge anything or react to anything.

You can't actually meditate ON something. Not the way I see it anyway.

[Jasper]

I said I do something akin to it.  It's more like intense focus to the exclusion of all else. 

I've tried it your way, but had to invent mine because it felt like I was wasting time.

[Brotep]

I guess the real question is, what are you trying to accomplish?

I'd personally rather come out of a meditation session feeling deranged and unglued, ready to behave like a totally crazy asshole.

In that case, skip the meditation and go spend some time with my mother.

[Triple Zero]

Useful? Not useful?

useful.

Examples, descriptions..

sit down and think about nothing, don't think about anything, let thoughts drift away.

try it for 20 minutes session per day, for three days.

you should notice some sort of difference.

it's not earth-shattering or anything, but it shows that results can come pretty quickly and aren't some far away ungraspable target (like enlightenment).

Does this belong here or in the apple?

TFYS. I can move it if you like.

There are some long-term unfortunate side effects though. Once you can distance yourself form your own emotions and ego-centric thinking well enough, you begin to see what a thoughtless and instinct-driven monkey everyone is, including yourself.
This kind of makes it hard to to be too bothered about anything. You lose your passions.

if this was your experience, and you felt it was unfortunate, it sounds more like a problem with you, than as a long-term side effect of meditation.

i might suggest you'd either deal with those problems through meditation, or in some other way.

and otherwise, boo hoo.