Meditation

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“The Science of Meditation” is collaboration between the Dalai Lama, Richard Davidson and Daniel Goldman. It makes clear what works in meditation and what doesn’t, and explains why focusing our attention minute by minute on a single facet of consciousness (a mantra, our breath, stray thoughts) has such a dramatic impact on our well-being and state of mind.

The book shows there is good evidence that regular sessions of mindful attention have a calming effect on the amygdala, the brain’s emotion processor, and reduce impulsive reactions to stressful or negative thoughts and experiences. Mindfulness, they say, can help mute our emotional response to physical pain, and lessen anxiety and mind-wandering (not the kind that feeds creativity but its unfocused opposite). The benefits are apparent, even for beginners, and they increase with practice.

Compassion meditation, which aims to boost empathy, has an even more immediate effect: just 7 hours over the course of two weeks has been shown to boost altruistic behaviour. It is probably no coincidence that this makes us happier, too.

The authors are most interested in the capacity of meditation to cultivate enduring selflessness, equanimity, compassion and the ability to free the mind of negative emotions, all Epicurean objectives.

Davidson has scanned the brains of dozens of highly experienced Tibetan monks. These yogis, whose fellow practitioners have meditated for thousands – in some cases, tens of thousands – of hours, describe themselves as living in a heightened state of present-moment awareness, “as if their senses were wide open to the full rich panorama of experience”.

Davidson claims he has found a neural correlate to this mind-warp: a massive increase in the intensity of gamma waves in the brain, a signal associated with conscious perception. Are these monks living on a different plane of consciousness from the rest of us?

One of their most interesting passages describes what this self-lightening looks like on a neural level, how meditation practice quietens the brain’s default mode network, the constant background chatter that accompanies mind-wandering and self-absorption.

If a wandering mind is an unhappy mind, as various psychological surveys argue, then a focused mind must be worth struggling for. For Goleman and Davidson, the struggle is not so much about individual relief as global salvation, about reducing “greed, selfishness, us/them thinking and impending eco-calamities, and promoting more kindness, clarity, and calm”. (Michael Bond, NewScientist, September 16, 2017)

I myself call meditation “My Peace”, and only wish I had the leisure and the time – and the peace – to do more of it.

Love very much comes within the purview of Epicureanism

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Love

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment; love is not love
which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh, no. It is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
It is the star to every wandering bark
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass comes
Love alters not with his brief days and weeks
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and against me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare

Epicureanism in short

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Epicureanism was never meant to be a dry academic philosophy. In fact, it is best kept away from academia, where, as usual with philosophy, long words render it dull, if not incomprehensible. Rather, it is a vital way of living which seeks to free men and women from a life of unhappiness, fear and anxiety. It is a missionary philosophy for the practical-minded with common sense.

While Epicureans have written scholarly works, they have always been most interested in explaining Epicureanism in a manner simple enough for anyone to understand and remember. The following eight counsels are a basic guide to Epicurean living:

– Don’t fear God.– Don’t worry about death. – Don’t fear pain.– Live simply.– Pursue pleasure wisely.– Make friends and be a good friend.– Be honest in your business and private life.– Avoid fame and political ambition.

I would add some others:
– Be polite and considerate;  – Try to see the other point of view; meet others half way.– Take the smooth and pleasant road, as free from stress and conflict as possible. – But don’t be put upon!

Netflix

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In 2020 Netflix paid £5million in taxes on a turnover of £1.15 billion. Last year saw its subscription base jump to 13 million. (The Week 22 Oct, 2021)

My comment: I love Netflix, but I love equity and fairness more. Netflix should pay a fair rate of tax, and that means much, much more, not less.

Maybe an historical event that had escaped your notice ?

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In 1839 a Cyclone slammed south eastern India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying city of Coringa. Storm waves swept inland, destroying 20,000 ships and killing an estimated 300,000 people.

My comment: Was that a freak, one-off event? I don’t know. Maybe no one knows. But it is the sort of thing we, or our grandchildren, may have to face. 300,000 deaths! And the modern world population is so much greater.

Epicurus would have heartily supported intelligent steps to avoid a climate disaster. Climate change is a threatening disaster, not some dreamt-up plot.