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My theory is that (correct) meditation makes people more aware of what's good for them and what isn't. One result of this could be that they realize that most o

My theory is that (correct) meditation makes people more aware of what's good for them and what isn't. One result of this could be that they realize that most of their goals in a company are BS so they lose motivation. I know a lot of Buddhists including monks and they certainly are very active and motivated people. They are just a little pickier about what they put their energy into.

sdfin 8y ago
My observations about effects of meditations agree 100% with this user's.
alfredallan1 8y ago
What it does, among other things, is stop the meditator from running around like a headless chicken, chasing notifications and like counts, gasping at every clickbait-ey title, and pursing meaningless trivia, in addition to making 3 impulse purchases on Amazon everyday. So yeah, depending on the definition of motivation, meditation can be highly demotivating. But by that same definition of motivation, most focussed people, and most people who’ve found success in their particular area, regardless of meditator-status, can be considered highly demotivated.
jm__87 8y ago
There isn't really one "correct" way to meditate. There are a number of ways. You can observe thoughts, sounds, bodily awareness, specific bodily sensations, feelings, the breath, look at some specific object or a combination of all these. Meditation can be an active activity (you're trying to cultivate certain intentions) or it can be passive (you just let things happen). You can choose to be more narrowly focused on your meditation object or less and just let whatever comes, comes. In my view, as long as you're focused on something without judgement then you're meditating. Mindfulness meditation would be a subset of this where you're observing your own experience without judgment. I really doubt that this alone would lead to knowing what is good for you and what isn't, without an underlying philosophy (which Buddhism provides, but the westernized secular version of mindfulness meditation does not). Edit: I guess I should also add that Buddhist philosophy is influenced by insights that could be gained from meditation but my feeling is that the average person doing mindfulness meditation for 10 minutes a day is not having these insights. So my main argument here is that you can be meditating correctly and not having these insights.

sdfin 8y ago

My observations about effects of meditations agree 100% with this user's.

alfredallan1 8y ago

What it does, among other things, is stop the meditator from running around like a headless chicken, chasing notifications and like counts, gasping at every clickbait-ey title, and pursing meaningless trivia, in addition to making 3 impulse purchases on Amazon everyday. So yeah, depending on the definition of motivation, meditation can be highly demotivating. But by that same definition of motivation, most focussed people, and most people who’ve found success in their particular area, regardless of meditator-status, can be considered highly demotivated.

jm__87 8y ago

There isn't really one "correct" way to meditate. There are a number of ways. You can observe thoughts, sounds, bodily awareness, specific bodily sensations, feelings, the breath, look at some specific object or a combination of all these. Meditation can be an active activity (you're trying to cultivate certain intentions) or it can be passive (you just let things happen). You can choose to be more narrowly focused on your meditation object or less and just let whatever comes, comes. In my view, as long as you're focused on something without judgement then you're meditating. Mindfulness meditation would be a subset of this where you're observing your own experience without judgment. I really doubt that this alone would lead to knowing what is good for you and what isn't, without an underlying philosophy (which Buddhism provides, but the westernized secular version of mindfulness meditation does not). Edit: I guess I should also add that Buddhist philosophy is influenced by insights that could be gained from meditation but my feeling is that the average person doing mindfulness meditation for 10 minutes a day is not having these insights. So my main argument here is that you can be meditating correctly and not having these insights.