What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
@@chamade166 these techniques come from POC with much deeper histories of suffering than what contemporary people experience. the meditation tradition that Sam works in did not originate in Europe, as far as I know, but in Asia. Buddhism is much bigger in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia than it is in the West, even today. the worst things that happen to POC people (the deaths of their family members and their own deaths) happen to every white person. the religions that are strong outside of North America and Europe largely have doctrines that are compatible with the ideas he describes here (i.e. God is in control and you don't need to worry too much about what's going on here because it's just a test so follow a few rules and then spend the rest of your time contemplating God and how he is in control)
What’s wild is Buddha and people before him taught this stuff thousands of years ago yet our education and culture conditions us to live hyper sensitively within delusion of ignorant thoughts of desire and aversion
What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
@@chamade166 are you aware that Buddha was a POC? or that there are literally millions of POC around the world that use these techniques daily for like 2500 years?
@@chamade166 you people are literally insane. 1. The Buddha was Indian/nepali 2. You think that POC have brains different from white people? What kind of an evil racialist worldview is that!? 3. Why are you so obsessed with whatever disadvantages the world presents you, while refusing to take any postivie steps for yourself?
Me too me too. If only we weren't retarded... Hey wanna try and escape from the asylum again tonight? I paid the guard in cheese so don't they'll be, "ASLEEP"
@@inspiringmedia3716 That’s why learning to speak is important, communication is everything, if you can translate thoughts to speech you have made it in life, took me 2 years to slowly learn and train but i got it now.
I meditate just a few minutes a day during my lunch break and merely doing this has allowed me to notice my thoughts when they’re out of control and it really is like a superpower. Noticing anger for example, allows it to wash over my awareness and disappear like a wave when I observe it.
Long post but I think it worth while to share. When I was a kid, my father used to say this thing to me over and over again. And idk why it’s just stick with me through the years. He said “those who you allow to anger you, have complete and total control of you and over you.” The older I got the more it began to make sense, and the more all of this current outrage in our society begins to make even more sense. People get angry online (Facebook for example) from a political post right? So immediately, as soon as the angered person decides to devote time to replying in anger back to the original poster, right at the very moment he surrenders his control. He’s no longer the one controlling his own mind. Somebody else is. The one who elicited that emotional angry response has control over them. Then you think how often does that happen? Millions of times a day. So there are quite literally millions upon millions of people who do not have control of their minds and emotions. Yet they don’t realize that’s what’s happening. It’s no wonder civil unrest and anxiety is so high. No one is control of their own thoughts anymore. This is compounded on top of the fact that coders from these social sites have admitted they created algorithms to put information in front of people that will make them angry or upset. Not because they want people to be mad all the time. But because by being upset, users will engage with the post more, stay on the site longer, and ultimately have more adverts put in front their faces aka, more money for the company. These sites are literally profiting from the anger of its users. And again, they are trapped, because again like I mentioned they’re not in control of their own minds anymore being in a constant state of anger and frustration toward others.
Sam Harris: Spends 4:20 giving one of the best explanations between the mind, suffering and the power of meditation Joe in the end: “So we were just talking about your apps”
This is spot on. I do TM regularly and it helps with everything he mentioned. I even stubbed my toe recently and just noticed that pain was occurring, but didn’t judge that pain or feel indifferent to it. It actually felt like the pain was no different than a feeling of hot or cold, and it went away a lot faster. That probably sounds weird, but if you know you know.
@@dixienormus8231 clear your mind think about nothing basically there’s different ways to mediatate but simply being aware of your thoughts and then stopping them I for example will have bad thoughts that I don’t like and I simply breath and stop having thoughts and just listen to myself breath for me it’s about not letting my thoughts control me and realizing my thoughts are simply just thoughts there ultimately nothing until you you make that thought effect you it’s like strengthening your mind these people that are sad all the time can actually do something about it I know that sounds rude and insensitive but it’s true the more you become aware of your mind and don’t let thoughts dictate your life you leave yourself open to more happiness this is just me and how I am maybe other people have a different view but mediation is not hard you can do it right now and it’s extremely impactful and can help you and your mental strength
That’s easy. The super power comes when you can ignore cancer or having a nail driven through your knee. Being able to withstand a massage, a cold shower or a day’s fast is hardly a superpower.
@@jonahsd1818 I don't think "stopping your thoughts" is good advice. I'd rather say: "watch reality". Be mindful of what's happening, be mindful of your thoughts and observe them without engaging with them. You can't control your thoughts, you can't guess what your next thought is going to be. Thoughts just pass through us like water in a river. The river just keep flowing through us, but we don't need to follow it nor be drown by it. When we meditate, we can sit on the side of the river and observe its flow. We can watch our thoughts without following them. At least that's how I see it.
@@dixienormus8231 if you have spotify go check alan watts piece called " listen " its just 16 mins i guess and it helps plus what he is saying here is already said in that piece
I used to have similar conversations like this with my cousin. We called it being "clicked in" or "clicked out". It was basically going from being on autopilot to having this hyper awareness of ones thoughts. It's like waking up when you are already awake. I still do it often enough but not as much as I used to. I also found it quite distressing and felt as if I wasn't really in control of myself due to this autopilot mode which made me feel horrified and sad. Now I just accept it as reality. And know that I cannot change it but can make the best of it.
@@Jack-yq6ui then the question becomes, are you just in autopilot saying that? I think we all have an auto pilot and an alert sense of awareness. Its just our brains. We conserve energy by getting up and taking a piss without thinking because it doesnt require brainpower. Just a thought.
I feel like i've instinctually been aware of all this stuff but the video and comments like this do allow me to do these things and be aware of the conscious abilities we have more readily. like also i feel that growing up as i've tried to be more outgoing and that sort of thing, that I desire to be clicked out and just maybe in a "reactive" mode like Sadghuru says, so that my brain and words can flow a bit freely in social situations or whatever. but my thing is that growing up I felt almost constantly "clicked in". like idk if I have several OCD/ADHD or autistic traits or something but particularly as a younger guy I felt clicked in almost all the time and I wasn't very anxious (only really shy, sometimes kindof anxious around strangers trying to engage me), but it felt as if I was just hyper aware of a lot of shit (especially my body sensations) and sometimes wished that I was "less aware" or something so that I could have a calmer mind or calm down or something. idk I thought something was wrong with me edit: I think this kind of clicked out state is called "dissociation".
Only if it was only Buddhism i like their idea of good and bad more than any other religion. Its as Christopher Marlowe said I count religion but a childish toy, And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
The Buddhists, the Stoics, the Taoists. They all had similarly profound insights into consciousness and the human experience, thousands of years ago and yet still very relevant.
@@HeelPower200 well they fixed it for the ones who tried to be fixed. Only you can fix yourself type of thing. You can't expect that just because the philosophy exists it should fix you, have you practiced it? Assimilated it into your every breathing moment of existence? If not then how can you say it hasn't fixed you yet? I mean those who practice those philosophies are clearly in a better mental state than most of us who don't.
What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
For those of you who don't know about Sam Harris's meditation app, that question from Joe is perfect immediately after Sam Harris "unlocks the secret to life" where after this explanation will most likely be when listeners want to know more about Sam's work.
This is basically what you learn when your mind is clear and unperturbed by the constant mental chatter of the mind. If you practice meditation daily you will discover this. Even from this though, there are deeper states of conscious beyond just calm mindfulness alone.
@redweber7011 that's the whole point of saying things and coming up with ideas and summaries and articulations 😂 so the next person can do it even better and learn from you lol
Seeing past the voice in your head is avaliable in every single moment of your life, even intense pain. It can be possible to reach a point where your reaction to any event can be massively reduced but even the involuntary reaction to intense pain is just appearing with everything else. If identification with the thing you think you are (but you aren't - ie voice in the head/self) moment to moment stops occuring (by just going to the raw experience of what is happening right now subjectively), the vast majority of the neurosis stops with it because the view point that was perpetuating the thoughts disappears. What's left is just the never ending peace which was always there in the first place :)
Sam's own "Waking Up" meditation course is just what I needed. No spiritual or religious components, very clear, concise and great for beginners and skeptics. The fact that he doesn't advertise it all the time is a good sign, because it's very much a word of mouth enterprise.
What we think is ‘’thinking," or "our thoughts" is actually just a pre recorded or conditioned message in your subconscious mind. 99% of us think we are controlling the narrative but we are not seeing the forest from the trees. We don’t have the ability to "observe" our thoughts because we are so deeply connected to the recordings. ❤
@@hoovesandpawsanimalrescue Rare truth told here. I was once told 80-85% of the population is not 'conscious'. That's because nearly all we do is by rote. That's how we sometimes catch ourselves 'going' somewhere, but forgetting why or how. Besides general absent mindedness (great choice of words!) there's literal unconscious motion taking place. Rote. As you said, subconscious patterns.
I just came out of meditation..... didn't know what the topic he was going to speak on but as soon as he mentioned Meditation I know he was going in the right direction. It is so powerful to stop the white noise and helps you realize you are not that chatter and you feel for people who connect with their mental babble like a ship caught in a giant whirlpool.... most powerful thing Ive found
It’s you’re subconscious so it’s not terrible to be connected to it. That’s why we sleep so we can shut it off and get rest cause it’s always going and gets tiring.
@@alexmartin2126 First I did deep relaxations laying down. Then sitting in chair I learned to watch the breath, cool in warm out. As breath slows your mind will follow and become calm, When very quiet drop watching the breath and enjoy but whenever mind babbles again go back to watching breath etc.... its worth learning and good luck
I once experienced a back injury that was the absolute most horrific pain I could imagine. My back would tighten until I thought it would break, I couldn't breathe, my hands were going numb, my eyesight was fading, for roughly 3 hours. I can tell you, the mental anguish was 100x worse if I thought of the pain continuing. I literally put my mind back into my military training and focused only on the here and now. I made myself forget the past and ignore that there was a future. The shit works. Still sucks...but pain really does only exist in the mind and the perspective and context given to it.
Hey please look up kelly starret. The problem with the back is usually tight muscles which prevent the full range of motion from arm legs and the upper spine, which makes the lower back work overtime. Search kelly starret back pain please because he is one of the few that actually fixes the problem. Never go to chiropractors
Yeah tell that to somebody who’s suffering from an actual illness/disease and not 3 hours of whatever you just described. What you’re saying is true but to a certain extent. You can’t compare back pain to a chronic disease or something undeniably true such as a broken arm or leg.
