
Why Meditation Doesn't Directly Increase Happiness - KenjiCrosland
http://www.unreadyandwilling.com/2012/06/looking-back-my-first-year-as-a-meditation-practitioner/
======
tokenadult
On 25 June 2012, Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution Is True website recommended a
LONG video of a lecture by Sam Harris, a meditation practitioner, from April’s
Global Atheist Conference in Melbourne. The video lecture is on the subject of
the atheist attitude toward death, and Harris leads his audience through a
mindfulness meditation exercise as part of the video.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITTxTCz4Ums>

I watched the whole video, and participated in the mindfulness meditation
exercise.

I have to say that after listening to the whole lecture, I have the same
misgivings Sam Harris has about being removed from any thoughts or judgments
about the external world. There is genuine suffering in the world that it is
important to do something about. There is a tension between getting in touch
with the present moment and using a meaningful part of each day to solve
problems and help our fellow human beings. Having lived in a predominantly
Buddhist society during two different three-year stays as that society
transformed from Third World colonialized poverty to First World free and
democratic modernity, I'm not at all sure that most people would be more happy
if most people were doing more mindfulness meditation.

~~~
psykotic
> Having lived in a predominantly Buddhist society during two different three-
> year stays as that society transformed from Third World colonialized poverty
> to First World free and democratic modernity, I'm not at all sure that most
> people would be more happy if most people were doing more mindfulness
> meditation.

Could you expand on this baffling non-sequitur? I truly can't make heads or
tails of it.

~~~
gurkendoktor
As I understood it, the transformation happened because people were _not_ just
accepting their negative emotions about their country but actually threw rocks
and organized rallies.

> "There is genuine suffering in the world that it is important to do
> something about"

I wonder if I'm in the same now-democratic society. Does it have Daoist
influences? :)

------
cellularmitosis
Your Zen is showing :)

I really enjoy posts like this which take a subject which is usually discussed
from a "mystical" or "spiritual" perspective, and instead attempt to approach
it from a physiological perspective. This pleases the knee-jerk part of my
brain which often screams "skip the mumbo-jumbo and show me the data!" (and
I'm slowly working to tame that part of my brain, because I recognize that an
"empirical or be damned" approach is not a balanced one).

In "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior", the author discusses how the idea of
enlightenment being fully realized in an instant (like turning on a switch) is
a misconception, and that in reality, its more about having enlightened
moments, and then increasing the frequency of those moments, like slowly
ramping up your enlightenment duty cycle over the course of several years.

This bit was one of those enlightened moments: "I realize that I should not
ask myself how happy I am but rather how attached am I to happiness".

~~~
blueprint
No one has attained Enlightenment through Zen nor meditation in human history.
Buddha himself never claimed he was enlightened through meditation. That's a
fabrication of Buddhist monks whose level of consciousness is quite a bit
lower than that of Gautama. Nowadays, the misunderstanding has been passed
down for thousands of years, so what I'm saying now seems unacceptable in
modern society.

If you accept that meditation is a way to get Enlightenment then it opens the
possibility that anyone can be Enlightened. But in human history, only one or
two men had the evidence that they could perceive everything in the world and
could tell the Truth. Instead, Buddhists will tell you that you have to
experience things to understand and prove them. But that is not the case of a
scientist, philosopher, and Enlightened Beings - all of which can immediately
show evidence when they point out something in truth.

The term of Enlightenment means "opening eyes to what is in the reality". It's
used similarly in Eastern languages to mean "to realize".

So a truly enlightened being can point out things in reality exactly as they
are and can tell the law of how the world works.

So when you learn about happiness from an Enlightened Being, he doesn't teach
you about sitting in meditation until you can train yourself not to care about
happiness anymore. That's a way to lose yourself in the end.

Instead he can teach you exactly what the conditions are for happiness which
must be fulfilled in order for you to be happy.

If someone claims he's Enlightened and teaches about happiness then they must
be able to point out that where happiness is, what it is, what is the way to
happiness, and what is the cause to lead you to the goal of happiness.

The reason why attachment is a problem is that attachment is one of the
sources to make karma, and you can't be happy forever without conquering your
karma (before it conquers oneself).

Things in the world operate by a very simple principle - and this principle
lies at the essence of what is taught by all Enlightened Beings when they
teach about "what is" in the world. But because the monks and Zen masters
didn't learn this principle, I can realize that they don't know anything about
true Buddha's teaching.

I'm telling you this because I'm worried that people will fall into danger
practicing Zen and other forms of Buddhism. The truth in Buddha's teaching has
degraded to the point that no one can know Buddha's teaching through the
existent Buddhism - which although superior because of Buddha's teachings,
nowadays has a similar quality to Christianity and other religions. I've seen
people deceived so many times by monks and it's getting worse as time goes on.

