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> I was so caught up with spirituality and meditation that I overlooked anything else in my life. Respectfully this is not an outcome that you can lay at the f

> I was so caught up with spirituality and meditation that I overlooked anything else in my life. Respectfully this is not an outcome that you can lay at the feet of meditation. It’s like blaming the catechism for the years you spent cut off from the world in a Benedictine monastery. Meditation is an input, it is not the program.

nerdponx 5y ago
Pretty much every "meditation was bad for me" story seems to play out like this. The author basically abused meditation in the way that someone might abuse drugs. Some people clearly are susceptible to being caught up in this kind of behavior. So I think the point in TFA: "meditation can have risks for some people" is valid. But that "some people" seems to be a fairly specific personality type, and most people could probably benefit from some mind-calming body-centering breathing exercises every day.
avindroth 5y ago
It’s a common enough effect that it should be noted. Many spiritual people end up being detached from the world, for better or worse.
- subpixel 5y ago
  Detachment is a tenet of Buddhism, not an effect of meditation.
  - nerdponx 5y ago
    There are plenty of ways to meditate without adhering to Buddist belief and practice.
  - avindroth 5y ago
    So no part of buddhism is about healthy re-integration into society? That seems troubling.
  - zozbot234 5y ago
    Certainly not in the sense of "overlooking anything else in your life". Moral living is a key component of successful dharmic/meditative practice according to Buddhist and other teachings.
  - saulpw 5y ago
    Note that the tenet of Buddhism is non-attachment, not detachment. They are different.
    - astrange 5y ago
      Traditional sutric Buddhism was definitely about detachment (or “renunciation”); you’re supposed to never have sex and if you’re eating food you should imagine it’s a rotting corpse so you won’t end up enjoying it. The presentation of Buddhism as chill and peaceful and all about meditation is a modernization to keep it alive after the white people found it.
      - zozbot234 5y ago
        > you’re supposed to never have sex and if you’re eating food you should imagine it’s a rotting corpse so you won’t end up enjoying it. Possibly as an instrumental practice on the way to full buddhahood (and that would come after even the very advanced stage of arahantship, which basically means guaranteed complete enlightenment after your lifetime!). Surely not as mere penance or mortification of the flesh shorn of any contemplative practice, because that was very clearly criticized by the Buddha as misleading and useless when the Hinduists were doing it. (Then again, IIRC, the Stoics talk about doing something very similar. The idea itself would not have been unfamiliar in the West.)

nerdponx 5y ago

Pretty much every "meditation was bad for me" story seems to play out like this. The author basically abused meditation in the way that someone might abuse drugs. Some people clearly are susceptible to being caught up in this kind of behavior. So I think the point in TFA: "meditation can have risks for some people" is valid. But that "some people" seems to be a fairly specific personality type, and most people could probably benefit from some mind-calming body-centering breathing exercises every day.

avindroth 5y ago

It’s a common enough effect that it should be noted. Many spiritual people end up being detached from the world, for better or worse.

subpixel 5y ago
Detachment is a tenet of Buddhism, not an effect of meditation.
- nerdponx 5y ago
  There are plenty of ways to meditate without adhering to Buddist belief and practice.
- avindroth 5y ago
  So no part of buddhism is about healthy re-integration into society? That seems troubling.
- zozbot234 5y ago
  Certainly not in the sense of "overlooking anything else in your life". Moral living is a key component of successful dharmic/meditative practice according to Buddhist and other teachings.
- saulpw 5y ago
  Note that the tenet of Buddhism is non-attachment, not detachment. They are different.
  - astrange 5y ago
    Traditional sutric Buddhism was definitely about detachment (or “renunciation”); you’re supposed to never have sex and if you’re eating food you should imagine it’s a rotting corpse so you won’t end up enjoying it. The presentation of Buddhism as chill and peaceful and all about meditation is a modernization to keep it alive after the white people found it.
    - zozbot234 5y ago
      > you’re supposed to never have sex and if you’re eating food you should imagine it’s a rotting corpse so you won’t end up enjoying it. Possibly as an instrumental practice on the way to full buddhahood (and that would come after even the very advanced stage of arahantship, which basically means guaranteed complete enlightenment after your lifetime!). Surely not as mere penance or mortification of the flesh shorn of any contemplative practice, because that was very clearly criticized by the Buddha as misleading and useless when the Hinduists were doing it. (Then again, IIRC, the Stoics talk about doing something very similar. The idea itself would not have been unfamiliar in the West.)