@@RJTradess Interesting thought but I think we literally can compare those things. No two individuals can make conclusive statements about their experiences of pain in terms of one or the other being greater or deeper than the other, it’s true, because ultimately the available comparison is an intellectual one that can only be shared or communicated conceptually where as the experience itself is personal and can not be shared or communicated as an experience in any way that makes sense or is trustworthy. But as I say the comparison can be made. The only conclusion, however, that can actually be drawn from an acceptance that the experience itself can’t be shared or communicated between individuals is that the conceptual framing of the experience is our only real resource in attempting any control or pushback of the actual experience for the individual. What cannot be concluded is that just because an individual maintains that their pain is as an experience fundamentally greater or deeper than another individuals that it is true either in terms of its face value as an assertion or by extension in terms of the implied inability on the part of the individual who maintains that their pain is in some way fundamentally greater or deeper to apply the conceptual knowledge that has been put forward by those who have made the intellectual comparisons in an attempt to build knowledge bases for those who may wish to access said knowledge as a useful resource in attempting such control or achieving any kind of pushback that would amount to what a reasonable person might accept as a successful managing of that persons pain experience. I understand how tempting it is to reject this reasoning given the pain that people experience that they never find a way to adequately manage. In the first instance it certainly comes across as salt in the wounds for those who have, or have lost, loved ones who experienced great pain to then be told that it could have been potentially easier for them if only they’d have known about and tried this or that approach before or while they were alive. For those that are left behind to consider this it’s maybe just a painful realisation if true rather than any kind of consolation. Secondly it almost comes across as an accusation in those cases where what we think we are being asked to accept is that those individuals just didn’t or aren’t trying hard enough or are somehow not clever enough to take these ideas on board but this is not the case either. The truth is we are all only human with human weaknesses and we live in a world of uncertainty with very little time to come to terms with that and sometimes even where an answer exists to the perceived problem at hand it just isn’t found as a result. 🙏
What do u mean? If it was the entire book, he would have made up a bunch of new agey terms! Then made u into your own enemy, calling your thoughts and emotions the ego and pain body, accordingly. ;)
@@mejohn101 You didn't read the book or it went over your head. He makes a point about not making the ego out to be something "bad" that you have to fight/conquer. He talks about keeping a neutrality with the ego and pain.
He's just using lexicon that is in your comfort zone. Reality is beyond concept. All words, no matter what, can only point to this truth, they are not the truth. Ultimately you want to be in a state of "not knowing", in order to fully transcend the mind. By reducing the teaching of presence into a materialistic framework, you risk the ego taking hold in a new form/fashion. The ego is just using the technique to get one up on the universe and it will ultimately lead back to suffering, for yourself and others.
@@bmatthews15 "The ego becomes a monstrous parasite that, unchecked, may well end up killing all life on the planet and finally itself by” Well ― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment Well if a monstrous parasite isn't "bad", it certainly isn't very good either. I actually enjoy much of his work, but comments like this on the ego, the mind and the pain body can turn people against themselves and their natural feelings. I have seen a great deal of this in my field- people having very painful situations in life and feeling quite miserable about it- and instead of having understanding and compassion for what they are going thru, they think it is the ego or pain body and further judge themselves instead of working on their healing. Again, a lot of his work is truly beautiful, but his understanding of the inner world is sophomoric at best.
@@spridle I would offer you haven't meditated long enough. If you've been identified with your mind your entire life, it's going to take as long as it needs to do to eradicate this complex we've been trapped in since birth.
Anthony De Mello said it best- "all of our suffering is due to wanting and attachment. Attached to what people think of us negatively or positively. If we crave positive attention and look for it and believe it we're going to believe the negative." I had a good friend once tell me - "don't read the headlines." Don't attach myself to what people say about me positive or negative. If I do that will control how I feel about myself at that moment.
@@kaushikkam2596 i was dipresed and sucidal for a long time and i started meditation with his app two years ago life has been a lot better ever since …better emotional regulation my relationships with the people i love has imoproved dramaticaly …not saying meditation gave me eveything it gave me the tools to work with …the best decsion i ever made in my life was learning to meditate
I always find it interesting how society is obsessed with gender, race, and culture. Most waste so much time in a hamster wheel and rarely forgo all that nonsense for true self improvement. Make yourself they best version possible mentally, physically and spiritually.
My physio likes to apply some interesting old chinese techniques, some of which are very painful, and one day he was really smashing a muscle and I was wincing with pain, gritting my teeth, etc. and he said: “just breathe and relax, you don’t have to feel it twice.” That really helped me understand what sam is talking about here. It took me a while to figure out what he meant but eventually i was able to relax and though the pain was the same the suffering was less. Its a difficult path but im beginning to realise that all suffering, physical and psychological, is just “feeling it twice”. Just my experience, don’t know if anyone will find it interesting
I notice that in the stream of thoughts, some are very fleeting, yet very potent. I tend to grind my teeth when stressed, and sometimes I'll start grinding away during the day. I ask myself what thought might have caused it, and if I pay very close attention I'll notice one thought flew through my mind, brought up by something I might have seen and a association to the stressor. What I'm saying is that tracking all the thoughts that come into your mind is much more subtle and refined than just noting the overt, major thought stream. It's a little like catching a little fish in your hand that darts from place to place. However, just noting these "micro" thoughts can be greatly therapeutic, particularly if you haven't been able to identify the major thoughts that are causing you trouble.
What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
What i dont get is why he puts so much emphasis on Thought. You only think due to emotional reasons. Emotions are the fat and the thoughts are the carbs in many situations. Often times youre scrambling in thought coz your body is trying to sort out why tf its feeling so uneasy. If you were chilled out and focused. Which is the whole point of meditation, youd think less or think much more productively, this is granted you dont have intellectual disabilities or cognitive issues
@@chamade166 we gotta learn the hardest lesson of all. Losing the fear of death. It takes guts to be an oppressed and hated person but you gotta learn to not fear no human. Engage the demon within as so it is outside of you and youll realise they are just as scared as you. Difference is now you know and theyre running around like a headless chicken while you dominant the field
@@pluday4685 True, but often what we call "emotion", say fear, is mostly thoughts combined with a physical sensation, and the sensation is almost a Pavlovian physical response to other thoughts. For instance, you go to speak before a thousand people, and your thoughts are "I can't do this" and your body responds in the automatic way it always has to thinking about public speaking. When you control the thoughts, the emotion dissipates. It goes the other way as well; you can use beta blockers to rid yourself of much of the adrenaline fear response. Without the physical sensation, the thoughts often dissipate quickly. As Cheri Huber has said, the Ego's favorite playground is bodily sensations.
@@chamade166 I don't really see the connection. Why does oppression prevent meditation from working? I would think the opposite; it might be more useful to oppressed communities.
The 'voice in your head' (sense of self) is appearing but it is not what you are. That's the thing that comments on the pain and can make the suffering even worse. The commenting on pain and the raw sensation of pain are two separate things (mentioned by Sam), both of which are being seen. Looking past the 'voice in your head' leaves you with just the raw pain, which of course can be immense. But for the vast majority of encounters people have with pain day to day, the raw sensation is usually easier to bear than the relentless ruminatation about it. Hope this helps :)
Sam is describing dissociation. It's at the core of most religions, meditation, entertainment... most things that are marketed to us. It's inherently benign, and often a coping mechanism to deal with stress or pain. It allows you to take a step back from your relationship with the world, and redecide how you want to live. To go from automatic processes to deliberate action. However, it's only half the answer. The other half is reintegration. To disassociate without reintegration is to exist in a purgatory of being. It keeps you distant from others and distant from feeling. I have lived in that mode most my life and it sounds like Sam has as well. The way out - reintegration - is through healing. You must learn to listen to your mind, heart and body's various forms of communication and honor them. It takes a while, but it is worth it. I'm on that journey and I recommend it.
Actually, it's not simply dissociation, it's developing equanimity. I really appreciate the integration piece you followed up within your response, as I feel it is the other "wing" to help someone fly through life. Dissociation seems to imply not being there. Equanimity is to be fully present with what one is feeling and experiencing but without being pulled away by it. It's to see things for what is really happening, without tainting it or colouring it with our own misinterpretation or psychological spin as Sam was mentioning. This leads to what's called insight. And from this more clear viewpoint, we are able to untangle our misinterpretation of situations and arguably be liberated from them which leads to integration and thus healing. The way that you describe it, "the core of most religion" is describing what our thoughts are doing as one of its functions which is categorizing and labelling. But this is merely intellectualizing from an outside point of view without actually delving into the exercise of actual meditation. It's like trying to explain with exact nuance and precision of how to swim. But until you actually take the dive, you'll never know how it feels from an experiential point of view which is the embodiment of wisdom. For anybody who is really interested in learning and embodying what Sam is describing here, I would highly recommend participating in a 10-Day Vipassana course as taught by Goenka. The integration piece for me is to consistently practice and meditate and break our old habits patterns of reacting to our cravings and aversions or put in simpler terms not being confined or a slave to our likes and dislikes.
Lol, resorting to petty remarks behind a digital identity with apparently no consequences. Pure ignorance. But in reality, the consequences follows you like your shadow, and as long as you continue with this behaviors misery will follow you. Good luck to you man. If the universe somehow conspires for you to learn more about yourself, I hope that you come out of your ignorance.
“Lost in thought” is referred to as psychic entropy, or disorder of consciousness. Largely studied in the realm of psychology and its effects on well being And psychopathy
All he said is thoughts control your feelings. We already know this -- that's why when a baby hits their head the parents will cheer so they don't cry. Also, all these buddhist comments are full of irony. They are all *wanting* to achieve less suffering through recognition of their thoughts. The idea is to enjoy suffering. Recognize your thoughts in order to remind yourself that without pain now, you wouldn't feel happy later. Appreciate all of the feelings as they are. In other words.. the idea is to raise the appreciation for life bar, not lower the pain bar.
Realized I’ve been daydreaming the entirety of my life I’m almost 28, there’s a few times I can remember consciously applying myself to a goal and it brought me success but mostly I’ve just given dare I say 20-50% conscious effort to tasks. Im currently an engineer pursing a MS in electro engineering. Feel behind in life tbh but maybe mindfulness will enlighten me.
@@mariorodriguez219 There's no need to try to not judge yourself. Just be aware when you judge yourself and when anything else happens. Observe it all like in meditation!
I'd hate to have listened to this 8 years ago and gone "huh, sounds right" *moves on all the same* Now that I practice meditation / mindfulness, I feel every word so deeply. I see it as the solution to an enormous galaxy of psychological issues in my friends and families and myself, it's disappointing that the only way to know is to do.
He is spot on. I read the power of now in high school and suddenly everything clicked and I became “enlightened” for like 3 months. I know it’s not technically enlightenment if it’s not permanent but I swear it was not different while it lasted. My thoughts reduced by like 80%, yet ironically I got straight A’s for the first time in high school. Not that it mattered to me because I realized that everything important in life exists right here and now and that’s all you need to be happy. This isn’t a philosophy or mindset, but the opposite. It is what is left when the mind stops and you can just be. It is beautiful and indeed the key to life. For a while I focused everything on getting back to that place until one day I realized it was making me very unhappy. Now I try to live like a regular person again with goals and ambitions to keep me motivated and happy, otherwise I just wallow around depressed. I think something like enlightenment can only come to a person when the are spiritually ready. And so I trust I will get back there when the time is right.
