/sci/ - Science & Math

>>3693790

>I enjoy thinking systematically about the world I inhabit and the relationship between it and I I feel, however, that my mind begins to become a chaotic mess of half bewildered amazement as I try to think about these things

Think of what?
And if you did think systematically then you would construct models that would classify and account all the phenomenons you perceive hence there is no place for chaos in it.
You either dont know what systematic thinking is or you are just lying.

>>3693798

Hello friend! While I appreciate your comment I do not consider it terribly relevant to my post. I'm looking for people to offer friendly and constructive advice on how or if meditation helps us achieve our full thinking potential. If you have any experience with this, I would be delighted to hear it.

>>3693801
>I'm looking for people to offer friendly and constructive advice
> friendly and constructive advice

You're looking in the wrong place, /sci/ is populated by pretentious cunts who believe themselves to posses intellects the size of mountains. The sort of people who 'know' something only until the 'fact' is changed.

>>3693801

>advice on how or if meditation helps us
>Do you believe that meditation or other schools of mental discipline

Now you contradict yourself.
Do you just want exclusively meditation (Which is the most evasive word ever), or other Schools as well?

>>3693807

I have had some wonderful discussions on here in the past. Some not so wonderful but I find the people here are usually intelligent and insightful even if they are also argumentative and condescending. The two often go hand in hand. As my father used to say, a man's greatest assets are always his worst.

>>3693790
Try this http://www.dhamma.org.au/
It pretty full on...but very rewarding

>meditation
>full thinking potential

Um no. Meditation is good for relieving stress and emotional calmness which can make one healthier and able to think clearer if they so choose to do so. Mediation is usually an excuse for not thinking and most people who mediate are simple morons.

>>3693815

Meditation or any related fields I suppose. I'm not really aware of any.

I guess the main question I'm getting at is where does one learn such an art legitimately and intensely?

A lovely girl in her 20s once told me that she spent several months traveling India. She asked me what I thought the worst part was. I suggested the usual accounts of dangerous roads, outlandish poverty and begging and huge crowds. She told that the two weeks she spent meditating in a Hindu temple were the hardest two weeks of her life, but she learned a great deal.

I am curious if such an experience is replicable for everyone, especially where I live in America.

>>3693819

It is most unfortunate that I no longer reside in the smaller of those two wonderful nations.

>>3693815
>>3693798
>Hi! I'm an over analyzing douchebag who feels compelled to belittle people on 4chan in order to artificially inflate my pathetic sense of self worth and distract myself from the fact that I have a three inch penis, something no woman will ever want.
>Whats that you say Anon, you're looking for friendly advice? Let me shit on you and prove to all the other anons how intellectually gifted I am.
>Look at me /sci/! Won't someone come pat me on my back for flexing my pathetic brain muscle?

>>3693826
once again i send you here: http://www.dhamma.org.au/

its the 2 weeks your young female friend spoke about.

>>3693823
you are full retard if you think this, meditation improves your thinking ability dramatically. it helps you focus for longer periods of time, and helps you avoid distraction.

>>3693829
im not the guy you are criticising, but you are doing the same thing to him/her....anyway

>>3693826

Meditation is any kind structured thinking.
Hence why i mentioned that its an evasive word.
Which is why you will have to be more precise over what kind of meditation you refer to.
As Meditations do not only differ in their structures but also in their purposes.

>>3693829

[ ] not told
[x] told

>>3693843
>>3693829

How hilariously ironic, as the exact same argument applies to you as well.

>>3693829
Toldasaurus Rex
Told Glory
Fortune favors the Told
Told Yeller
No Country for Told Men
Only shooting stars break the Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told
RonTold McDonTold
Tolden Caulfield

>>3693843

OP here

Can you please not be one of those individuals who, out of spite, refuses to leave when it is clear their presence and bickering is not desired?

