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HoneydewInMyAss t1_j7g2qoj wrote

Reply to comment by FrankDrakman in ‘Flow’, comparable to the Chinese concept of Wu Wei, dissolves our sense of self and transforms our experience of time. It’s an antidote to the modern world’s obsession with multitasking, but finding it depends on balancing the challenge of a task against our skill. by IAI_Admin

I feel like there's a lot of conversations around bending eastern philosophy to fix rigid western standards of productivity and expertise, when many of these concepts were built around people simply existing.

Idk, once you start talking about "multitasking" or "pro athletes and musicians" or "skills," I feel like you've kinda missed the mark of the entire concept.

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MuteSecurityO t1_j7hdwxl wrote

I agree on this. Meditation of various sorts emphasize a passivity, a receptivity, and a feeling of non-effort.

Once you are trying to do something, play music or a sport etc., then you’re removing yourself from the meditative mindset.

The only thing I think that binds them together is the phenomenological experience of an absence of conscious thought.

But that which separates them is the focus on completing an activity - a futurally extended intentionality - which betrays the presence that’s imperative in meditation.

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BrendonBootyUrie t1_j7i1b5r wrote

Well many of the meditation/ mindfulness practices taken from Taoism popularised by modern western psychology is conflate mindfulness and equanimity as the same thing and end goal, whereas from my understanding practicing mindfulness is in the goal to reach equanimity.

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BrickWiggles t1_j7hm1ki wrote

But with several types of meditation, particularly those that are mindfulness based, there is the progression of intentionally bringing that mindfulness or stabilization to life or off the cushion. It’s not having no thought that is the goal on or off (in most practices I’m aware of) the cushion, it’s to be more aware of what is happening in consciousness during practice. That practice being meditation, skills, life.

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