~~~
omarchowdhury
Why couldn't anyone be enlightened?

The Buddha said the true nature of all beings is that of enlightenment.

~~~
blueprint
I would ask you to give me a citation, but I'm not sure if it will be so
helpful.

We know all the scriptures were written by monks, perhaps 500 or more years
after Gautama Buddha passed away. Most of the time they just wrote down what
they wanted, or from their own ideas and opinions.

"Buddha nature" is one of the first lies that Buddhist monks tell people.
People donate to the monks who practice meditation because they want to invest
in someone who is spending all his time on a path they think will get to
Enlightenment. But it is not virtue to donate to the monks.

Someone only can have Enlightenment and Buddha nature by removing every
falsehood from inside themselves. But if he did that he'd be a Tathagata in
this lifetime, and it is ultimately very rare to encounter a living
enlightened being.

~~~
lobo_tuerto
Why would you say?

"Most of the time they just wrote down what they wanted, or from their own
ideas and opinions."

When your master's webpage at:

[http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/questions_and_an...](http://www.members.tripod.com/tathagata2000/questions_and_answers_2.htm)

Says:

"What is the proof about a Tathagata? > The proof is in the Buddhist
scripture."

Seems contradictory, no?

~~~
blueprint
There are certain things we can know for sure through the scriptures, and
finally I have a chance to talk about this question on this thread, so thanks
for asking. :)

Gautama Buddha taught for about 40 years and met lots of people. If we try to
summarize just a few parts, of _all_ of his teachings over his entire teaching
career, what do we come up with?

The two things are as follows:

1\. Transmigration

2\. The law of cause and effect

An Enlightened being tells about 'what is' in the world, and can teach people
how the world works. That's exactly what Gautama Buddha taught, although he
taught it quite a long time ago.

Finally, there's more evidence in the content of the prajna paramita sutra, if
you have seen that one, which explains about some cases in perfecting oneself
and opening one's wisdom eye. No one can explain that content without already
having been Enlightened.

------
ChrisNorstrom
Should be Titled: "Why Meditation Doesn't Directly Increase MY Happiness".

For me it does but I practice a very different and rare form of meditation. I
can only call it "Sleeping Awake". Which took a while to achieve.

Basically, when you go to sleep at night your body slows its breathing & heart
rate and you loose feeling of your limbs, while your mind looses consciousness
and you black out. Your body and mind shut down at the same time. With
meditation, particularly deep meditation (out of body experience / trance /
hypnosis) you "sleep awake". Your body shuts down and goes to sleep but you
are completely conscious the entire time. You can't feel your limbs, heart
beat, or lungs breathing. You completely loose track of time and gravity and
feel like you're floating around in a massive black, empty, nothingness.

If feels like you're floating around in the universe before it was made.
Completely empty and quiet. No gravity. No direction. No time. No space. No
memories. No emotions. No body. No flesh. It's the most peace you'll ever
experience in your life apart from sleep and death. There's absolutely nothing
on your mind. The only thing you're aware of, is your existence. That's all.
And when you wake up, you feel amazingly refreshed. Not just physically but
mentally. For me personally, I feel content and happy the rest of the day.

It makes me happy because the experience reminds me that, honestly, I don't
matter. None of us do. We might matter to each other, but to the universe
(which is mostly empty) our existence is worthless, useless, meaningless,
purposeless. No matter what happens in your life, good or bad. Existence goes
on, even after life is gone. And this concept, that nothing really matters,
just takes a huge load off your shoulders. I don't know why "Sleeping Awake"
evokes these feelings but it just does. It's a very calming and neutral
experience.

So meditation for me did the opposite of what it did to the author of the
article. It allowed me to control my emotions much more and see things from a
neutral point of view. It allowed me to think, and observe an event or thought
BEFORE reacting to it with an opinion or emotion.

~~~
joshkaufman
Can you recommend any tutorials or books about this type of meditation? I'm
curious.

~~~
personlurking
Kind of sounds a bit like lucid dreaming, or astral projection.

