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Interesting quote—I like it. The 'Second Thoughts' definition is useful because it is the exact opposite of what you do in meditation. I think it would be val

Interesting quote—I like it. The 'Second Thoughts' definition is useful because it is the exact opposite of what you do in meditation. I think it would be valid to say that meditation is training in understanding what it really means to 'do nothing,' and that when you area REALLY doing nothing—everything is great. I see it like this: verbal/rational thought (typically involving the concept of yourself) arises in order to figure out how to change some aspect of your situation; with meditation you learn to understand "everything is okay, at least for the next 20 minutes," and thoughts melt away, you smell things and hear things and temperature becomes present, etc. Movies, books, people, food—you name it, can all be super rich and interesting when you are just doing this non-thinking, understanding there's nothing to do, letting life speak instead of talking over it. I think of it as training in discerning when you are 'talking over' your experience versus JUST experiencing. If you want some more, I wrote this very short story to exemplify how it is to be caught in the '2-dimensional plane' of believing that various forms of thought are your only possible 'actions,' while it's true that an utterly simple third dimension exists. https://medium.com/@westoncb/don-t-worry-631ce63934c1 https://medium.com/@westoncb/don-t-worry-631ce63934c1 That story describes less informed ways of getting oneself to stop thinking. It's sort of like you are waving your hands wildly all the time and you'd like to stop, so you keep trying different types of hand waving in order to stop it—whereas what you really want is to just not do it, but you have to figure that out! If you're interested in trying it, and you've had any issues with mental health, and you're a complete beginner, I'd strongly recommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe-Living-Wisdom-Illness/dp/0739358588 http://www.amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe-Living-Wisdom-Illness...

icebraining 12y ago
I can understand the idea from that story - the "second thoughts" just amplifying the problem - but I can't actually relate to it, since it simply doesn't happen to me. If anything, when I'm anxious my "second thoughts" are usually more balanced and even slightly disdainful of my anxiety episode, and can help it end faster by making me realize the silliness of my anxiety. I also understand the problem of thinking about what I'm seeing or reading, preventing me from fully immersing myself in the story, but it's usually not a problem; I identify it, go back in the film/book, take a deep breath and it usually fixes itself easily enough. I don't know, I think I find it hard to believe there isn't more to it. This just sounds so simple and intuitive.
- westoncb 12y ago
  Hehe: it is the most simple thing, though—nothing could be simpler, in a sense. I think the trick is that depending on your present situation it becomes more easy/difficult to do the simple thing and, e.g., 'go back into' the film/book. Meditation is just training to do that regardless of circumstances. edit: Also, this part is really just personal opinion: I think the other part of it is you begin to see that it's possible to be content with less than you previously believed was required (because you enter a state of contentment just by sitting each morning, even if, e.g., you don't have as much money as you'd like, or you're having relationship trouble, or you don't like your self-image—whatever.), and this starts impacting your outlook on life: you start valuing experience more and evaluations of aspects of your condition less.

icebraining 12y ago

I can understand the idea from that story - the "second thoughts" just amplifying the problem - but I can't actually relate to it, since it simply doesn't happen to me. If anything, when I'm anxious my "second thoughts" are usually more balanced and even slightly disdainful of my anxiety episode, and can help it end faster by making me realize the silliness of my anxiety. I also understand the problem of thinking about what I'm seeing or reading, preventing me from fully immersing myself in the story, but it's usually not a problem; I identify it, go back in the film/book, take a deep breath and it usually fixes itself easily enough. I don't know, I think I find it hard to believe there isn't more to it. This just sounds so simple and intuitive.

westoncb 12y ago
Hehe: it is the most simple thing, though—nothing could be simpler, in a sense. I think the trick is that depending on your present situation it becomes more easy/difficult to do the simple thing and, e.g., 'go back into' the film/book. Meditation is just training to do that regardless of circumstances. edit: Also, this part is really just personal opinion: I think the other part of it is you begin to see that it's possible to be content with less than you previously believed was required (because you enter a state of contentment just by sitting each morning, even if, e.g., you don't have as much money as you'd like, or you're having relationship trouble, or you don't like your self-image—whatever.), and this starts impacting your outlook on life: you start valuing experience more and evaluations of aspects of your condition less.