08-15-2017, 09:47 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-15-2017, 09:49 AM by rva_jeremy.)
Awesome find, thanks Jeremy.
Since meditation concerns itself with the mind, and western medicine has a psychological model of the mind that ties health to being able to manifest a self (I can't help but add: a self that can be productive in the capitalist economy and docile politically) it makes sense that academics who do research in our society have an interest in confining the serious exploration of the self to the relationship with a professional.
Getting in touch with yourself exposes you only to yourself. Yes, of course there is darkness there -- psychiatry is premised on this. And many meditation instructors (Chödrön for example) expressly suggest that certain students use therapy in tandem with meditation when necessary. So this whole idea that there is a special problem with mediation -- that there aren't TONS of things in our society capable of dissolving the self to our detriment, I mean look at these White Nationalists in Charlottesville and tell me they were always like that -- seems kind of a slightly dishonest "gee golly" argument designed to activate a smoke bomb and not a spotlight. There's nothing about meditation that creates effects that any philosopher or other deep thinker hasn't reckoned with.
This article isn't wrong that mediation can be dangerous. But that's because life is dangerous. The only guarantees manifest in the vastness of infinity, not in the promises of our society in a single third density incarnation. And relying on psychiatry and drugs is no guarantee either--we all know that, and nobody seriously suggests meditation for urgent, critical mental health issues. I guess it rubs me the wrong way to focus solely on the fact that people fail in life and that somehow looking at the self is the whole problem.
Yes, not everybody balances successfully in this life. We must be careful to recognize that this materialist model of life as a single moment in oblivion cannot deem this possibility acceptable. We have a different model, and what we can accept, balance, and love affects what we think is advisable. And fundamentally, while medicine will always seek to limit the risks of life, it is diving into the truly worthwhile risks that generates genuine spiritual growth. This is a question, ultimately, of values.
Since meditation concerns itself with the mind, and western medicine has a psychological model of the mind that ties health to being able to manifest a self (I can't help but add: a self that can be productive in the capitalist economy and docile politically) it makes sense that academics who do research in our society have an interest in confining the serious exploration of the self to the relationship with a professional.
Getting in touch with yourself exposes you only to yourself. Yes, of course there is darkness there -- psychiatry is premised on this. And many meditation instructors (Chödrön for example) expressly suggest that certain students use therapy in tandem with meditation when necessary. So this whole idea that there is a special problem with mediation -- that there aren't TONS of things in our society capable of dissolving the self to our detriment, I mean look at these White Nationalists in Charlottesville and tell me they were always like that -- seems kind of a slightly dishonest "gee golly" argument designed to activate a smoke bomb and not a spotlight. There's nothing about meditation that creates effects that any philosopher or other deep thinker hasn't reckoned with.
This article isn't wrong that mediation can be dangerous. But that's because life is dangerous. The only guarantees manifest in the vastness of infinity, not in the promises of our society in a single third density incarnation. And relying on psychiatry and drugs is no guarantee either--we all know that, and nobody seriously suggests meditation for urgent, critical mental health issues. I guess it rubs me the wrong way to focus solely on the fact that people fail in life and that somehow looking at the self is the whole problem.
Yes, not everybody balances successfully in this life. We must be careful to recognize that this materialist model of life as a single moment in oblivion cannot deem this possibility acceptable. We have a different model, and what we can accept, balance, and love affects what we think is advisable. And fundamentally, while medicine will always seek to limit the risks of life, it is diving into the truly worthwhile risks that generates genuine spiritual growth. This is a question, ultimately, of values.