Empty your non-mind

 

“Buddhist Meditation Explained” is a short but very interesting clip addressing various misconceptions about, well, Buddhist meditation. 

It turns out that Buddhist meditation isn´t about “emptying the mind” at all (at least not exclusively), but is really a sophisticated form of discursive meditation. One point of the practice is to still the mind by concentrating on one single object (which could be real or visualized) and then use this one-pointedness to explore various Buddhist ideas, such as death or impermanence. Or compassion, for that matter! In this way, Buddhist concepts “comes alive” for the meditator in a deep way. There are also forms of meditation which include chanting, walking around a prayer wheel, and so on. 

That meditation as a form of stress relief for business people is modern is obvious, but according to this material, the entire shtick about making your mind go completely blank (often marketed as “vipassana” or “mindfulness”) is really also a new thing (although the terms are old). Note also that Buddhist meditation was usually performed by monks, another part of the context often missed today. 

An interesting question not addressed: Where does this leave nirvana?

Note also the positive comments from Buddhists in the commentary section!