Meditation is like drugs but better
Meditation is like drugs but better
46 comments
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The fact that people in this thread are bitching at each other and calling each other names over how they approach meditation is sad. Over the last year I have practiced Transcendental Meditation, Samitha, Vipassina, and I am now working on Zazen. I practice for two hours each day. Once in the morning and once in the late afternoon.
From all of them the one thing I have taken away is an increase in empathy and compassion. By calming the mind and noticing the impermanence of thought and coming to the realization that the majority of people suffer from their thoughts which they have little control over, I was able to extend compassion and widen my capacity for empathy. So I don't understand the vitriol being tossed around by those professing to know what meditation "really is".
If someone is saying that they meditate and it's as good as drugs for them, then who am I to judge? If someone says that they meditate and it's not as good as drugs, who am I to judge? If someone says that they meditate and that it doesn't increase their capacity for empathy and compassion, again, who am I to judge?
There is a Zen saying... "Practice like a blind person in a dark room.” I encourage everyone to meditate on this informal Koan.
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I do zazen too. Or rather Shikantaza. Nice to meet you.
I have strong opinions on the subject. Yes. But I try to be empirical about it. We can do that. That's guaranteed common ground.
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Drugs are like meditation but better.
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I think that people who have experience with drugs are good candidates for learning meditation. Autists, spergs and ADHDers too.
Drugs are like an airplane ride to an exotic destination. Meditation is like getting a pilot's license.
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No, meditation is not like drugs. If anything it's like exercise for a very particular part of your mind. It can train the mind to be calm, patient, observant and focused. I practiced for many years. In my experience it does not in and of itself bring any sort of feelings of happiness.
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No, meditation is not like drugs.
You've been doing the wrong meditation. ;)
Seriously, though, I kindof bristle any time I hear anyone say that "meditation is" some particular thing. What meditation is is extremely broad and varied to the point that it nearly defies definition.
Sure many buddhist jhana practitioners will say that the purpose of jhanas is insight, but what if I develop my jhana skills and never seek insight? Is that really not meditation?
Or, if I sit quietly and learn to contact my subconscious and/or Jungian archetypes. Or if I make up my own idiosyncratic form of practice specifically in order to try to become a hungry ghost in the next life, is that really not meditation?
(Mind you, it's valid to accept a particular strict definition of meditation within a specific context. If I was at a vipassana retreat doing white skeleton meditation, that'd probably be kindof assholeish. And if the teacher was like "no, correct meditation is such-and-such," I wouldn't be like "nuh-uh my ass is meditation, man". This situation is pretty different. If OP has found a way to "meditate" that's "better than drugs" rather than "training the mind to be calm, patient, observant and focused", that hardly makes it invalid or "not meditation." Any more so than if they say "nice to meet you" rather than "hey, what's up", that makes it "not a greeting.")
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Yeah I should've written it as "It is not like that for me". Though this is the first time I've heard someone who meditates compare it to doing drugs.
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It might be more beneficial for some people to think of 'meditation' as 'exercise'.
If someone says they've exercised, we dont automatically assume they've lifted weights, or done cardio, or stretches; we know how broad this term is.
One of my friends did 'meditation' during his karate days, but failed to understand a lot of basics around the science focused practices like mindfulness.
Turns out his dojo was practicing zen meditation, which involves trying to illicit vivid imagery in the mind (according to him).
Now, I dont know a lot about zen-meditation, maybe they did it as a cultural thing, but from what he was able to tell me, it sounded like a whole lot of junk mind flailing.
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Meditation doesn't get you high?
Drugs don't alter your awareness?
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Meditation doesn’t get you high?
No it's a a fairly sober experience.
Drugs don’t alter your awareness?
Well I guess they can. I have no firsthand experience with psychedelics etc. but it doesn't sound like the same kind of experience.
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Drugs alter your perception, not awareness. Mediation and a philosophy class you didn't take on YouTube will cure you of that confusion.
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No
Who said they don’t?
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If there was any proof of that, the laws would be moving to prohibit in certain professions or situations
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Nah, I am 100% certain drugs are better.
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I was gonna say, OP's got it backwards, but if that works for them, more power to them !
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I've meditated a lot.
I've done a few drugs.
I liek drugz
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Why not both
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You've been using the wrong drugs.
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I've been meditating for a while. And I've done a variety of drugs. So I speak from experience.
Meditation, like drugs, gets you high and changes your perceptions.
Meditation, unlike drugs, takes effort and practice. It's also way way smoother. And there's no ceiling.
And here's a thing. Consider the act of concentrating your attention. The control, clarity and depth of perception that it brings. It's something that we all use. Every scientist, engineer and artist uses concentration as his main tool, without which none of that would be possible. Concentration is the backbone of our culture.
One meditation technique (we basically have 2) takes that further. It takes that awesome power of concentration to very deep and strange places. Magical even. But still, it's just that same old familiar magic that we all depend on, just taken further.
(Therefore, if you respect science, technology and art, then you must pay equal if not greater respect to a further venture into the depths of concentration. Right? I mean, that follows)
And then there is another meditation technique too.
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Lol OP is actually right but not explaining it well in the comments.
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Gimme your better explanation please.
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Meditation is essentially a self-imposed flow state; an artifact of consciousness reflecting extreme focus. It's akin to a runners high. Its features include ego dissolution, a distorted sense of time, reduced perceptions of pain, and feelings of bliss.
This is normally due to the release of neurotransmitters - dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and GABA, the same chemicals affected by common recreational drugs.
These features are regrettably short-cut with drug use. With training, these states of consciousness can be attained without any downsides (barring destabilizing intuitive realizations like free will being an illusion), though at the cost of not being quite as powerful as drugs.
Think of it this way, meditation is like pouring happy juice on your brain slowly. Taking drugs is like placing the bottle on your head and smashing it with a hammer - sure, you're going to get a lot of happy juice on your brain, but the glass might make it unbearable, you have no choice when it ends, and the next day you're going to be forced to pick the shards of glass out.
Weird analogy I suppose, but it helps to illustrate why OP might prefer the slow drip.
At the end of the day, there's no debate about whether meditation can produce these feelings - it's simply a matter of whether a person has the time and interest to seek these things out, or whether they want to flood their brains with happy juice.
Personally, I live in both camps; I've had profound realizations about my own mind while meditating, but I also like getting zonked off my gourd.
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You mentioned a few times meditation gets you "high". What exactly do you mean by that?
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Mmm K
46 comments