Why you copy me
>>3693854
I just said this in:
>>3693837

>>3693837

Being given a taste of your own medicine, and finding it to be rather bitter is often what one needs to stop being a giant douchebag to random people on the internet who are just trying to expand their understanding of things.

>>3693861
i wasnt cirticising what you said in:
>>3693829
I support you in a way...im the guy who keeps telling Op to look up Vipasana
http://www.dhamma.org.au/

>>3693854
no it doeesn't

>>3693857

BUMP for more meditation advice

>>3693790
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cat/srchsubj.htm?search_str=meditation

I hope you enjoy reading, OP.

>>3693871
yes sir... it does

>>3693861

>Being given a taste of your own medicine

You are an idiot if you think that.
So if you had a child and it assaulted another child you would teach it not to do it by assaulting it?
Hahaha.

>>3693871
>>3693875

don't feed the troll.

>>3693866
Reading the wiki about Vipassana. Thanks for the tip!

>>3693874

An excellent site, thank you!

4th way

>>3693876
>So if you had a child and it assaulted another child you would teach it not to do it by assaulting it?

You wouldn't give your child a spanking if it acted up?
Your at the playground with your kid and you see him hitting another person's child, you do what?

Oh and by the way
>You are an idiot if you think that.
Cool story bro.
Typical /sci/, calling someone an idiot as if you are some kind of intellectual superman who flies over the troglodyte masses. Where ever would we simpletons be without the magnanimous offerings you bestow upon us, thank you for your blessings of brilliance.

Meditation is for people too lazy to concentrate, do research and hard ass thinking. Read, do puzzles, solve problems, take long walks, research, sketch, challenge and exercise your brain. Meditation is for fat pansies. .

>>3693903

>You wouldn't give your child a spanking if it acted up Your at the playground with your kid and you see him hitting another person's child, you do what?

I would try to understand why it did that and to explain why that is incorrect instead of acting like a violent primitive idiot like you propose.

>>3693790

I've always heard that the ideal state of meditation is to have no thoughts whatsoever. Its a way to quite the mind really, at least that's my understanding of it.

>>3693906


trolling, trolling everywhere.

Imagine this. In a white room, out of a stubborn countenance of your own creation, you are compelled to sit and focus not on your sensory input, but your mental being. You are forced to disregard any and all desires to get up and go somewhere else.

You are therefore removed from all the distractions of life. You must sit quietly and think about what you know of the world and yourself, and that is all. You cannot get up and look a question up. You cannot get up and get a glass of water or a cup of coffe. You cannot get up and go outside and smell the world around you.

You must stay here and allow your thoughts to run their full courses. No more fragmented bits of thought which dead-end. No diagrams, no paper, no calculator, no discussion, no argument, no chalk board, no counsel of others, nothing.

The mind will naturally drift towards those questions which are most central to our being. In a non meditative state, these questions are bombarded constantly by theories, arguments, opinions, facts-- all of which we must sift through and consider and digest in a particular order. In a meditative state, you may find that the answers to many of your questions do not exist as you anticipated. They may be experiences instead of essays, or perhaps not exist at all.

If thought originates form the brain and all theories were at one point simple thought, does it not make sense to consult the nebulous system which spawned them to begin with?

And does it make any sense to critique or debase meditation having not attempted it with an open mind?

Deep questions concerning existence and meaning cannot be ascertained through literature or argument. This is why it never is the case that a Christian suddenly realizes, after much ado and discussion with his atheist neighbor, that there his belief system is wrong.

It is far deeper and more personal than that. I do not suggest that meditation is the only means to acquiring this kind of knowledge, but certain questions and ideas must be truly experienced, not just asked or postulated.

>>3693937

>In a meditative state, you may find that the answers to many of your questions do not exist as you anticipated

Or because your mind lacks the necessary knowledge to provide you an answer.
And the more you deprive yourself from meaningful interactions the less knowledge you will acquire and the less knowledge your mind will have to process so it could provide you the answers you seek and the more you will be convinced in your premise that there are no answers which will ultimately lead you to suicide or infantile state.

