Buddhisming?

[Eyti]

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I think what is most important is breaking down meditation scientifically to discover what aspect of it is truly functional. I hate that it has such a mysterious, spiritual air about it. The benefits you described from meditation can be achieved through amphetamine use (and subsequent dopamine release, IMO).

 

[muhali3]

I agree with your emoticon. Meditation is not just about the neurotransmitters that it makes your brain secrete. It is a type of cognitive therapy that allows you to become aware of yourself and approach life in a different way. Drugs can't make you do that. Thoughts might cause specific neurotransmitters to be released, but the reverse is not true.

 

[muhali3]

.

 

[not so calm now]

In psychologist Jon Haidt's book "The Happiness Hypothesis," he points to three things - meditation, cognitive therapy, and Prozac as things that can have a profound impact on overall well-being. Turns out they all do somewhat similar things in the brain. Might be an interesting one to check out.

 

[Gotaro]

I agree with your emoticon. Meditation is not just about the neurotransmitters that it makes your brain secrete. It is a type of cognitive therapy that allows you to become aware of yourself and approach life in a different way. Drugs can't make you do that. Thoughts might cause specific neurotransmitters to be released, but the reverse is not true.

And thoughts are not the goal of meditation. In fact, thoughts are the enemy of meditation.

I don't think it really allows you to do anything but delude yourself into feeling that you are more "aware of yourself" on a spiritual level that cannot be described with words.

Also, you seem to think meditation causes a lifestyle change, when in reality, it's the product of a lifestyle change.

Honestly, I think dissociative drug therapy would be more effective for truly becoming aware of yourself (socially). The effects are, unfortunately, only temporary. There might be some potential in a therapeutic setting, though.

 

[searun]

So what would be the best way, according to you to overcome negative emotions?

Three martinis, properly prepared, shaken, not stirred. Followed by an evening with Tiger Woods' wife while she remains in revenge mode.

 

[Eyti]

Three martinis, properly prepared, shaken, not stirred. Followed by an evening with Tiger Woods' wife while she remains in revenge mode.

nice

 

[Eyti]

I am a firm believer in the cognitive enabling offered by cognitive-behavioral therapy. I haven't participated in it, however it seems obvious that the most powerful physiological changes occur when brought from within - through focusing of attention on what you seek to understand. I am not saying that meditation is the cure-all for premed issues, but I do believe that it can help. I spend 90% of my waking hours sitting, so exercise at this point is not a practical option. So what might offer similar benefits to relieving stress and tuning my mind a bit? I think that the tentative answer is meditation

BTW!!!!! have any of you guys seen the articles on Hořava gravity. It is so amazing. Maybe I am jumping to a false conclusion, but to me it seems as though its ultimately going to show how either intelligent life is common and worthless to the universe OR its going to show that intelligent life, created by the universe, is in turn going to end up molding the universe to meet its own desires. E.g. the universe enables intelligent life to become godly through an understanding of the nature of the environment. Does anyone else feel as though science is going to make all religion obsolete within the next one to two centuries? Religions have come and gone, but science has always been there.

 

[Pharm2love]

I think Buddhism goes along w/ science quite well cuz Buddhism is like a philosophy and believes in cause and effect of our actions. As far as I know, I believe that science hasn't proved Buddhism teachings wrong yet; science has proved some stuffs from other religions wrong though, therefore the 2nd testament etc. Any thought on this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_science

 

[Gotaro]

I am not saying that meditation is the cure-all for premed issues, but I do believe that it can help. I spend 90% of my waking hours sitting, so exercise at this point is not a practical option. So what might offer similar benefits to relieving stress and tuning my mind a bit? I think that the tentative answer is meditation

Does anyone else feel as though science is going to make all religion obsolete within the next one to two centuries? Religions have come and gone, but science has always been there.

You seem to have your mind made up. So do it and tell us how it goes.

I sure as hell hope religion dies a lot sooner than 1-2 centuries from now! Science hasn't always been there 😉. If science was here from the start, then religion would have never come about. Science replaced religion, but people apparently didn't care or were too stupid to realize, and now look at the mess we're in 🙁.

I think Buddhism goes along w/ science quite well cuz Buddhism is like a philosophy and believes in cause and effect of our actions. As far as I know, I believe that science hasn't proved Buddhism teachings wrong yet; science has proved some stuffs from other religions wrong though, therefore the 2nd testament etc. Any thought on this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_science

From what I could tell, most of the important statements in that article weren't cited. The rest is nothing special and relatively unrelated to this thread anyway 😉. I also, honestly, think your logic is not very sound. (Example, non sequitur: Because Buddhism is a philosophy and believes in cause and effect relationships, it is similar to science.)

 

[searun]

You seem to have your mind made up. So do it and tell us how it goes.

I sure as hell hope religion dies a lot sooner than 1-2 centuries from now! Science hasn't always been there 😉. If science was here from the start, then religion would have never come about. Science replaced religion, but people apparently didn't care or were too stupid to realize, and now look at the mess we're in 🙁.

From what I could tell, most of the important statements in that article weren't cited. The rest is nothing special and relatively unrelated to this thread anyway 😉. I also, honestly, think your logic is not very sound. (Example, non sequitur: Because Buddhism is a philosophy and believes in cause and effect relationships, it is similar to science.)

Are you ripping on Buddha? Seriously?? Buddha was an historical figure, he did sit under the tree and he figured the whole thing out. The world would be better off, if the world figured that out.

 

[Eyti]

Are you ripping on Buddha? Seriously?? Buddha was an historical figure, he did sit under the tree and he figured the whole thing out. The world would be better off, if the world figured that out.

lol wth. Who would ever rip on Buddha??? lets just not get into comparing Buddhism and science - no reason to. I agree that the rest of the world would have been far better off if they had been exposed to Buddhism.

 

[MexicanDr]

Hey EYTI, what do you mean by this? lol...Please elaborate dude, I was like WTF??

plus I think that physics is very soon going to demonstrate how we are in fact our own gods.

 

[Eyti]

Hey EYTI, what do you mean by this? lol...Please elaborate dude, I was like WTF??

Well. I was reading an article about Horava gravity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hořava-Lif****z_gravity). I think it was in Scientific American. They described a few of the issues that Horava has resolved through his model. First of all I should say that I have a huge bias when it comes to physics as my true introduction to physics was "What the bleep do we know?" I think that what we will ultimately accomplish in our own civilization, and possibly through collaboration with other civilizations, is a mechanism to either bypass or decelerate the eventual shrinking back of space. So, the basic idea is that through knowledge of the universe we can learn how to exploit it to meet our own desires. Just as we have with this world. Hopefully we don't kill ourselves in the process. Just food for thought.