@@tylersmall8876 Cool! I was just asking because a high school teacher of mine gave me that same book. I thought we might be having a it's a small world moment, haha.
The raw sensation of pain is one thing - physical pain. The reaction to the pain via identifying with thoughts which refer to the pain born from the view point of self - psychological suffering. The second is optional if identification with the voice in your head stops happening. The raw sensation of pain is more tolerable without this false point of view.
You have no clue what you're talking about. You just regurgitate some information without having any close encounter with true pain. My grandma had cancer, spread to her liver caused her whole body to shut off. Muscle started to atrophy, fat dissappears. Next thing that happens is nerve damage. EVERYWHERE. My mom and aunt had to move her from one side to another each 15 minutes because my grandma was in so much pain, from just laying down. There was no amount of morphine that can help you accept that pain. Before she lost all her sanity to this pain she told us it's like getting electrocuted non stop. I dare you to think about that. And what mindfulness can do to help. This is a process to fight psychological issues not phisical. No one escapes the gift of pain.
@@smayly1000 There's a nugget of truth in the middle. You brought up an extreme circumstance where the prolonging and rising intensity of the pain is so long and severe, that the mindfulness approach begins to fail under those conditions. This doesn't mean that one can't use a deliberate mentality to manage the pain better in many other, less severe, circumstances. I'll hand it to you tho, the op in this thread came across a bit condescending, though I think it was unintentional.
@@HumanMechanism true I didn't word my statement properly. There is a way to deal with phisical pain trough mindfulness but not all pain. I got a bit triggered by op's comment because I see many people who live in the fairytale that we can control everything with our minds. Which just buggs me to my core... This concept is so dissattached from reality.
@@smayly1000 I'm very sorry to hear about your grandmother. I'm not in any way dismissing pain or how severe pain can be, that may be how it came across as I only wrote a few sentences. I've actually had to deal with constant chronic pain at one point for 2 years, this naturally lead to a host of mental illness. Thankfully my body recovered and I can appreciate a comfortable body again. What I wrote is just summing up what Sam has said, those definitions are correct. I've been fascinated by non duality and meditation for a very long time now and what I've said in my comment I can confirm from my own real time experience. The 'voice in your head' (sense of self) is appearing but it is not what you are. That is the thing that comments on the pain and can make the suffering even worse. The commenting on pain and the raw sensation of pain are two separate things, both of which are being seen (this is what Sam is saying). Looking past the 'voice in your head' leaves you with just the raw pain, which of course can be immense. But for the vast majority of encounters people have with pain day to day, the raw sensation is usually easier to bear than the relentless ruminatation about it. Just trying to help :)
@@ThePageNo1 I mostly disagree with what Sam Harris has to say. Because he views his consciousness as the more dominant part of his brain which is absolutely false. What you say is wishfull thinking. You can't escape the reality of prolonged pain. I will need more information on your chronic pain to give you a comparison. If it's not a prolonged pain but a remainder of some sort that's not the pain we are talking about. We are talking about something that's bugging you nonstop, doesn't need to be excruciating pain but something like a build up stomach is a good example. You cant escape that reality no matter what you think its a constant reminder of your current state of body and its normal. The worst thing you can to your self is give your self hope, that you can recover or feel better with the power of your mind, go seek medical help. I know where you come from as I was once meditating and being mindful. I guess you probably touched a place where you haven't been before and you're very interested in, but that's a false narrative. It's just the self trying to explain to you that your self sufficient which you are not. You're talking about the voice in your head, the moment you start to dissociate with it, your doomed. You're down the rabbit hole of Spirituality->False narratives->Delusions .
Music has a weird duality with this. Sometimes it is best to get lost in the thoughts, that can be when you have this transcendental experience with the rest of the music. But mindfulness also works. Instead of being completely focussed on the physical aspect of it you try listen to what you are playing. It is hard because like meditation your thoughts are easily distracted and maybe more so because you have to perform complex motor functions. But when you succeed it is like listening to a record and being able to in real time control the music with your thoughts. In a weird way they are both forms of control. When you lose yourself in the music you lose direction but gain uninhibited expression. When you are mindful you gain full control over the direction but can easily be inhibited by distractions.
Your conscience is a highway, your awareness it’s lighting and the thoughts you have are the vehicles traversing it. The key is to separate the road from the wheels. Recognise them separately. That’s my take
honest question here, if I understand this correctly you’re implying to separate road (conscience) from wheels (thoughts as vehicles) ? Should thoughts and conscience not be interwoven at all times? Oh is it just the negative thoughts that we’re trying to separate from?
@@albrtanomad301 No, thoughts & consciousness should not be interwoven at all times. Because consciousness is always there while thoughts change - depending on the day, emotions, location, people we are with etc. Through meditation, what we seek to achieve is to separate all thoughts, whether positive or negative from the underlying consciousness. To see it clearly beneath the thoughts help us appreciate that whatever be the contents of our thoughts the unchanging consciousness will stand us in good stead. Thoughts are like petals on the surface of a pond. Petals are blown by the wind here and there, they decay in a day or two, they are never constant. By choosing to focus on the unchanging pond itself, we see clearly through our daily struggles.
The super power I'm after is being able to say with a straight face that a presidential candidate's son can have the corpses of children in his basement and still vote for him.
It's not that we won't ever feel pain, it's that we're trying not to add the mental pain on top of the physical pain. In Buddhism it's called the second arrow. It's not that the first arrow (physical pain) doesn't exist, it's that we're trying to avoid adding another arrow (mental suffering) to the picture. Trying not to suffer with a tooth infection is very hard. That's why it takes a lot of training. Have tried meditating during a tooth infection, not fun. 😂
@@ShimmerBodyCreamhe often seems to intentionally mixes it up though. Or at least doesn’t make it clear. It’s Important to learn how to not amplify pain mentally if you wanna live happy. But he over promises and is often trying to sell stuff. I do genuinely believe he had good intentions and is not in it for the money. Just wish he would stop the Buddhist apologetics and boosting. And would lean of the meditation. And focus more on practical applied philosophy and ethics. Like animal rights, free will etc. he’s smart though and a great communicator. It’s just cringey and will not age well I think
@@funut2541 I'm with you, I am immediately wary of anyone trying to sell stuff. I'm personally a big fan of Ram Dass, Ajahn Sona, Ajahn Brahm, and Thich Nhat Hanh if you're looking for some non-money oriented practitioners. They aren't necessarily secular (altho none of their religions require belief in a God or anything you don't want to believe)- but they also don't require you to adopt their religion to take home their practices. Pema Chodro also has some great practices. (like her guided Tonglen practice on YT) Jayasara on YT is a Buddhist nun who has just a ton of free guided meditations that include secular/multiple traditions. (like quotes from Einstein for example)
All this talk about trying to trick yourself into not being depressed or anxious or neurotic doesn’t really work if your brain has been damaged from years and years of depression and anxiety. You need something that physically regrows the structures in the brain and I feel that this ‘mindfulness’ is too ethereal to be really effective. We need to get to a point where we target the patient specific brain damage and use targeted pharmaceuticals to repair that damage.
Lately I've been suffering from true anxiety for the first time in my life about my future and how the last 3 or 4 years of my life haven't gone at all how I hoped they would've. I believe the purpose of the angst is my mind's attempt to prevent myself from repeating my past mistakes. Some days it becomes unbearable and I fall into a panicked state for hours and hours at a time which makes me very unproductive. How do I prevent myself from falling into those states? And if I do fall into one, how do I prevent myself from wasting the entire day away?
Sit quietly for 15 minutes every morning. Spend time appreciating nature every single day. When you feel overwhelmed sit down and practise bringing your attention back to the present moment. Clean up your room and your stuff and your clothes so you are ready for any opportunities that may present themselves today.
How is it possible that your comments always show up under the most random videos i watch?? Ive been watching your videos for over a year and its crazy how often i see your comments under videos that have nothing to do with programming. Maybe im just on youtube too much :D Keep up the good videos, bye.
@@samfoston4231 It's much more than that hence why meditation teachers exist. If you don't learn how to do it properly you can easily end up at a dead-end, wasting your time.
I enjoyed that book, but make no mistake, the author John Yates has an incredibly bloated resume. He's definitely not considered a neuroscientist among actual neuroscientists (he played with a couple rat brains), and he's been adulterous, which brings a lot of question to what extent he's actually achieved the goals described in his own book
That first egg was named Thought. Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, 'With our thoughts we make the world.' Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch: from it there came a stone Monkey. The nature of Monkey was ... irrepressible!
I recall a prominent meditation teacher who nearly died from appendicitis. Make sure that you still get appropriate medical care even if you do what Harris suggests and are able to avoid suffering in the presence of pain.
this is basically the real and useful part of every religion, this state "pre-thought" which he call mindfulness is the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus taught about, or the Eden's Garden of Genesis.
I try and fail to meditate but even in the few times i`ve attempted it, something has become quite apparent. I`ve become aware just how ceaseless and disrupting my own thoughts are, it feels like i can`t turn them off or just empty my head. I can see the similarities between how oppressive my thoughts are and just how present my anxiety is. So even though i`ve just begun meditating, that`s a great lesson to experience.
Her music died out, and we stood, gazing into the abyss of everything that exists. I felt small, and at the same time just right. A warm hand slipped into mine. Elijah Hill, Syria Girl
I just pinched my arm as hard as I possibly could and focused at a word on a pill bottle. Remarkably, I was able to tolerate it while focusing on the word, but as soon as I looked down and saw what I was doing to myself, my immediate response was to throttle back on the pinch because it felt so much more painful.
casually.... like it's something that happens occasionally. Sure I remember spring of 2019 when my buddy and me were building picnic table and he thought my knee was a board.
Instructions unclear. I went for a deadlift PR while getting rolfed and having nails hammered in to my knees and now i can't walk and am in incredible pain
Although I completely agree with him, oddly enough its the ability of being lost in thought is what allows me to truly be free. Its a sort of revision on what has led me to this point, and what are the lessons I may learn from it.
I would say though, that there is a difference there. (This is coming from someone who also enjoys being lost in thought.) In those moments we are actually in control of what we are thinking, we are deciding what to think and when to think it, so in a way it is being mindful in that moment. Vs not having control over what goes in and out of your thoughts.
Im so chilled that I have never blown my car horn or honked my car horn in traffic, out of anger. Ive been driving for decades, currently in southern California.
@@yoloswag6242 pipe down holo. All I said was what Toe Bogan said about himself- he ain’t that bright. He claimed he’s about as smart as a wise ape. PS damn near all CZcams content is edited. Be well.
