A recommendation to meditators

Dear reader of this,

If meditation or "mindfulness" happens to be one of the things you do in your life, or if you're interested in these things (or Buddhism) in any way, I recommend that you listen to this:

What is awakening? (part 1)
"Freedom from suffering" sounds pretty good, but is it actually the thing that you most desire? Really? Freedom from suffering? Is that what you want? Is that the greatest fantasy, the reason why you're interested in this Buddhist stuff? Or is it possible that you're saying that because you've read it somewhere or heard other people say that "freedom from suffering" is the point?


Also:

Soulmaking (part 1). Then in part 2 it becomes total dynamite, philosophically and otherwise. Even if you don't care about meditation or Buddhism, but happen to have any level of interest in different worldviews and their limitations (including the limitations of a scientific way of talking about the world), and how different worldviews and "conceptual frameworks" affect the way people (including everybody you agree with, and everybody you disagree with) experience reality, and what imagination and fantasy have to do with all of this... then listen to this, especially the second part.

That talk really, really helped me and made sense to me during a time when I was starting to get really depressed about the whole idea of "seeing things the way they are". I'd had a very difficult psychedelic trip, and I thought that the dark meaninglessness and miserable hopelessness I'd experienced during that trip was somehow the "objective reality" of things, a horrible truth that I simply had to accept and live with. So realizing that my experience of reality is never "how things objectively are" – that I can only engage in different "ways of looking" at reality, and that different ways of looking create different realities – was simply life-saving... or soul-saving. And actually, I think that it's the most profound and valuable thing I've ever learned.

Other recommendations:

The Necessity of Fantasy.
There's always some kind of fantasy (or a bunch of fantasies) driving people to do things. In Buddhism, the dominant fantasy driving people to meditate is the fantasy of a "calm life", a life of equanimity, simplicity and peace. That's a lovely fantasy, but if it's the only fantasy, doesn't it limit the expression of compassion and all the other good things that meditation is supposed to strengthen? Maybe Buddhism needs new fantasies to complement that traditional one?

The Meditator as Revolutionary.
Meditation can be the opposite of escapism.

Wisdom and Desire.
Maybe desire is not just some bad thing that you have to get rid of because it creates suffering?

Maybe desire is an essential element of this whole meditation thing, and a necessary element of this whole life thing – maybe without it things would get pretty flat and dull?

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Here is an awesome podcast episode where a guy called Daniel Thorson interviews Rob about why this "soulmaking" stuff is actually very different from more traditional approaches to meditation... Buddhism is so very great – but really, this is not just Buddhism anymore.

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The Art of Letting Go. + Ending the Inner Critic, parts 1-3. (<- Not-so-good sound quality, but really valuable insights.) + Beyond the Prison of the Self.
All of these talks are older, so Rob's focus is still on the "freedom from suffering" stuff in a more traditional way. But obviously, that stuff is important, and these talks (and actually all of Rob's older talks I've listened to) are absolutely helpful and wonderful, just full of useful information and life-changing ideas.


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I take long walks listening to Rob Burbea's talks....

I find it hard to find words that would adequately describe what he means to me now.

When I was a bit younger and a bit more pompous, I used to think that I have "the mind of a scientist, the soul of an artist, and the heart of an activist".

And maybe I was right. Rob simultaneously energizes all those different parts of me, and turns down the volume of some bullshittier areas. It's just...

Yeah. I don't have words. I simply didn't know it was possible to use one's mind in this way.

If you've never listened to a "dharma talk" before, this stuff can seem confusing at first. The first time I listened to a talk by Rob Burbea, I thought, "What the hell is this...? Where is this going? Get to the point already!" But I kept listening, and soon the magic started happening. (That first talk was this one: Am I Free to Inquire? He's talking passionately and persuasively about the importance of questioning; not settling for the answers you think you have. This is another talk I recommend to anyone who identifies as an "intellectually curious" person – listen to this talk and ask yourself whether your curiosity is as alive as it could be. Even if you have no particular interest in Buddhism, this talk may have something to give to you. And seriously, if you decide to give it a try, listen to the whole thing. It usually takes a while for a dharma talk to "get going".)

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I must stress that I'm not an experienced or advanced meditator in any way. I haven't even figured out what role I want meditation to play in my life.

It's obvious that at the moment, I'm a lot more interested in Rob Burbea than in the Buddha. Weird but true.

And as brilliant and helpful as Rob's ideas are, maybe the biggest reason why he moves me so deeply is the creativity in itself, the aliveness of his mind... Maybe it's a bit like feeling extremely inspired by Einstein and his thinking without necessarily feeling the need to delve into the theory of relativity.

Is that a problem? I don't know. Probably not.

What I'm trying to say is:

Rob Burbea is an amazing dharma teacher.

He inspires me to try to be a better writer and a better human being.

Maybe that is what I'm trying to say.

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The reason why I even know what a "dharma talk" is that 20 months ago I participated in a week-long silent meditation retreat.

I was sort of interested in meditation, but not interested enough to ever really bring myself to meditate at home. So I decided to do something wild and scary.

Participating in something like that was scary for me, because generally I hate situations where I have to sit in a quiet room with a bunch of strangers.

But the week turned out to be hard in a very good way. It was a week defined by that feeling of "I didn't know it was possible to use one's mind in this way"... It was simply one of the most memorable and transformative experiences of my life so far.

For several months afterwards, I felt like I'd been touched by some kind of mystery or true human goodness that made some of the things I'd gotten used to doing with my mind seem like a waste of time.

The teacher on that retreat was a Swede named Leela Sarti, and she was probably the most important reason why that retreat was such a profound experience. She was brilliant, and also very charming and non-esoteric, so most of the stuff she said was highly understandable even to me as someone who had never really meditated. And clearly to other people too; it was obvious that I wasn't the only person there who found her talks totally captivating. (If you want to listen to Leela's talks, start with this one, for example. It contains really wonderful thoughts on pain and on the possibility of engaging with the "cold shower" that this reality is – just incredibly valuable stuff, and potentially life-changing if you really understand what she's saying. But again, have some patience. Don't give up if the first minutes don't seem relevant or interesting. Again, listen to the whole thing.)

The last day of the retreat was possibly the only time in my "adult" life that I've felt real, unguarded belonging among people I don't know very well... It was pretty radical.

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My recommendations so far have been mostly dharma talks (i.e. recordings of meditation teachers musing on stuff). So they don't really contain a lot of practical instructions for actual meditation.

If you want to try, this is a really good guided meditation. Find a peaceful place where you can close your eyes for 40 minutes.

It's "metta", which means that the focus is on compassion. If you're afraid, confused, angry or otherwise in pain, and thinking doesn't seem to help, this practice may provide some relief. Obviously, you can try it even if you're feeling fine, simply out of curiosity. It's the complete opposite of what people are doing with their minds nowadays, so it could be an interesting experience.

By the way, it's okay if it doesn't "do" anything for you. For a lot of people, metta is a matter of slow cultivation. For others, it works immediately. Either way is totally A-OK.

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P.S.

If you don't want to meditate, please don't feel "guilty" about it. It's certainly possible to be a wise, interesting and/or insightful person without any experience in meditation. (The great majority of interesting and insightful people I admire have no experience in meditation. And some people who do have experience in meditation are idiots.) I'm definitely not saying that this "Buddhist stuff" is the only direction where interesting thinking or deep understanding can be found and developed. It's simply a possibility, one possible direction.