11 Responses for "Meditating Monks and Yellow Dots"

1. Wali

   June 8th, 2005 at 11:37 pm

   1

   Because monks would never lie about it because they don’t want to seem like they’re wasting thier life.

   That’s like asking me if I can stare at the yellow dot and make the others disappear for a long amount of time. Sure, sure I can (I’m lying) (wait, on second thought I’m not lying, I’m sure I can. Either way, you can see where I was going with this. Anyone can say they only saw this or that, that doesn’t mean that’s all they saw)

2. Joe

   June 8th, 2005 at 11:42 pm

   2

   Agreed… I think (any comment that starts with a conjunction is hard to understand).

   You’re saying that they most likely lie about it, correct? I wouldn’t doubt it, although I don’t know all the details of the test. Also, I will say that the yellow dot thing does work, i tried it and maintained it for several seconds.

3. cliche

   June 9th, 2005 at 9:17 am

   3

   It’s true that monks can lie, but don’t state that they would lie more than normal people, simply based on your prejudice on monks and meditation. It’s cool when Bruce Lee meditates, but becomes a “waste of time” when it doesn’t involve fighting, right?

4. Joe

   June 9th, 2005 at 9:39 am

   4

   I guess it all depends on what kind of meditation you’re talking about.

   Monk meditation (the act of clearing one’s mind), seems to be a waste of time or a form of escapism to me (my opinion only).

   Regular meditation (the practice of thinking deeply on a subject) has obvious benefits.

5. JC

   June 9th, 2005 at 11:40 am

   5

   Your opinion is rather shallow, Joe.

   The act of clearing ones mind is invaluable. Haven’t you ever had something stuck in your head you wanted to get rid of? distractions? Anything? A minute or so of meditation can make you far more productive.

   As for escapism… jesus, man, what do you think video games are?

6. Joe

   June 9th, 2005 at 12:01 pm

   6

   In a nutshell my opinion is this: spending years or a lifetime in seclusion or silence while completely clearing ones mind seems to be a waste of time.

   Getting your mind off of distractions etc. is another matter. But using meditation as a way to escape your problems couldn’t possibly be a good idea, just as playing video games instead of dealing with a problem is a bad idea.

   I play video games, but i don’t play them to escape problems. Actually, anything can be a form of escapism: food, alcohol, drugs, work… anything that takes you away from dealing with a particular problem.

   It should be noted that when I speak of dealing with a problem I don’t mean to dwell on it, but completely blocking it from your mind rather than approaching it with calm logic is called suppression and it can cause problems later on in life.

7. Strife_Clou0

   June 9th, 2005 at 3:25 pm

   7

   hmm… maybe they should do something a little more about it… but hey great way to zone out your mom

8. Joe

   June 9th, 2005 at 3:36 pm

   8

   I think we’ve all read to much in to this. Strife just hit it on the head: using unbridled powers of the mind to zone out your mom / wife / boss is where it’s at!

9. Strife_Clou0

   June 10th, 2005 at 3:49 am

   9

   Thank You maybe it isn’t too bad not being in society for 15 to 20 years to do this stuff……….. on second thought ill take the nagging

10. Almonimus

    June 11th, 2005 at 4:11 pm

    10

    meditating, even if not for actually thinking about the problem, calms you down and then you act much more rational and self-controled (not only controlling your actions, but more then that – controling your thoughts, focus and emotions).

    Becoming a monk and doing it for 15 years, well, it’s escapism from the urban life like urban life is escapism from monk’s life. When you choose a way, you’re not going in the other ways. That’s the way aha aha… :P

11. Huy Hoang

    June 15th, 2005 at 12:55 pm

    11

    The human mind is capable of doing much more than we though. It can solve problems that normally nobody could figure out, or logically solve, or imagine of. We never be able to use it because we keep making it busy thinking about solving the problem, to sastify our desires, and let the desires getting control of us. Meditation is a way to let your mind free and clear from those busy ideas. If you have a mirror with all the dust on the surface, you won’t see things clearly. But if you wipe all the dust away, the mirror will reflect things as clear they things are. Naturally, everybody is equal and has the same ability, nobody is better than another, just like we all are mirrors from the same factory. The different is the dust, somebody have a very thick layer of dust, somebody have thin one, some doesn’t have it at all, and the thickess of the dust is just the result (effect) of what we have done and are doing, in both past lives and current life. Most of you don’t believe in past lives, but it’s the only sensible way to explain why we are all in different environments when we were born.

    About esapism, I should mention the word “ignorance”. Usually, we says that a monk ignore the world around them to meditate, but actually, we are ignoring the fact about what we really are and keep trying to sastify our senses, making the mind busy and covered (mirror with dust). We sastify our vision with beautiful pictures, scene .., sastify our hearing with music, good sounds, … sastify our touching with comfort material,… sastify our taste with good foods, drinks … sastify our smelling with perfume,… and sastify our mind with “beautiful thoughts”, with games, movies … In some sense, we are actually a slave for our own senses, trying to sastify them, avoiding those that they don’t want such as bad scene, ugly faces, noises, rough surfaces, pain, bad foods, bad smells, and thoughts that scare us. That is ignorance, escapism. We don’t really they are just senses, thoughts and keep being their slaves.

    Another aspect, we have been trained in our whole life to see things as we want to see them, not as they are. Meditation (the right way) will help us see things clear as they really are, no more, no less, no bias, no prejudice, no stereotype. I think I found a research to confirm what has been known for over 2000 years since the Budda taught about it:

    http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050613_mars_face.html

    I can only give you a brief description about meditation, I’m still a beginner and don’t know much about it. I have been meditating for 2 years, and all the benefits can be seen clearly. If you want to learn more about meditation, this book is a good one to start with:

    Mindfulness in plain English (http://www.saigon.com/~anson/ebud/mfneng/mind0.htm)

    Hope this help.