That's a good question. Mindfulness and meditation are really the same thing, so I'm going to answer the question on that basis. Mindfulness is kind of like the mind's operating system, and we load all kinds of thought programs into it: beliefs, memes, desires, fears, plans, regrets, memories. The trouble is, we are usually lost in a clusterfuck of open windows and browser tabs, malware and adware, all of it distracting us every second, and we have mostly forgotten what it's like the have a blank, uncluttered desktop. Meditation is the practice of mindfulness intended to train you to close the windows and tabs that are getting in the way, slowing down your computer, wasting your time, so that you can do the work you want and need to do in a thoughtful, deliberate way. Maybe you really need to study, or make dinner, or pay some bills, but that thing someone said earlier is running around and around in your head, pissing you off, and you can't seem to let it go and concentrate on the task at hand, so you make a mistake, or put it off. Mindfulness is about learning how to close that tab, or change the app's permissions so it doesn't startup on its own again. It doesn't mean you'll never be angry or hurt or frustrated or in a bad mood again, but it enables you to move into and out of those states of mind without being lost in them or spending more time in them than is necessary. TLDR; mindfulness allows you to choose effectively what you should do with your life in any given moment and when you are awake and acting from a place of mindfulness, the "why" becomes self-evident.
@@BrentARJ I appreciate your thoughtful response here, and I really like the operating system analogy. For me though, even if you can control to a large degree your operating system, lets say that is the your consciousness, a lot of the software we run on is essentially the product and culmination of all of evolution that has taken place on this planet. In some ways we represent and are the current epitome that is the 4 billion or so year process of "life". So my point here is that, a lot of our software is that which is always running in the background. Similar to our your PC/operating system works now, shit ton of stuff going on in the background which are vital to the system, which you're not really in control of, and shouldn't be, since, if you could for example, close the tab for hunger, then, you wouldn't get hungry, but presumably would still die since your body needs energy to run. Or maybe a better example would be, turning off your sex drive software so that, you could optimally choose a mate without the interference and biasness of physicaly attractivness. Only then, when you find someone you "connect" with, and decide to build a life together, would you switch your sex drive softwar back on for the purpose of being sexually stimulated by your mate, to have sex with and make babies. That's a little crass probably but I think there is a point here I'm at least trying to make regarding your operating system analogy stuff. But yeah, I still don't see how simply being mindful, super mindful, of yourself, your thoughts arising as they do in response to whatever situation and such, through say, the act of meditation as at least some reliable provavle means, this kind of enlightment seeking eastern sought of outlook, tells you what you ought to do with your life given its finitude. We live in world of infinite possibility (constrained by what our science has unveiled about reality so far, at least) and we're all born with what you may describe as infinte potential. We are blank canvas's when we are born in a way. As we mature however, and become members of the broader population, we become constrained, by culture and society iteself to a degree, and also by unique ways each of our brains interpret the world, due in part to gene expression, but the actuality of how our brains develop from conception to whenever the brain stops developing (25 or whatever). Like, right now, I have the choice to do almost what I want, say, in terms of career. How can mindfulness help me decide whether I should become a structural engineer, or, a java developer, or, a mental health care professional, or a radiographer. I could devote my time to the study of any such thing and be certain of a financially stable future, be fulfilled in the sense that I am contributing at least something of value to society via their respective end means, and also, would likely serve and provide just as much personal meaning, given the above. Of course I have proclivities. Life is confusing to me. Reality is terriyfing. I think, therefore, I am. More like, I think, therefore, fuck!
@@curtiso779 Great response! Mindfulness won't tell you what to do with your life, but it does quite literally make you more open and available in the moment to decide for yourself what to do, and that is really everything. Being in that calm, vibrant openness... That's where you make your best decisions, weighing options, responding to opportunities, etc. You are not distracted by often unhelpful, even destructive, thoughts; you are not thoughtlessly reacting to what happens in your life, you are thoughtfully responding to it. It's a simple, but profound difference. I'm not saying that there aren't hundreds of programs still running, doing their thing. The benefit of mindfulness comes from a "dropping away" of identification with thoughts that can often drive you away from where you really want to go. When you're not identified with your thoughts, when you lose the mistaken sense that you are a single object instead of a fluctuating process, you find life and its ever-changing variety to be much easier to navigate. It sounds cliche, but I'm saying it anyway, because it's true. On the one hand, you become less concerned with what you should do with your life, because you realize that you, this, is already everything. On the other hand, your decisions and actions take on a supreme importance in the light of mindfulness, where you can see clearly the ripples you make in the world. It seems to me that being free of the anxious "what should I do with my life" narrative, while also being aware of the ultimate value of your actions is the perfect place from which to make any choice, especially the big life choices. I'm sorry, it's hard to describe it succinctly in a way that doesn't sound both too obvious and too obtuse, so my apologies if my response is inexhaustive. In fact, the most useful response I could give would be, "don't listen to me, go and find out for yourself" but that can sound dismissive even though it's not meant that way. Honestly, meditation is not magic, it's not a secret that requires a guru and an expensive trip to a remote mountain ashram. Mindfulness is available to you now, and you will only find out, as many have, exactly what value it has by doing it. No sales pitch is going to convince you more than just sitting and breathing.
@@BrentARJ Honestly, this is pretty useful. I mean just the fact of someone laying out in their own words, the exent to which you have, is kinda reassuring in ways. I would say I am already pretty mindful, but this mindfulness tends to be somewhat destructive, in that I allow negative thoughts to override emotion, or become subsuming, which tends to dictate action, or lack of. It seems hard to just let negative thought float off, recognise them for what they are, and yeah, realise they are just thoughts which you ultimately have control over.
@@BrentARJ "Mindfulness and meditation are really the same thing" Sorry but no. Mindfulness is one small fraction of the numerous and greatly varied traditions that we lump together into the term "meditation". The explosion of mindfulness in the west through people like Harris is awesome, but it has left people thinking that mindfulness is all there is.
@@sethe.2468 Are you NOT the Universe experiencing itself? How could you be ANYTHING ELSE in your most essential form? Especially if the constructed self and it’s thoughts are simply a stream of energy focused into your present moment. Why argue against the obvious? I don’t get this aspect of ‘materialism.’ ‘Matter’ is energy. Energy is not created nor destroyed The energy that is the matter that is you …. has always been part of this Universe. And now here you are experiencing it. I really don’t get what there is to argue against.
@@benevolentconcepts I am talking about what Sam Harris believes and his perspective, not Alan Watts or you. Sam Harris is a proponent of a much more pragmatic view of meditation and its benefits, separated from the cultures who spawned them. Don't believe me? Watch his debate with Deepak Chopra and the idea of "woo woo". Again, whether you are the universe or not makes no difference in this context. OP wrote what Sam meant boils down to "X". It doesn't.
@@sethe.2468 I’m not talking about Alan Watts. I don’t even really care what Sam Harris thinks. I am also a student of meditation AND ‘mysticism’ divorced from the cultures that spawned them. And I don’t think it’s trendy to be an anti-spiritual “because-religion-doesn’t-make-sense-then-all-spirituality-is-irrational” meditator. Op can arrive at whatever conclusion they wish from what Sam says, whether they agree with Sam or not. It’s pretty obvious that Sam has arrived at conclusions from the ‘cultures that spawned’ ‘woo-woo’ that differ from their original meanings, and you accept his arguments and conclusions. I’m not a Deepak Chopra ‘person’ either, so I really don’t care about Sam debating someone as mainstream as Chopra. Sam Harris has to waste SO MUCH TIME rejecting religious ideology that I have yet to hear him make a truly productive point about much of anything …. but then again, I don’t really resonate with him, so I don’t listen to him very much. The only reason I was here is because a friend of mine said they no longer believe in Free Choice because of Sam, and I find it utterly ridiculous to assert that someone who spends so much time arguing and dissecting the way people think about things and then teaching them to CHOOSE to meditate doesn’t believe that they had any part to play in the choice to engage in said arguments or practices 🤷🏽♀️ Go ahead - deny your choice to put your finger to keypad and write a clever retort. The pragmatism of realizing that we are all Fractals (self-similar repeating patterns of energy and information with infinite scalability in which part contains whole and whole contains part) of the energy of the universe will become clear in time as more and more individuals awaken to the FACT that BECAUSE we ARE the universe experiencing itself, we also have access to everything the Universe knows about itself. Solutions to all of our ‘problems’ - personally and collectively - will come from more and more of us having this realization and allowing it’s implications to be manifest in our experiences. And that’s all I have to say. I’m glad Sam teaches meditation because that is so key 🔑
Yeah, I'm not sold on this. Pain can be so bad it makes you pass out. You don't need to worry about future pain in order to find current pain unbearable.
He nailed it. People are walking around, believing the little thoughts, with meaning, that goes on in "their" heads. When it's all just a bunch of sounds.
I love how they kept that last sentence from JR in there 😂
I'm glad he did, now I know it was a podcast and I can listen to all of it
@@RL-fr4hf kinda says so in the description.
@@omp365 right but I wouldn't have known to look for it
All that knowledge and Joe moves straight on to the apps
@@liamc7097 did he say apps or abs? 😂
“Confusion and suffering may be our birthright but wisdom and happiness are available” ~ Sam Harris
What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
@@chamade166 these techniques come from POC with much deeper histories of suffering than what contemporary people experience. the meditation tradition that Sam works in did not originate in Europe, as far as I know, but in Asia. Buddhism is much bigger in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia than it is in the West, even today. the worst things that happen to POC people (the deaths of their family members and their own deaths) happen to every white person. the religions that are strong outside of North America and Europe largely have doctrines that are compatible with the ideas he describes here (i.e. God is in control and you don't need to worry too much about what's going on here because it's just a test so follow a few rules and then spend the rest of your time contemplating God and how he is in control)
@@bbqnice1 its a troll
@@chamade166 Lol, good one.
I’m latinx and these techniques saved my life
What’s wild is Buddha and people before him taught this stuff thousands of years ago yet our education and culture conditions us to live hyper sensitively within delusion of ignorant thoughts of desire and aversion
What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
@@joec7401 Yeah I'm in America, google hungry ghost realm lol this is our dark age
@@chamade166 are you aware that Buddha was a POC? or that there are literally millions of POC around the world that use these techniques daily for like 2500 years?
@@ShaneNull Nah man, Buddha was from Lawrence, Kansas lol. His real name was actually Randy.
@@chamade166 you people are literally insane.
1. The Buddha was Indian/nepali
2. You think that POC have brains different from white people? What kind of an evil racialist worldview is that!?
3. Why are you so obsessed with whatever disadvantages the world presents you, while refusing to take any postivie steps for yourself?
Joe rogan at the end of his long rant of wisdom:
“now we were talking about your apps” hahaha
Sam Harris has an app for meditation, so he was probably gonna talk about that.
There are a lot of concepts that fly above poor Joe's head...
@@TheJimbles He was going to segway to his meditation apps, which is still on the topic of mindfulness and meditation.
"now we were talkin about your abs"
@@HannyDart That's what I thought at first lol
I wish I could describe this to people with this level of articulation and clarity.
Me too me too. If only we weren't retarded...