Now what good did that do to you?

>>3693989

Don't be that fool who only to find flaws in the words of others. Be the wise man and find them in your own words.

Then, at least, you can say you do more than I to know things.

I do not think meditation is the only route to truth or something outrageous like that. I'm trying to tell you that some things are better explained or understood through meditation, just as some things are better modeled by math than card houses.

Meditating periodically as you study is something I would suggest. If one reads books and never goes outside, what does he know of the world?

>>3693937
"If thought originates form the brain"

Thoughts originate from internal sensations and experiences in the world. They are generated by phenomena and people talking and expressing ideas. They are generated in concert with, and reacting to the world and everything. All that noise sparks thinking.

While you're sitting in your quiet room, you may want to ask yourself .. why the fuck do people think thoughts? What are minds for? Why did we evolve to have thoughts? What good are my thoughts? How can my thinking benefit my life and the world?

>>3694006

Those are wonderful questions that have been asked for millennia. Wonderful questions to meditate on and read about and talk about.

The best way to hone your mind is to treat computer games as a test of your skills, knowledge and learning capability. Do not play any game which requires a long term commitment such as World of Warcraft. Play all different genres of games like: puzzles, RTS, FPS and RPG. Multiplayer games add the human factor which allows for competition. This helps you push yourself to the limit to beat the competition. I like need for speed world since it also lets you bring out your creative side in modding cars. Starcraft 2 is one of the most competitive RTS games out right now. Play games from the Total War series (Medieval 2 is my favourite). Play Mount and Blade multiplayer. I believe that computer games speed up your thought if you push hard in every game you play.
A good way to improve thought is to study Math (Propositional Logic is good here) and Physics (as much as you can learn). Needless to say the more you learn, the more you understand new things. I believe that Games, Math and Physics is the best for helping you learn to understand new concepts of high complexity.
You can also try watching good Stand-up comedy and listen to all sorts of rap. These two are direct examples of thought-based creativity.
Science is about description and explanation and is the key to understanding the world.

>>3694017

I don't like video games, I am very bad at them. They make me frustrated.

>>3693999

>Don't be that fool who only to find flaws in the words of others Be the wise man and find them in your own words.

Why do you immediately resort to insults when some one dissents with you?

>Then, at least, you can say you do more than I to know things.

Why do you assume that conversation is a competition?

>I do not think meditation is the only route to truth or something outrageous like that I'm trying to tell you that some things are better explained or understood through meditation, just as some things are better modeled by math than card houses.

And i explained to you why distancing yourself from the world just so to reach the conclusion that there is no answer to a question is hazardous and even idiotic.
If you cant discover the answer by Introspection(Rationalism), you dont end your quest there, you continue it by Extrospection (Observation,Empiricism).

>If one reads books and never goes outside, what does he know of the world?

I never advocated that, and even by that argument your stance could be even more absurd:

If one deprives and distances himself from the outside, what does he know of the world?

Meditation is only good if you're comfortable with how much you know. It's like posting on 4chan without doing any research (Wiki). It's like saying sleep on it. You have to keep your mind busy to improve it. Introduce variation into your life, don't just meditate. I guess you could meditate in bed just before you go to sleep, since you may just make some interesting connections about things in your head. However, meditation is not going to improve your ability to understand concepts. The only way is to increase the amount of knowledge in your mind.

>Using meditation
>to improve thinking

No. Meditation will increase concentration and calmness if done right, but not not bring out "full thinking potential"

I sometimes meditate before I sleep to calm myself, but if you are thinking and making connections during it you are doing it wrong.

to increase cognitive ability you have to use it, not suppress it.

>>3694021
Like I said, it's a test of your ability. If you're going to quit, then you aren't going to improve. This goes for everything, not just games. meditation is not the answer to confusion, trial and error is.

>>3694031

Yes I always insult people when I argue with them.
Actually, you are right meditation is probably useless.

Goodnight hunk :)