Hey /lit/ I was wondering if there's any substance to the

>>9405540
Meditation is just heathen prayer

>>9405540
There's no point in making such a big hubbub about it, just do it, there's videos and what have you, on the tubes.
I also don't see it as anything spiritual, in fact, that was what had me being skeptical of it in the first place.
It's really just a (re)focusing, calming technique, and it just werks.
But do read books on stoicism, that's never a bad thing to do.

>>9405550
*tips baseball cap*

>>9405540
>substance
>meditation
Kids these days

Seriously though; mindfulness (in its modern form, the way it's presented in the West) is just another spiritual fad like the Transcendental Meditation or Integral Yoga that came before it and will remain as such until you understand a few things about the nature of the mind. I'm not disparaging mindfulness or Buddhism or stoicism. Understand that meditation is a spiritual discipline, just like prayer, and you will benefit according to the angle you approach from and the goals you set for yourself.

My advice to you would be to go to the source of actual meditative traditions -yoga, Buddhism, bhakti, Jainism, Sihk- and see what the point of it all is, see if any of this is even important to you and go from there.

Sunryu Suzuki - the zen mind the beginner mind
Daniel Ingram - Mastering the core teachings of the Buddha
The former is a simple meditation guide and source of motivation, and the latter is an in-depth study of basic buddhist concepts and teachings, including the description of stages of enlightenment.
But I'd recommend you not to read books at first and go find a nearest meditation center, no matter what tradition, and learn meditation on practice. After that - you can start reading,though this is not as important as keeping the daily practice. This is needed in order to have fewer conceptions regarding mediation when you first start practicing it.

File: IMG_9910.jpg (369KB, 780x1200px) Image search: [Google]

369KB, 780x1200px

I've studied the occult for years. Take the path of the enlightened, read these

>these past few years

You mean since the 60s?

>>9405540
Full catastrophe living by John cabat-zinn
He introduced meditation to modern medicine. It may be more than you want to read on the subject