Hey wanna try and escape from the asylum again tonight? I paid the guard in cheese so don't they'll be, "ASLEEP"
@@inspiringmedia3716 That’s why learning to speak is important, communication is everything, if you can translate thoughts to speech you have made it in life, took me 2 years to slowly learn and train but i got it now.
send them this video haha
@@camile9626 SPEAKY MAN GOES SPEAK SPEAK!!! I GO GRUNTT
That’s just another thought. Don’t worry about it :)
Sam Harris has a real talent for explaining meditation and it’s benefits through analogy. So clear and concise that anyone can understand.
Except Joe
It really is quite a hard thing for myself to try pass on to my loved ones
At the same time is a raging islamaphobic ahole
@@arslanakakamina anyone with a functioning brain should be
@@arslanakakamina not really.
I meditate just a few minutes a day during my lunch break and merely doing this has allowed me to notice my thoughts when they’re out of control and it really is like a superpower. Noticing anger for example, allows it to wash over my awareness and disappear like a wave when I observe it.
Love that
Can you explain your medication
Long post but I think it worth while to share. When I was a kid, my father used to say this thing to me over and over again. And idk why it’s just stick with me through the years. He said “those who you allow to anger you, have complete and total control of you and over you.” The older I got the more it began to make sense, and the more all of this current outrage in our society begins to make even more sense. People get angry online (Facebook for example) from a political post right? So immediately, as soon as the angered person decides to devote time to replying in anger back to the original poster, right at the very moment he surrenders his control. He’s no longer the one controlling his own mind. Somebody else is. The one who elicited that emotional angry response has control over them. Then you think how often does that happen? Millions of times a day. So there are quite literally millions upon millions of people who do not have control of their minds and emotions. Yet they don’t realize that’s what’s happening. It’s no wonder civil unrest and anxiety is so high. No one is control of their own thoughts anymore. This is compounded on top of the fact that coders from these social sites have admitted they created algorithms to put information in front of people that will make them angry or upset. Not because they want people to be mad all the time. But because by being upset, users will engage with the post more, stay on the site longer, and ultimately have more adverts put in front their faces aka, more money for the company. These sites are literally profiting from the anger of its users. And again, they are trapped, because again like I mentioned they’re not in control of their own minds anymore being in a constant state of anger and frustration toward others.
@@iLoveLucyy he never mentions meds, he mentioned mindfulness meditation
@@Sprite_525 talking about power dynamics, racial equity
Sam Harris: Spends 4:20 giving one of the best explanations between the mind, suffering and the power of meditation
Joe in the end: “So we were just talking about your apps”
Hahaha exactly my thought
“So we were just talking about your abs”
Sam Harris runs a meditation app (Waking Up), Joe was probably mentioning that.
420 nice
Bringing it back down to earth for his audience is my guess
This is spot on. I do TM regularly and it helps with everything he mentioned. I even stubbed my toe recently and just noticed that pain was occurring, but didn’t judge that pain or feel indifferent to it. It actually felt like the pain was no different than a feeling of hot or cold, and it went away a lot faster.
That probably sounds weird, but if you know you know.
@@dixienormus8231 clear your mind think about nothing basically there’s different ways to mediatate but simply being aware of your thoughts and then stopping them I for example will have bad thoughts that I don’t like and I simply breath and stop having thoughts and just listen to myself breath for me it’s about not letting my thoughts control me and realizing my thoughts are simply just thoughts there ultimately nothing until you you make that thought effect you it’s like strengthening your mind these people that are sad all the time can actually do something about it I know that sounds rude and insensitive but it’s true the more you become aware of your mind and don’t let thoughts dictate your life you leave yourself open to more happiness this is just me and how I am maybe other people have a different view but mediation is not hard you can do it right now and it’s extremely impactful and can help you and your mental strength
That’s easy. The super power comes when you can ignore cancer or having a nail driven through your knee. Being able to withstand a massage, a cold shower or a day’s fast is hardly a superpower.
@@jonahsd1818 I don't think "stopping your thoughts" is good advice. I'd rather say: "watch reality". Be mindful of what's happening, be mindful of your thoughts and observe them without engaging with them. You can't control your thoughts, you can't guess what your next thought is going to be. Thoughts just pass through us like water in a river. The river just keep flowing through us, but we don't need to follow it nor be drown by it. When we meditate, we can sit on the side of the river and observe its flow. We can watch our thoughts without following them. At least that's how I see it.
@@dixienormus8231 if you have spotify go check alan watts piece called " listen " its just 16 mins i guess and it helps plus what he is saying here is already said in that piece
#TM
I used to have similar conversations like this with my cousin. We called it being "clicked in" or "clicked out". It was basically going from being on autopilot to having this hyper awareness of ones thoughts. It's like waking up when you are already awake. I still do it often enough but not as much as I used to. I also found it quite distressing and felt as if I wasn't really in control of myself due to this autopilot mode which made me feel horrified and sad. Now I just accept it as reality. And know that I cannot change it but can make the best of it.
Meditation can help you over time to train your brain to spend more time “awake”
Gotta learn how to be in control of that auto pilot mode and direct that energy towards the grind instead
I think I do not have an autopilot function.. if I try I can remember exactly what I did yesterday dowm to the minutia.
@@Jack-yq6ui then the question becomes, are you just in autopilot saying that? I think we all have an auto pilot and an alert sense of awareness. Its just our brains. We conserve energy by getting up and taking a piss without thinking because it doesnt require brainpower. Just a thought.
I feel like i've instinctually been aware of all this stuff but the video and comments like this do allow me to do these things and be aware of the conscious abilities we have more readily.
like also i feel that growing up as i've tried to be more outgoing and that sort of thing, that I desire to be clicked out and just maybe in a "reactive" mode like Sadghuru says, so that my brain and words can flow a bit freely in social situations or whatever.
but my thing is that growing up I felt almost constantly "clicked in". like idk if I have several OCD/ADHD or autistic traits or something but particularly as a younger guy I felt clicked in almost all the time and I wasn't very anxious (only really shy, sometimes kindof anxious around strangers trying to engage me), but it felt as if I was just hyper aware of a lot of shit (especially my body sensations) and sometimes wished that I was "less aware" or something so that I could have a calmer mind or calm down or something.
idk I thought something was wrong with me
edit: I think this kind of clicked out state is called "dissociation".
Remember that scene in “the punisher” when he “tortures” a guy with a torch? That guy was suffering but not in any pain.
Such a brilliant scene that gets overlooked
Buddhism has been telling humanity this for 2500 years, cudos for Sam spreading the words.
Only if it was only Buddhism i like their idea of good and bad more than any other religion.
Its as Christopher Marlowe said
I count religion but a childish toy, And hold there is no sin but ignorance.
The Buddhists, the Stoics, the Taoists. They all had similarly profound insights into consciousness and the human experience, thousands of years ago and yet still very relevant.
And yet they fixed nothing and suffering still continues on.There is no solution to these problems. They are just tied to current form of existence.
@@HeelPower200 well they fixed it for the ones who tried to be fixed. Only you can fix yourself type of thing. You can't expect that just because the philosophy exists it should fix you, have you practiced it? Assimilated it into your every breathing moment of existence? If not then how can you say it hasn't fixed you yet? I mean those who practice those philosophies are clearly in a better mental state than most of us who don't.
Hindus, Ancient Tamils have mentioned this for over 15,000. Lord Siva was the first yogi.
Sam Harris: Unlocks the secret to life
Joe: Now we were talking about your app
I thought he said "abs", like as in stomach muscles.
Yeah this clip would be 10 times better if it had ended 5 seconds earlier
What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
@@chamade166 what the fuck are you talking about
@@HardwareG33k talking about racism and social equity…k?
For those of you who don't know about Sam Harris's meditation app, that question from Joe is perfect immediately after Sam Harris "unlocks the secret to life" where after this explanation will most likely be when listeners want to know more about Sam's work.
This is basically what you learn when your mind is clear and unperturbed by the constant mental chatter of the mind. If you practice meditation daily you will discover this. Even from this though, there are deeper states of conscious beyond just calm mindfulness alone.
Can you elaborate on the ending?
@@XTen1000DaysX astral projection
So, basically, we've naturally automated our detrimental behaviors/perceptions, but they can be corrected by practicing awareness.
Yep
Great sum. This guy spent way too much time describing what you did In a few sentences.
@redweber7011 that's the whole point of saying things and coming up with ideas and summaries and articulations 😂 so the next person can do it even better and learn from you lol
He's a wonderful brain. His public philosophy is a service.
nah scientific materialism is a plague
This is Indian yoga/meditation philosophy. This isn't an original idea from Sam Harris.
But if it werent for white trust fund new atheists, who would ever know about such a things?
@@LiMitZplus religion is the plague 😂
@@benjaminberry6095 both are
Seeing past the voice in your head is avaliable in every single moment of your life, even intense pain. It can be possible to reach a point where your reaction to any event can be massively reduced but even the involuntary reaction to intense pain is just appearing with everything else. If identification with the thing you think you are (but you aren't - ie voice in the head/self) moment to moment stops occuring (by just going to the raw experience of what is happening right now subjectively), the vast majority of the neurosis stops with it because the view point that was perpetuating the thoughts disappears. What's left is just the never ending peace which was always there in the first place :)
Thank you for this dude!
Tell that to someone with terminal cancer.
@@kimbarsegyan I hope you don’t mean you have cancer, but I believe this video and comment will even be a bit helpful to those with cancer
Sam's own "Waking Up" meditation course is just what I needed. No spiritual or religious components, very clear, concise and great for beginners and skeptics. The fact that he doesn't advertise it all the time is a good sign, because it's very much a word of mouth enterprise.
Buddha himself didn't want Buddhism to happen (as a religion)
Meditation is just lifting weights for your mind 😊
I desperately need to look into it. I need to learn how to meditate
What we think is ‘’thinking," or "our thoughts" is actually just a pre recorded or conditioned message in your subconscious mind. 99% of us think we are controlling the narrative but we are not seeing the forest from the trees. We don’t have the ability to "observe" our thoughts because we are so deeply connected to the recordings. ❤
@@dickvalentinesillegitimate1059
Have you attempted it?
@@hoovesandpawsanimalrescue Rare truth told here. I was once told 80-85% of the population is not 'conscious'. That's because nearly all we do is by rote. That's how we sometimes catch ourselves 'going' somewhere, but forgetting why or how. Besides general absent mindedness (great choice of words!) there's literal unconscious motion taking place. Rote. As you said, subconscious patterns.
I just came out of meditation..... didn't know what the topic he was going to speak on but as soon as he mentioned Meditation I know he was going in the right direction. It is so powerful to stop the white noise and helps you realize you are not that chatter and you feel for people who connect with their mental babble like a ship caught in a giant whirlpool.... most powerful thing Ive found
It’s you’re subconscious so it’s not terrible to be connected to it. That’s why we sleep so we can shut it off and get rest cause it’s always going and gets tiring.
