I'm trying to go to sleep so I'll keep this short, but HOW do you actually learn to meditate? I hear all this talk of it in left wing spaces, I know Breht from RevLeft is biiiig on it and some other non leftists I follow also advocate for it as a method of consciousness exploration so I've been thinking I should start doing something like it.

Are there good resources out there for this that aren't neolib corporate happiness woo? I've been freaking the fuck out lately about how we all gonn' die and climate change and The Fash (which must be bashed, or so I've been told) and I gotta try....something to get me to chill the fuck out. I may genuinely start a psychiatric medication soon but I'm really trying to get my life back on the rails, I really found a lot of the last two years traumatic for a variety of reasons so I'm trying to integrate additional healthy habits as well as getting back onto old ones that fell off

Also bonus points for lectures/podcasts on Eastern philosophy in general

  • Interloper [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    meditation is made out to be some big grand thing that it isn't.

    sit somewhere comfortably with your spine upright and start paying attention to your breath. each time your mind wanders somewhere else and you finally notice, bring your awareness back to your breath. do this for 10 or 15 minutes each day to practice regulating your mind (having the ability to shift away from thoughts/feelings and be mindful of the context) and you will see benefits. stop worrying about doing it right or wrong. you're doing it right if you refocus your attention. if your attention wanders it's not a sign that you're doing it wrong, that's literally what meditation is, the practice of refocusing back on your breath. don't over complicate it.

      • Interloper [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        i really think the main benefit of meditation is to cultivate mindfulness, ie: awareness of your emotions and your context. also it builds the ability to refocus your mind on something else, which helps mitigate suffering and looping thoughts. other than that, i can't in a million years see how meditation leads to enlightenment or anything. if that's what you want, eat 5 dried grams of mushrooms and hold on tight. meditation is just a simple tool for training your mind to let things go and focus on being here now. anything more than that is someone selling you bullshit.