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
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.
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.
So the thing about meditation is that it refers to several different practices that might not be that closely related. In Daoist/Zen Buddhist tradition, meditation is often described as "just sitting," which is what you do. You go somewhere and sit and don't do anything for a little while. No phone, no books, no stimuli, just you and the vast space between your ears. A notch up on the formality scale is Zazen, where you sit in a neutral position such as the Burmese pose and focus on you breathing. Count your breaths up to 10, then restart. If your mind starts to wander, gently draw your attention back to your breath. Neither attempt to push away nor embrace the thoughts that arise in your mind. Over time, you can gradually shift to counting only your exhalations, then stop counting. Walking meditation is similar, but you add in focusing on slow deliberate steps. Other eastern traditions like tai chi/qigong, yoga, etc. also incorporate movement.
I think what you'll find is that solo meditation for processing trauma is a bad idea, because you're just increasing the time you spend alone with your thoughts and no other external stimuli. That initial phase where you're learning to sit can be very challenging if you're also under a lot of stress, and there's a reason people join communities of practice (Sanghas to use the Sanskrit term) for support. You could probably find a Zen or Vipassana group around you that might be helpful. Meditation alone without emotional work like cultivating compassion can lead to the situations Wertheimer mentioned, where you're just numbing yourself to the status quo. Organized Buddhism also has its own problems, but having a group of people around can be important for the longevity of your practice and finding emotional stability.
I think that some of meditation's current cultural cachet has its origins in Orientalism, and it should be noted that there are equivalent (if not greater) mental health benefits from a lot of activities that allow you to get out of your head and focus on what your body is doing, such as social dancing, sports, and exercise. The important part is to cultivate focus on what you're doing in that moment.
Focus on your breathing. Breath in, feel it, breath out. Just get used to breathing. Now do this with thoughts. Dont think, just let your mind have thoughts. Let them come, let them linger, let them go. Focus on your breathing. Let your breath be your anchor and let your mind stray as it will, coming back to your breath as you find it holding onto thoughts, and just getting used to centring your breath and acknowledging your thoughts and letting go of them in kind.
That's as far as ive got with meditation tbh. For sleep I kinda 'scan' my body head to toe, slowly relaxing each area as the scan goes down. Was explained to me as a bucket with a hole in it, with water/stress flowing out the hole.
I've been dabbling but haven't found an ideal introduction that isn't politically suspect. Jon Kabat-Zinn is a dubious character , despite his illustrious father-in-law. But even if there are iffy political implications - mindfulness being used to "accept" the status quo, or help you become a less stressed capitalist, or whathaveyou - the discipline is still worth exploring so as to not constantly freak the fuck out about how we're all gonna die.
As for lectures on Eastern thought, these are available on Hoopla, if your local library uses that platform. Maybe some other audiobook streaming services, as well.
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/great-minds-of-the-eastern-intellectual-tradition
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/great-world-religions-hinduism
And one on mindfulness that purports to be more science-oriented: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-positive-mind-mindfulness-and-the-science-of-happiness
There's a ton of guided meditations on Youtube. As absolutely dorky as it is, I have been doing Sith and viking guided meditation.
You know how your brain is an asshole that generates thoughts without the consent of you the person?
Meditation is basically just recognizing the distinction between you and your brain, and practicing feeling not-responsible for the random thoughts drifting in and out. Trying to get better at letting thoughts pass, or acting on them, either way the point is you practice choosing which one you want to do.
The headspace app really helped me get started.
It's not something I think is worth doing long term. Kinda like training wheels on a bike. It'll help you get started tho!
It's always stuck with me hearing Alan Watts one time say "if you can't meditate in a boiler room, you can't meditate"
Dan Harris also wrote a book called Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics where the main thrust is that you sit down, focus on your breath, notice that your mind has wandered, and bring it back to your breath. Every time you do that cycle it's like a bicep curl for your brain. Then everybody he talks to on tour goes "that's dumb for reason X, Y, and Z" and then he responds "no it's not dumb, you're dumb." And then he's got a whole book
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jPpUNAFHgxM
Great Watts guided meditation.
I'm not an expert on this but I think a lot of people actually shouldn't meditate- for some people it's better to keep the mind active and distracted rather than trying to clear thoughts or self focus.
Just something to look out for- if you don't have a good experience just don't assume you're doing it wrong because it's not a universal positive.