"you are not that chatter" - that is an insightful phrase. I like it!
how did you start meditating, how to learn
@@alexmartin2126 First I did deep relaxations laying down. Then sitting in chair I learned to watch the breath, cool in warm out. As breath slows your mind will follow and become calm, When very quiet drop watching the breath and enjoy but whenever mind babbles again go back to watching breath etc.... its worth learning and good luck
I once experienced a back injury that was the absolute most horrific pain I could imagine. My back would tighten until I thought it would break, I couldn't breathe, my hands were going numb, my eyesight was fading, for roughly 3 hours.
I can tell you, the mental anguish was 100x worse if I thought of the pain continuing.
I literally put my mind back into my military training and focused only on the here and now. I made myself forget the past and ignore that there was a future.
The shit works. Still sucks...but pain really does only exist in the mind and the perspective and context given to it.
BAMF and thank you for your service.
Hey please look up kelly starret. The problem with the back is usually tight muscles which prevent the full range of motion from arm legs and the upper spine, which makes the lower back work overtime. Search kelly starret back pain please because he is one of the few that actually fixes the problem. Never go to chiropractors
Dang that’s incredible
Yeah tell that to somebody who’s suffering from an actual illness/disease and not 3 hours of whatever you just described. What you’re saying is true but to a certain extent. You can’t compare back pain to a chronic disease or something undeniably true such as a broken arm or leg.
@@RJTradess
Interesting thought but I think we literally can compare those things.
No two individuals can make conclusive statements about their experiences of pain in terms of one or the other being greater or deeper than the other, it’s true, because ultimately the available comparison is an intellectual one that can only be shared or communicated conceptually where as the experience itself is personal and can not be shared or communicated as an experience in any way that makes sense or is trustworthy.
But as I say the comparison can be made.
The only conclusion, however, that can actually be drawn from an acceptance that the experience itself can’t be shared or communicated between individuals is that the conceptual framing of the experience is our only real resource in attempting any control or pushback of the actual experience for the individual.
What cannot be concluded is that just because an individual maintains that their pain is as an experience fundamentally greater or deeper than another individuals that it is true either in terms of its face value as an assertion or by extension in terms of the implied inability on the part of the individual who maintains that their pain is in some way fundamentally greater or deeper to apply the conceptual knowledge that has been put forward by those who have made the intellectual comparisons in an attempt to build knowledge bases for those who may wish to access said knowledge as a useful resource in attempting such control or achieving any kind of pushback that would amount to what a reasonable person might accept as a successful managing of that persons pain experience.
I understand how tempting it is to reject this reasoning given the pain that people experience that they never find a way to adequately manage. In the first instance it certainly comes across as salt in the wounds for those who have, or have lost, loved ones who experienced great pain to then be told that it could have been potentially easier for them if only they’d have known about and tried this or that approach before or while they were alive. For those that are left behind to consider this it’s maybe just a painful realisation if true rather than any kind of consolation. Secondly it almost comes across as an accusation in those cases where what we think we are being asked to accept is that those individuals just didn’t or aren’t trying hard enough or are somehow not clever enough to take these ideas on board but this is not the case either. The truth is we are all only human with human weaknesses and we live in a world of uncertainty with very little time to come to terms with that and sometimes even where an answer exists to the perceived problem at hand it just isn’t found as a result.
🙏
The Buddha said the same thing over 2600 years ago.
And so did (for instance) Patanjali before Buddha!
Would you know that if someone didn’t echo it?
Harris isn’t saying he invented this.
Great thing that some of our contemprary thinkers remind us of it😅
@@JorisWeimaThere is no evidence of Patanjali existed before 5th century AD
He just rolled Eckart Tolle’s entire “The Power of Now” into 4:23
Nope, these techniques are much much older than any new book
What do u mean? If it was the entire book, he would have made up a bunch of new agey terms! Then made u into your own enemy, calling your thoughts and emotions the ego and pain body, accordingly.
;)
@@mejohn101 You didn't read the book or it went over your head. He makes a point about not making the ego out to be something "bad" that you have to fight/conquer. He talks about keeping a neutrality with the ego and pain.
He's just using lexicon that is in your comfort zone. Reality is beyond concept. All words, no matter what, can only point to this truth, they are not the truth. Ultimately you want to be in a state of "not knowing", in order to fully transcend the mind. By reducing the teaching of presence into a materialistic framework, you risk the ego taking hold in a new form/fashion. The ego is just using the technique to get one up on the universe and it will ultimately lead back to suffering, for yourself and others.
@@bmatthews15 "The ego becomes a monstrous parasite that, unchecked, may well end up killing all life on the planet and finally itself by” Well
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
Well if a monstrous parasite isn't "bad", it certainly isn't very good either. I actually enjoy much of his work, but comments like this on the ego, the mind and the pain body can turn people against themselves and their natural feelings. I have seen a great deal of this in my field- people having very painful situations in life and feeling quite miserable about it- and instead of having understanding and compassion for what they are going thru, they think it is the ego or pain body and further judge themselves instead of working on their healing. Again, a lot of his work is truly beautiful, but his understanding of the inner world is sophomoric at best.
The BEST explanation of the benefits of and necessity for meditation.
Read his chapter on it in his book, "Waking up". It's in the first half and is an even better explanation of why meditation is so great
100%
To be fair his app does help people along with what Sam is talking about.
I am one of does who benefit a lot from him and his app
I have his app as well but I don't get any benefits from using it. I can't meditate.
@@spridle Do you feel you have a firm grasp of what meditation is?
Help along with being dumb?
@@spridle I would offer you haven't meditated long enough. If you've been identified with your mind your entire life, it's going to take as long as it needs to do to eradicate this complex we've been trapped in since birth.
Anthony De Mello said it best- "all of our suffering is due to wanting and attachment. Attached to what people think of us negatively or positively. If we crave positive attention and look for it and believe it we're going to believe the negative."
I had a good friend once tell me - "don't read the headlines."
Don't attach myself to what people say about me positive or negative. If I do that will control how I feel about myself at that moment.
Sam Harris changed my life. 6 month ago he awaken me and I haven’t been the same since. Thank you Sam.
How?
@@brentwub meditation app
@@fhaf33z same for me too, started last year
Changed you to Mr Hyde? You were always both.
realizing that you are already bearing the unbearable lets you know that it is actually bearable. you got this!
Sam harris's meditation app literally saved my life …i wish to meet him and tell him that in person
Stay strong brother 💪🏼
How did it help you? I’m interested in joining in the future, just curious
@@kaushikkam2596 i was dipresed and sucidal for a long time and i started meditation with his app two years ago life has been a lot better ever since …better emotional regulation my relationships with the people i love has imoproved dramaticaly …not saying meditation gave me eveything it gave me the tools to work with …the best decsion i ever made in my life was learning to meditate
I always find it interesting how society is obsessed with gender, race, and culture. Most waste so much time in a hamster wheel and rarely forgo all that nonsense for true self improvement. Make yourself they best version possible mentally, physically and spiritually.
He should point people to the source material of this philosophy.
My physio likes to apply some interesting old chinese techniques, some of which are very painful, and one day he was really smashing a muscle and I was wincing with pain, gritting my teeth, etc. and he said: “just breathe and relax, you don’t have to feel it twice.” That really helped me understand what sam is talking about here. It took me a while to figure out what he meant but eventually i was able to relax and though the pain was the same the suffering was less. Its a difficult path but im beginning to realise that all suffering, physical and psychological, is just “feeling it twice”. Just my experience, don’t know if anyone will find it interesting
I notice that in the stream of thoughts, some are very fleeting, yet very potent. I tend to grind my teeth when stressed, and sometimes I'll start grinding away during the day. I ask myself what thought might have caused it, and if I pay very close attention I'll notice one thought flew through my mind, brought up by something I might have seen and a association to the stressor.
What I'm saying is that tracking all the thoughts that come into your mind is much more subtle and refined than just noting the overt, major thought stream. It's a little like catching a little fish in your hand that darts from place to place. However, just noting these "micro" thoughts can be greatly therapeutic, particularly if you haven't been able to identify the major thoughts that are causing you trouble.
What is he is saying resonates with and will further white supremacy. These techniques don’t work for POC, trans, LatinX and other oppressed communities.
What i dont get is why he puts so much emphasis on Thought. You only think due to emotional reasons. Emotions are the fat and the thoughts are the carbs in many situations. Often times youre scrambling in thought coz your body is trying to sort out why tf its feeling so uneasy. If you were chilled out and focused. Which is the whole point of meditation, youd think less or think much more productively, this is granted you dont have intellectual disabilities or cognitive issues
@@chamade166 we gotta learn the hardest lesson of all. Losing the fear of death. It takes guts to be an oppressed and hated person but you gotta learn to not fear no human. Engage the demon within as so it is outside of you and youll realise they are just as scared as you. Difference is now you know and theyre running around like a headless chicken while you dominant the field
@@pluday4685 True, but often what we call "emotion", say fear, is mostly thoughts combined with a physical sensation, and the sensation is almost a Pavlovian physical response to other thoughts. For instance, you go to speak before a thousand people, and your thoughts are "I can't do this" and your body responds in the automatic way it always has to thinking about public speaking. When you control the thoughts, the emotion dissipates. It goes the other way as well; you can use beta blockers to rid yourself of much of the adrenaline fear response. Without the physical sensation, the thoughts often dissipate quickly. As Cheri Huber has said, the Ego's favorite playground is bodily sensations.
@@chamade166 I don't really see the connection. Why does oppression prevent meditation from working? I would think the opposite; it might be more useful to oppressed communities.
The 'voice in your head' (sense of self) is appearing but it is not what you are. That's the thing that comments on the pain and can make the suffering even worse. The commenting on pain and the raw sensation of pain are two separate things (mentioned by Sam), both of which are being seen. Looking past the 'voice in your head' leaves you with just the raw pain, which of course can be immense. But for the vast majority of encounters people have with pain day to day, the raw sensation is usually easier to bear than the relentless ruminatation about it. Hope this helps :)
Definitely helps, thanks so much
Sam is describing dissociation. It's at the core of most religions, meditation, entertainment... most things that are marketed to us. It's inherently benign, and often a coping mechanism to deal with stress or pain.
It allows you to take a step back from your relationship with the world, and redecide how you want to live. To go from automatic processes to deliberate action.
However, it's only half the answer. The other half is reintegration. To disassociate without reintegration is to exist in a purgatory of being. It keeps you distant from others and distant from feeling. I have lived in that mode most my life and it sounds like Sam has as well.
The way out - reintegration - is through healing. You must learn to listen to your mind, heart and body's various forms of communication and honor them. It takes a while, but it is worth it. I'm on that journey and I recommend it.
Any recommendations for literature on reintegration?
Actually, it's not simply dissociation, it's developing equanimity. I really appreciate the integration piece you followed up within your response, as I feel it is the other "wing" to help someone fly through life. Dissociation seems to imply not being there. Equanimity is to be fully present with what one is feeling and experiencing but without being pulled away by it. It's to see things for what is really happening, without tainting it or colouring it with our own misinterpretation or psychological spin as Sam was mentioning. This leads to what's called insight. And from this more clear viewpoint, we are able to untangle our misinterpretation of situations and arguably be liberated from them which leads to integration and thus healing.