~~~
gnaritas
It would be lucid dreaming if he went deeper, but if he's still just seeing
just black he's not deep enough into it for the dreaming to start. Next come
color blobs, then sounds, then flashes of imagery and eventually full on 3d as
if you're there dreaming. It's wicked to maintain consciousness without
blacking out from the waking state into the dream state.

------
twok
I like the article, but I think the practice here is lacking something. I
realize that there are many meditation practices, but the writer here mentions
Buddhism, and so I'm assuming insight, or vipassana, meditation.

The practice of vipassana is not to focus everything on the sensations that
you have, but only to note that they are there, and move on. I sort of say
"that's interesting", when I notice a sensation, and then move on in my body
scanning or noting--whichever form I happen to be doing.

By concentrating on those emotions, pains, and discomfort, you are giving them
more attention than they deserve, and doing yourself a disservice. You are
doing the same thing that screws us up in our daily life--hanging on to the
countless emotional experiences we have all the time. The writer of this
article could use the guidance of an experienced practitioner to help avoid
and get out of potholes like this.

Another thing I'd like to mention is the emotional rollercoaster that this
person is experiencing. One should look deeper than just the surface emotions
that arise, and look to the cause in your body, mind, or whatever is coming at
you from the "outside" experience of life. Just as with the discomforts of
sitting in meditation, and emotions, you should consider the events in your
life in the same manner, since you'll eventually realize that they have little
intrinsic meaning, but have an effect on your thoughts and emotions just the
same if you allow it.

Accept that the thing happened, and then move on or act as needed, without
letting emotion and overthinking clog it up.

~~~
kinleyd
"The practice of vipassana is not to focus everything on the sensations that
you have, but only to note that they are there, and move on." Exactly.
Continuing to focus on it is a fixation of thought. From what I'm learning,
meditation is letting the thoughts flow by without judgment. Focusing on pain,
hurt etc for extended periods is no better than psychotherapy: it just
reinforces it.

------
winternet
I can understand if this post is provocative to some, but I don't think there
is any getting around that. To meditate is to reprogram ones mind. There are
many ways to do this. This guy reprogrammed himself to feel more suffering and
pain. Since he is so invested in the idea that meditation must be good, he
instead of realizing that he is causing himself harm, he justifies his
practice by saying that happiness isn't the goal.

"I realized that meditation was not meant to purge our minds of negative
emotions or thought patterns," Meditation is a tool. It doesn't have any
purpose.

"I realize that I should not ask myself how happy I am but rather how attached
am I to happiness. How much do I judge my self-worth based on how happy or sad
I feel?" There is no should.

I want to give everyone here the opposite of his advice. Focus on the positive
things, not everything.

------
nsomaru
The funny part about all this is the stark misconceptions westerners (and
perhaps many easterners too) have about meditation in general.

The authority on meditation is long rooted in the subjective scientific (the
observation and inference of trends based on data) scriptures of the East, yet
most are willing to accept whatever their local practitioner has to say, or
whoever is currently recommending meditation to them.

Meditation, whilst extremely easy to teach, is extremely difficult to
practise. You will be EXTREMELY hard pressed to find any authority on the
subject recommending meditation without specifying its prerequisite, self-
control.

A mind that infested with thoughts and desires, constantly fluttering hither
and thither is unfit to meditate. To force such a mind into single pointed
concentration is dangerous.

Meditation is the final stage of spiritual practice, not the beginning.

------
codinghorror
I'm not clear how just internalizing stuff via meditation can possibly help.

To understand and process experiences, you must be able to tell a coherent
story about it to other people, ideally in writing. This is another reason I'm
so gung-ho about blogging. And there's science behind it too:

[http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/07/nobodys-going-to-
he...](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/07/nobodys-going-to-help-you-and-
thats-awesome.html)

~~~
floptikal
Problem is that you might not be aware that your story has spun out of control
and is heading down the wrong side of the road.

Meditation is designed to help you see if that is the case...and the fact that
stories are just stories and not reality.

