Meditation

Meditation and Accepting Reality

I was asking fans what subjects they want me to address and Ramesh Gupta MD asked me to expand on the subject of accepting reality AND, to talk about humanist meditation practices.

It might seem odd to combine the topics of meditation and acceptance of reality, but to me, as a Humanist, they are connected.

My focus as a Humanist is to live life fully and to do that, I need to do a good job of solving my problems. To do that, I need to have a good grasp of reality.  To have a good grasp of reality, I use critical thinking skills to help me figure out what is true and what is false.

It turns out that figuring out what is true and what is false is difficult. Our brains are big gooshy masses of chemical reactions that somehow create consciousness. Our brains take short cuts and have biases that make thinking rationally really difficult. We have to make an effort to think critically and rationally.

Which is why I find meditation such a useful too. Meditation is brain practice. It’s about practicing focusing your attention.  This practice can be rather calming for the brain.  I find my brain really enjoys it.

Being able to focus my attention when problem solving is helpful to problem solving. Being able to have a calm mind when I am trying to problem solve, is priceless. Calm focused thinking is clear thinking and clear thinking allows for better critical thinking.

If you want to learn more about Humanist meditation – take this course.
Want to learn more about critical thinking – take my reality based decision making course.
Want an all in one course that combines philosophy and critical thinking – take living made simpler.

Guided Meditation – For Children

Do you meditate? Do you meditate with your child?

Sam Harris posted a series of guided meditations that his wife Annaka Harris created for Inner Kids, which is a group run by Susan Kaiser Greenland focused on teaching kids how to be more mindful through guided meditations. (See: http://susankaisergreenland.com/ for more details)

I haven’t yet tried these guided meditations with my son yet, but I am linking to them here - http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/guided-meditations-for-children

Learning how to calm your mind and focus your thoughts is what mindfulness is all about. To me, this is a basic life skill.  My son is anxious a lot and I have taught him how to breathe, smell and use his senses to focus his mind and calm down.  I have even taken him to a meditation center to learn in the kids group.  The problem is that a lot of meditation comes with supernatural concepts, which is why I was so excited that Sam Harris shared these links to guided meditation for kids that is secular!

Here is a video about it 

Questions about meditation

Curious about meditation? New to it? Rick Heller of the Humanist Mindfulness group, answers questions about meditation for beginners.

Questions:

• Where's the best place to meditate (Outside? Inside? In a chair? On the floor?) 
• Should it be dark? Light? 
• How do you stop thinking about things that are stressing you out? 
• How should you best position your body, and why? 
• How long should you meditate for in the beginning? 
• Is there a time of day that's best meditation for some reason? 
• Any other tips you can give about where, how and why we should meditate.

Answers:

For a beginner who is not participating in a group, the best place to start may be:

1. In a quiet room, especially one where they will not overhear conversations. More advanced meditators can meditate in a noisy environment, but it’s always hard to meditate when someone is having a loud conversation nearby.

2. For a beginner, a chair is probably easier than a mat on the floor. If a chair, it should not be a “comfy” chair that you sink in to. Better is a chair or bench with perhaps a little padding that lets you sit up fairly straight. You do want to sit up straight, but not in so rigid a manner that it makes you tense. Ideally, you want to feel relaxed and energetic.

3. In our group, we often dim the lights before meditating.

4. You don’t actively try to stop thinking. Rather, you focus on something like the breath, and by paying attention to the breath coming in and out of your nostrils, you naturally pay less attention to your thoughts. 

5. For a beginner, we find that 20 minutes works well, but longer leads to restlessness and can be counterproductive.

6. Many people meditate shorting after getting up in the morning and before going to bed. It’s fine to meditate in the middle of the day, but if often does not fit into people’s schedules.

7. After you’ve done a bit of meditation, you learn that you can keep some of the calm meditative mindset with you as you go about your day—while walking, shopping at the supermarket, raking leaves, etc. 

Hope that helps

Rick Heller

Facilitator

Humanist Mindfulness Group

Humanist Community at Harvard

To learn more about the Humanist meditation - check out this course at: https://humanistlearning.com/meditation101/

Can Humanists Practice Yoga

Is there something about Yoga that makes it unsuitable for humanists and atheists?  I sure hope not.

I practice yoga. I like it. To me it is a physical exercise that includes a meditative/ breathing/mindfulness component that I find highly enjoyable. I enjoy tai chi for the same reasons.  I also like that it is low impact, so my inner ear injury isn’t harmed by the practice in the same way step aerobics would.

Anyway – there is a bit of a scuffle about whether atheists and by extension, humanists, can practice yoga. The question centers on whether or not yoga is a religious practice or not.  And the answer is, it can be.   It also can be just an exercise.

The fact that some people treat it as a religious practice is fine for them. That’s not how I practice it. Am I doing it wrong? I really don’t care.  It works for me and I enjoy it and that’s enough for me to find time in my day to do it.

If you want to learn more about these debates – here is an interview with the author of Atheist Yoga

by Antonin Drake - http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/what-is-the-meaning-of-atheist-yoga-part-3-of-my-interview-with-anton-drake-author-of-the-new-book-atheist-yoga-253558.htm

How to be a Yogi - http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Yogi