The way that you describe it, "the core of most religion" is describing what our thoughts are doing as one of its functions which is categorizing and labelling. But this is merely intellectualizing from an outside point of view without actually delving into the exercise of actual meditation. It's like trying to explain with exact nuance and precision of how to swim. But until you actually take the dive, you'll never know how it feels from an experiential point of view which is the embodiment of wisdom.
For anybody who is really interested in learning and embodying what Sam is describing here, I would highly recommend participating in a 10-Day Vipassana course as taught by Goenka. The integration piece for me is to consistently practice and meditate and break our old habits patterns of reacting to our cravings and aversions or put in simpler terms not being confined or a slave to our likes and dislikes.
@@mindfulmagician7550 get a job
Lol, resorting to petty remarks behind a digital identity with apparently no consequences. Pure ignorance. But in reality, the consequences follows you like your shadow, and as long as you continue with this behaviors misery will follow you. Good luck to you man. If the universe somehow conspires for you to learn more about yourself, I hope that you come out of your ignorance.
@@BelchingBeaver69 the fuck is wrong with you?
Sam Harris: Meditate to unlock the secret of life.
joe: app
“Lost in thought” is referred to as psychic entropy, or disorder of consciousness. Largely studied in the realm of psychology and its effects on well being And psychopathy
what do u mean psychopathy
Meditation should be a requirement to learn in every school around the world it's that important
All he said is thoughts control your feelings. We already know this -- that's why when a baby hits their head the parents will cheer so they don't cry. Also, all these buddhist comments are full of irony. They are all *wanting* to achieve less suffering through recognition of their thoughts. The idea is to enjoy suffering. Recognize your thoughts in order to remind yourself that without pain now, you wouldn't feel happy later. Appreciate all of the feelings as they are. In other words.. the idea is to raise the appreciation for life bar, not lower the pain bar.
Realized I’ve been daydreaming the entirety of my life I’m almost 28, there’s a few times I can remember consciously applying myself to a goal and it brought me success but mostly I’ve just given dare I say 20-50% conscious effort to tasks. Im currently an engineer pursing a MS in electro engineering. Feel behind in life tbh but maybe mindfulness will enlighten me.
You judge yourself by an arbitrairy Standard.
@@Bigjuicydumbdumb wym
@@mariorodriguez219 "Feel behind in life"
Don't do this. You're 28. You got time. Go for it.
@@Bigjuicydumbdumb thanks man I’m trying
@@mariorodriguez219 There's no need to try to not judge yourself. Just be aware when you judge yourself and when anything else happens. Observe it all like in meditation!
“The day you are more fascinated by being aware of your thoughts than the thoughts themselves, that is the day you will find your way out.”
I dont agree with him about physical pain. Anyone whos ever suffered extreme physical pains knows it cannot not be meditated away
I'd hate to have listened to this 8 years ago and gone "huh, sounds right" *moves on all the same*
Now that I practice meditation / mindfulness, I feel every word so deeply. I see it as the solution to an enormous galaxy of psychological issues in my friends and families and myself, it's disappointing that the only way to know is to do.
He is spot on. I read the power of now in high school and suddenly everything clicked and I became “enlightened” for like 3 months. I know it’s not technically enlightenment if it’s not permanent but I swear it was not different while it lasted. My thoughts reduced by like 80%, yet ironically I got straight A’s for the first time in high school. Not that it mattered to me because I realized that everything important in life exists right here and now and that’s all you need to be happy. This isn’t a philosophy or mindset, but the opposite. It is what is left when the mind stops and you can just be. It is beautiful and indeed the key to life.
For a while I focused everything on getting back to that place until one day I realized it was making me very unhappy. Now I try to live like a regular person again with goals and ambitions to keep me motivated and happy, otherwise I just wallow around depressed. I think something like enlightenment can only come to a person when the are spiritually ready. And so I trust I will get back there when the time is right.
Great comment dude. Much love
Did a teacher recommend the book?
No, my massage therapist!
@@tylersmall8876 Cool! I was just asking because a high school teacher of mine gave me that same book. I thought we might be having a it's a small world moment, haha.
The power of a free mind is easily interrupted by an effort to hold onto it.
The raw sensation of pain is one thing - physical pain. The reaction to the pain via identifying with thoughts which refer to the pain born from the view point of self - psychological suffering. The second is optional if identification with the voice in your head stops happening. The raw sensation of pain is more tolerable without this false point of view.
You have no clue what you're talking about. You just regurgitate some information without having any close encounter with true pain.
My grandma had cancer, spread to her liver caused her whole body to shut off. Muscle started to atrophy, fat dissappears. Next thing that happens is nerve damage. EVERYWHERE. My mom and aunt had to move her from one side to another each 15 minutes because my grandma was in so much pain, from just laying down.
There was no amount of morphine that can help you accept that pain. Before she lost all her sanity to this pain she told us it's like getting electrocuted non stop. I dare you to think about that. And what mindfulness can do to help. This is a process to fight psychological issues not phisical. No one escapes the gift of pain.
@@smayly1000 There's a nugget of truth in the middle. You brought up an extreme circumstance where the prolonging and rising intensity of the pain is so long and severe, that the mindfulness approach begins to fail under those conditions. This doesn't mean that one can't use a deliberate mentality to manage the pain better in many other, less severe, circumstances. I'll hand it to you tho, the op in this thread came across a bit condescending, though I think it was unintentional.
@@HumanMechanism true I didn't word my statement properly. There is a way to deal with phisical pain trough mindfulness but not all pain. I got a bit triggered by op's comment because I see many people who live in the fairytale that we can control everything with our minds. Which just buggs me to my core... This concept is so dissattached from reality.
@@smayly1000 I'm very sorry to hear about your grandmother. I'm not in any way dismissing pain or how severe pain can be, that may be how it came across as I only wrote a few sentences.
I've actually had to deal with constant chronic pain at one point for 2 years, this naturally lead to a host of mental illness. Thankfully my body recovered and I can appreciate a comfortable body again.
What I wrote is just summing up what Sam has said, those definitions are correct. I've been fascinated by non duality and meditation for a very long time now and what I've said in my comment I can confirm from my own real time experience.
The 'voice in your head' (sense of self) is appearing but it is not what you are. That is the thing that comments on the pain and can make the suffering even worse. The commenting on pain and the raw sensation of pain are two separate things, both of which are being seen (this is what Sam is saying). Looking past the 'voice in your head' leaves you with just the raw pain, which of course can be immense. But for the vast majority of encounters people have with pain day to day, the raw sensation is usually easier to bear than the relentless ruminatation about it. Just trying to help :)
@@ThePageNo1 I mostly disagree with what Sam Harris has to say. Because he views his consciousness as the more dominant part of his brain which is absolutely false. What you say is wishfull thinking. You can't escape the reality of prolonged pain. I will need more information on your chronic pain to give you a comparison. If it's not a prolonged pain but a remainder of some sort that's not the pain we are talking about. We are talking about something that's bugging you nonstop, doesn't need to be excruciating pain but something like a build up stomach is a good example. You cant escape that reality no matter what you think its a constant reminder of your current state of body and its normal. The worst thing you can to your self is give your self hope, that you can recover or feel better with the power of your mind, go seek medical help.
I know where you come from as I was once meditating and being mindful. I guess you probably touched a place where you haven't been before and you're very interested in, but that's a false narrative. It's just the self trying to explain to you that your self sufficient which you are not. You're talking about the voice in your head, the moment you start to dissociate with it, your doomed. You're down the rabbit hole of Spirituality->False narratives->Delusions .
Music has a weird duality with this. Sometimes it is best to get lost in the thoughts, that can be when you have this transcendental experience with the rest of the music.
But mindfulness also works. Instead of being completely focussed on the physical aspect of it you try listen to what you are playing. It is hard because like meditation your thoughts are easily distracted and maybe more so because you have to perform complex motor functions. But when you succeed it is like listening to a record and being able to in real time control the music with your thoughts.
In a weird way they are both forms of control. When you lose yourself in the music you lose direction but gain uninhibited expression. When you are mindful you gain full control over the direction but can easily be inhibited by distractions.
This video: "Sam harris basically unlocks the secret to life"
The Buddha: "Am I a joke to you😐"
Like the deepest thing I've ever heard. Joe Rogan, "What apps you got bro?"
I thought the person who could go off topic the worst had existed.. But then Joe Rogan came round
U got games on ur phone
Your conscience is a highway, your awareness it’s lighting and the thoughts you have are the vehicles traversing it.
The key is to separate the road from the wheels. Recognise them separately.
That’s my take
Pretty good take my g
You mean consciousness?
honest question here, if I understand this correctly you’re implying to separate road (conscience) from wheels (thoughts as vehicles) ? Should thoughts and conscience not be interwoven at all times? Oh is it just the negative thoughts that we’re trying to separate from?
@@albrtanomad301 It's about separating your identity from thoughts, before the concept of good or bad even comes into it.
@@albrtanomad301 No, thoughts & consciousness should not be interwoven at all times. Because consciousness is always there while thoughts change - depending on the day, emotions, location, people we are with etc. Through meditation, what we seek to achieve is to separate all thoughts, whether positive or negative from the underlying consciousness. To see it clearly beneath the thoughts help us appreciate that whatever be the contents of our thoughts the unchanging consciousness will stand us in good stead. Thoughts are like petals on the surface of a pond. Petals are blown by the wind here and there, they decay in a day or two, they are never constant. By choosing to focus on the unchanging pond itself, we see clearly through our daily struggles.
The super power I'm after is being able to say with a straight face that a presidential candidate's son can have the corpses of children in his basement and still vote for him.
He’s literally encouraging disassociation
I appreciate Sam explaining the mechanics of meditation. I find it very easy to practice thanks to him.
This guy never had a tooth infection
This guy never been in a fight.
It's not that we won't ever feel pain, it's that we're trying not to add the mental pain on top of the physical pain. In Buddhism it's called the second arrow. It's not that the first arrow (physical pain) doesn't exist, it's that we're trying to avoid adding another arrow (mental suffering) to the picture.
Trying not to suffer with a tooth infection is very hard. That's why it takes a lot of training. Have tried meditating during a tooth infection, not fun. 😂
@@ShimmerBodyCreamhe often seems to intentionally mixes it up though. Or at least doesn’t make it clear. It’s Important to learn how to not amplify pain mentally if you wanna live happy. But he over promises and is often trying to sell stuff. I do genuinely believe he had good intentions and is not in it for the money. Just wish he would stop the Buddhist apologetics and boosting. And would lean of the meditation. And focus more on practical applied philosophy and ethics. Like animal rights, free will etc. he’s smart though and a great communicator. It’s just cringey and will not age well I think
@@funut2541 I'm with you, I am immediately wary of anyone trying to sell stuff. I'm personally a big fan of Ram Dass, Ajahn Sona, Ajahn Brahm, and Thich Nhat Hanh if you're looking for some non-money oriented practitioners. They aren't necessarily secular (altho none of their religions require belief in a God or anything you don't want to believe)- but they also don't require you to adopt their religion to take home their practices. Pema Chodro also has some great practices. (like her guided Tonglen practice on YT)
Jayasara on YT is a Buddhist nun who has just a ton of free guided meditations that include secular/multiple traditions. (like quotes from Einstein for example)
Samaneri Jayasara*(huge free YT channel), Pema Chodron*
He's very good in his lane on this. He has a gift for communication.