------
ptc
Perhaps not as scientifically minded, I still think Alan Watts
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts>) and his accompanying lectures
(e.g. <http://archive.org/details/BuddhismAsDialogue>) are a great
introduction to eastern philosophy from a westerner's perspective.

~~~
jonhendry
Zen and the Brain by James Austin (MIT Press) is also good. The author is an
emeritus professor of neuroscience, who started doing Zen during the 60s while
he was working in Japan.

It's a huge, dense book, about 900 pages.

------
rdudekul
In my experience Meditation directly increases happiness over longer term by
decreasing our attachment to body/mind, there by decreasing the unnecessary
suffering.

There are different forms of meditation, each with different emphasis. The one
mentioned here is a Buddhist (Insight/Vipassana) meditation where one
experiences sensations on the body without judgment. The Passage Meditation
(<http://www.easwaran.org/>) for example emphasizes systematic training of
attention to turn inward and dwell continuously on a single focus within
consciousness, in this case memorized inspirational passages from worlds great
mystics. In essence "we become what we meditate on".

To be happy we need to decrease self-will or ego. In my experience meditation
alone is not effective in subsiding the self-will. Meditation along with
allied disciplines is necessary to slowly chip away self-will, overcome
conditioned habits of mind and find our true nature which is peace, joy and
love - the very source of happiness.

------
Kilimanjaro
Meditation won't make you happy. It will help you deal with stressful
situations so you can make better decisions.

And that as a result makes you happier.

~~~
VMG
Hate to be that guy - but is there good scientific evidence for your claims?

~~~
praptak
There seems to be quite a lot of research on this topic, see
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation>

This article: _"Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits. A
meta-analysis"_ <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15256293> seems to be
relevant to your question.

Of course the mere existence of articles does not prove anything. Caution
advised :)

~~~
zbuc
MBSR is becoming increasingly common in cognitive behavioral therapy as well
-- it's interesting (to me) to see how much intersection there is between
meditative practice and what cognitive behavioral therapy is discovering.
Different paths to the same conclusions.

------
nu23
This shouldn't be surprising given that the traditional maps of the Vipassana
explicitly talk about negative stages. The problem is that somehow this
information is not commonly known. It would benefit practitioners a great
deal. In this vipassana community, for instance, it is considered important
enough to be mentioned as a sticky post right at the top,
[http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_b...](http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/recent_posts)

------
waivej
Interesting article. I approached it wanting to share the vast insights I've
gained after meditating for years. Though I left with a new perspective. Thank
you.

~~~
dualogy
_Vast_ insights? Now, do share.

~~~
waivej
"Vast insights" was a joke because I caught my ego looking for a chance to
prove how smart it is.

When I started meditating (10 years ago?), I wanted to make a wildly
successful business to show how smart and precocious I was. Though things
don't quite work that way, and even if I achieved big success, I don't think I
would have understood my motivations. Now I want to create a productive
creative life. It's the same goal, but focussed the opposite direction.

------
njx
Whoever said meditation will increase happiness is a false statement.

Meditating for 1 year will get you nowhere. Meditation needs to be practiced
like clockwork.

Prolong meditation practice will instill stillness of mind. This is where the
beauty is. Happiness is a state of mind. So "stillness" is the key and then it
is upto you how you flow your stillness. Now, would it be stillness if it
flows?

Stillness in every action and no-action.

------
KenjiCrosland
Love the discussion here and I'd be happy to add a few thoughts when I set
aside some time to. Just wanted to point out that there's a much higher
quality version of the video than the one I originally linked to in the post:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCwC7XBQq9o>

------
Henwys
To me it all depends on your thought process. Like if i meditate with a
certain intent it may help me feel happy during a given day. I dont think one
even has to meditate for that kind of effect. If i think to myself about how
happy i am and why i deserve fantastic things, i become increasingly
optimistic

------
allenwlee
i'm amazed he did it 1 hour per day for a YEAR. i've been meditating for 2
years. the first 6 months i did it 1 hour each day. after that it fell off a
cliff. i now average around 10 minutes 3x week.

------
moron
Every time I have tried to meditate I just feel ridiculous and stop. But
reading this description of its effects, I really don't understand the
benefit.

~~~
tehayj
The benefit is cognitive defusion. That means you gain the ability to observe
your thoughts instead of identifying yourself with them.

This gives you more control (because you also learn to accept whatever comes
up) and as a result more happiness.

Check this video with a step by step guide how to meditate I did. It's pretty
easy and everyone with a bit of patience can benefit from doing it.

[http://jayuhdinger.com/chapters/chapter-2-practical-
lesson-m...](http://jayuhdinger.com/chapters/chapter-2-practical-lesson-
mindfulness-meditation-and-the-state-of-being/)

~~~
bostonvaulter2
Stated more simply: "you are not your thoughts"

------
batista
>*"Why Meditation Doesn't Directly Increase Happiness"

Because there are no magic pills?

