Meditationsis now available as a paperback (218p. A5, $12 plus shipping expenses), and as an eBook ($2).To order online click on the following hyperlink:MEDITATIONSAbout this book.Unlike my other works, this is not principally a work on logic, but on meditation and spirituality. All the same, being a logician, I naturally evaluate all statements heard or [...]
MEDITATIONSPart IV - Chapter33Already there.A phenomenological stance is consistent with the teachings of meditation by Zen masters, when they insist that meditation is not a pursuit aimed at acquiring Buddhahood (ultimate realization). We are already Buddhas, they teach, andzazenis merely the typical behavior of Buddhas.By sitting in meditation, we simply express the “Buddha-nature” already in [...]
MEDITATIONSPart IV - Chapter32Whether mind or matter.Note that similar arguments to the above can be used in other metaphysical fields. For example, the Yogacara school’s “mind only” doctrine (Mentalism) may be found useful to the meditator, to help him distance himself from apparent matter and material concerns. But such utility need not depend on the [...]
MEDITATIONS Part IV - Chapter31With or without a self.An experience I once had: as I came out of a meditation, I felt my mind tangibly slipping back into its habitual identity, as one might sink into a comfortable, familiar old couch. This insight suggests to me that our ego-identity is a sort of ‘mental habitat’, a [...]
MEDITATIONSPart IV - Chapter30Being here and now.Clear your mind of all idle thoughts, and “be here now”. This means in part – do not be absorbed elsewhere and/or at another time. If one’s attention is elsewhere than here to any extent, it is insufficiently “here”. Likewise, if one’s attention is not entirely in the present, [...]
MEDITATIONSPart IV - Chapter29Breath awareness.In meditation, we direct our attention on various means, rather than on any goals. We focus on our posture, our breathing, our mental contents, and other such current experiences, rather than on enlightenment, liberation, or similar ends. This is reasonable, since any shift of attention towards some purpose is bound to [...]
MEDITATIONSPart IV - Chapter28Sitting forgetting.In meditation, thinking appears as a product of unconsciousness, because it takes an extra effort of consciousness to be aware of one’s thoughts in the way of an observer – as events embedded in the mind field, coming and going without our entire participation. During meditation, I look behind me and [...]
MEDITATIONSPart IV - Chapter27Dealing with distractions.In Judaism, the concept of “impurity” relates to idolatry, bloody hands, improper sexuality, and other such specific misdeeds; and there are degrees of purity or impurity. In Buddhism, the concept of “impurity” is much more radical than that – it refers to (almost) all thought, because thought is considered as [...]
MEDITATIONSPart IV - Chapter26Stop unnecessary thinking.Notice meditation involves some “paradoxes”. You want to stop all volition – but that is a major act of agency! You want to be fully present as a Subject, attentive to all that’s going on, and yet you don’t want to change anything: you don’t want to stop fantasying or [...]
MEDITATIONS Part IV - Chapter 25 Observe the mechanisms of thought. It is normal for thoughts to arise during meditation. Look upon your thoughts with a non-judgmental, benevolent attitude, to begin with; you do not want to get into conflicts with them. You want to get to understand thinking, before you can hope to master [...]
