I'm very happy to see an article like this on HN. This is the type of stuff I'm very interested in lately. The sources I've found most helpful so far are the b

I'm very happy to see an article like this on HN. This is the type of stuff I'm very interested in lately. The sources I've found most helpful so far are the books _Mindfulness in Plain English_ and _Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English_. Very briefly, we pretty much already understand the concepts that will allow us to take control of our minds and see what's going on clearly, but those are concepts, when what is needed is experience. Meditative states help us gain experiential knowledge, and in the process, we rearrange the plumbing in the basements of our minds. For example, having thoroughly experienced impermanence in meditation, we naturally stop wanting to freeze time or cling to things. I seem to like to make metaphors about fire. In one sense, I see these ideas as possibly helping put out a global wildfire that's been raging out of control since the beginning of mankind: people suffer, and, not knowing how to handle their suffering, harm themselves and others, and we respond in anger, when it would be better if we responded with compassion. In another sense, we want to get the fire of compassion lit, to get enough people to awaken that others can see that it's an attainable goal. It's nothing less than jailbreaking our minds. We have a lot of evidence it's possible, just very difficult. But the more people are looking at it, the less subtle these ideas will seem, and the path will hopefully become more and more straightforward. I hope that someday, waking up the way the Buddha did will be a rite of passage for children.