All this talk about trying to trick yourself into not being depressed or anxious or neurotic doesn’t really work if your brain has been damaged from years and years of depression and anxiety. You need something that physically regrows the structures in the brain and I feel that this ‘mindfulness’ is too ethereal to be really effective. We need to get to a point where we target the patient specific brain damage and use targeted pharmaceuticals to repair that damage.
Try meditating for 15 minutes every morning.
Lately I've been suffering from true anxiety for the first time in my life about my future and how the last 3 or 4 years of my life haven't gone at all how I hoped they would've. I believe the purpose of the angst is my mind's attempt to prevent myself from repeating my past mistakes. Some days it becomes unbearable and I fall into a panicked state for hours and hours at a time which makes me very unproductive. How do I prevent myself from falling into those states? And if I do fall into one, how do I prevent myself from wasting the entire day away?
I strongly recommend “Acceptance & commitment therapy”
@@eric7live288 ACT baby! What he said.
Sit quietly for 15 minutes every morning. Spend time appreciating nature every single day. When you feel overwhelmed sit down and practise bringing your attention back to the present moment. Clean up your room and your stuff and your clothes so you are ready for any opportunities that may present themselves today.
"there is nothing to accomplish"
I can recommend the book "The Mind Illuminated". It's a very elaborate meditation instructions manual written by a former brain scientist.
How is it possible that your comments always show up under the most random videos i watch?? Ive been watching your videos for over a year and its crazy how often i see your comments under videos that have nothing to do with programming. Maybe im just on youtube too much :D Keep up the good videos, bye.
@@samfoston4231 It's much more than that hence why meditation teachers exist. If you don't learn how to do it properly you can easily end up at a dead-end, wasting your time.
@@albertbuzek5007 I guess the recommendation algorithm takes videos into account that channels watch that you watch
@@codinginflow yeah. I guess it makes sense that people that watch you and like you have a higher chance of liking the things that you like
I enjoyed that book, but make no mistake, the author John Yates has an incredibly bloated resume. He's definitely not considered a neuroscientist among actual neuroscientists (he played with a couple rat brains), and he's been adulterous, which brings a lot of question to what extent he's actually achieved the goals described in his own book
That first egg was named Thought.
Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, 'With our thoughts we make the world.'
Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch: from it there came a stone Monkey.
The nature of Monkey was ... irrepressible!
I recall a prominent meditation teacher who nearly died from appendicitis. Make sure that you still get appropriate medical care even if you do what Harris suggests and are able to avoid suffering in the presence of pain.
That's not a subject change. His app is about mindfulness & meditation.
ik i just wanted more :(
The title made me think he was going to ask “have you ever tried eating Elk meat or smoking DMT?”
I thought he said 'abs' lol.
this is basically the real and useful part of every religion, this state "pre-thought" which he call mindfulness is the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus taught about, or the Eden's Garden of Genesis.
No it’s not
I try and fail to meditate but even in the few times i`ve attempted it, something has become quite apparent.
I`ve become aware just how ceaseless and disrupting my own thoughts are, it feels like i can`t turn them off or just empty my head.
I can see the similarities between how oppressive my thoughts are and just how present my anxiety is.
So even though i`ve just begun meditating, that`s a great lesson to experience.
What he is describing is the basis of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Which is the brain child of Aaron Beck in the 1960s.
Her music died out, and we stood, gazing into the abyss of everything that exists. I felt small, and at the same time just right. A warm hand slipped into mine.
Elijah Hill, Syria Girl
The adults are in charge. Thank God we've righting the ship. Sanity has prevailed at last! No more lies!
I don’t know what you’re smoking if you think the adults are in charge and we’re righting the ship, but I want some.
Ancient Hindus have known this for thousands of years. Look into Adveita Vedanta🕉️
meditation legit change my life. wish i didnt discarded it as hippie bs, wouldve avoided alot of bad shit
I just pinched my arm as hard as I possibly could and focused at a word on a pill bottle. Remarkably, I was able to tolerate it while focusing on the word, but as soon as I looked down and saw what I was doing to myself, my immediate response was to throttle back on the pinch because it felt so much more painful.
Nice, Mind over matter
What's interesting is that the same effect would occur if you focus your attention on the sensation of pain.
Sam is truly hilarious sometimes without trying to be. he had me dead when he just casually said, "if someone drives a nail into your knee..."
@@kaiser_suzi_ haaaaaaa
@@kaiser_suzi_ Why lol?
casually.... like it's something that happens occasionally. Sure I remember spring of 2019 when my buddy and me were building picnic table and he thought my knee was a board.
@@kaiser_suzi_ hahaha such a weird thing to find hilarious
His mom was a comedy writer! In the genes/upbringing :)
Sam: "Here's the secret to life..."
Joe: "Apps."
If you watched the video of the monk setting himself on fire you might understand it better.
TDS is causing Sam serious suffering
Yeah. Joe didn't understand any of that.
He did watch the whole thing
Got a feeling you edited this deceptively to get a laugh at Joe’s expense
Instructions unclear. I went for a deadlift PR while getting rolfed and having nails hammered in to my knees and now i can't walk and am in incredible pain
Okay bravo to whoever edited this and just included that last bit from Rogan, that was legit funny.
“The trick, Mr. Potter, is not minding that it hurts...” - Lawrence of Arabia
I first saw that in ‘Prometheus’ 😂
Yeah but Sam, nails are one thing….what about an arrow?
Or two Arrows
wow best comment lol
@@slimdilly_ “Ahh, you’re finally awake”
mu
The secrets of life in 4 1/2 minutes? Congrats. Now we’ve got it all figured out.
Same Thing told By OSHO - '' Just Be a WITNESS of Ur Thoughts without Indulging in them , Just Observe them ''
Fantastically described. Great video.
Although I completely agree with him, oddly enough its the ability of being lost in thought is what allows me to truly be free. Its a sort of revision on what has led me to this point, and what are the lessons I may learn from it.
I would say though, that there is a difference there. (This is coming from someone who also enjoys being lost in thought.)
In those moments we are actually in control of what we are thinking, we are deciding what to think and when to think it, so in a way it is being mindful in that moment. Vs not having control over what goes in and out of your thoughts.
2:05 hits so hard 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Im so chilled that I have never blown my car horn or honked my car horn in traffic, out of anger. Ive been driving for decades, currently in southern California.
Sam Harris has a good point, but he isn’t reinventing the wheel. Good on him, for finding a way to make things B&W in the absolute.
B&W in the absolute?
I think you mean B&W in the margin.
Spiritual materialism. Theres nothing wrong with using the intellect to dissect out experience of mysterious states of consciousness.
What a stupid, pretentious comment
@@nnn-pr3vr Oof. You are on to something but this needs to be rewritten.
Toe Bogan is a pretty Dim fellow- he’s at least smart enough to admit as much.
It's edited, you fck
@@yoloswag6242 pipe down holo. All
I said was what Toe Bogan said about himself- he ain’t that bright. He claimed he’s about as smart as a wise ape. PS damn near all
CZcams content is edited. Be well.
If you don’t have autonomy over your thoughts,
your thoughts will have autonomy over you.
A concept driven into the ground becomes white noise.
What does mindfulness and meditation have to say about what we should do with our lives, and why we should do it?
That's a good question. Mindfulness and meditation are really the same thing, so I'm going to answer the question on that basis.
Mindfulness is kind of like the mind's operating system, and we load all kinds of thought programs into it: beliefs, memes, desires, fears, plans, regrets, memories. The trouble is, we are usually lost in a clusterfuck of open windows and browser tabs, malware and adware, all of it distracting us every second, and we have mostly forgotten what it's like the have a blank, uncluttered desktop. Meditation is the practice of mindfulness intended to train you to close the windows and tabs that are getting in the way, slowing down your computer, wasting your time, so that you can do the work you want and need to do in a thoughtful, deliberate way.
Maybe you really need to study, or make dinner, or pay some bills, but that thing someone said earlier is running around and around in your head, pissing you off, and you can't seem to let it go and concentrate on the task at hand, so you make a mistake, or put it off. Mindfulness is about learning how to close that tab, or change the app's permissions so it doesn't startup on its own again.
It doesn't mean you'll never be angry or hurt or frustrated or in a bad mood again, but it enables you to move into and out of those states of mind without being lost in them or spending more time in them than is necessary.
TLDR; mindfulness allows you to choose effectively what you should do with your life in any given moment and when you are awake and acting from a place of mindfulness, the "why" becomes self-evident.
@@BrentARJ I appreciate your thoughtful response here, and I really like the operating system analogy.
For me though, even if you can control to a large degree your operating system, lets say that is the your consciousness, a lot of the software we run on is essentially the product and culmination of all of evolution that has taken place on this planet. In some ways we represent and are the current epitome that is the 4 billion or so year process of "life". So my point here is that, a lot of our software is that which is always running in the background. Similar to our your PC/operating system works now, shit ton of stuff going on in the background which are vital to the system, which you're not really in control of, and shouldn't be, since, if you could for example, close the tab for hunger, then, you wouldn't get hungry, but presumably would still die since your body needs energy to run. Or maybe a better example would be, turning off your sex drive software so that, you could optimally choose a mate without the interference and biasness of physicaly attractivness.
Only then, when you find someone you "connect" with, and decide to build a life together, would you switch your sex drive softwar back on for the purpose of being sexually stimulated by your mate, to have sex with and make babies.
That's a little crass probably but I think there is a point here I'm at least trying to make regarding your operating system analogy stuff.
But yeah, I still don't see how simply being mindful, super mindful, of yourself, your thoughts arising as they do in response to whatever situation and such, through say, the act of meditation as at least some reliable provavle means, this kind of enlightment seeking eastern sought of outlook, tells you what you ought to do with your life given its finitude.
We live in world of infinite possibility (constrained by what our science has unveiled about reality so far, at least) and we're all born with what you may describe as infinte potential. We are blank canvas's when we are born in a way. As we mature however, and become members of the broader population, we become constrained, by culture and society iteself to a degree, and also by unique ways each of our brains interpret the world, due in part to gene expression, but the actuality of how our brains develop from conception to whenever the brain stops developing (25 or whatever).
Like, right now, I have the choice to do almost what I want, say, in terms of career. How can mindfulness help me decide whether I should become a structural engineer, or, a java developer, or, a mental health care professional, or a radiographer. I could devote my time to the study of any such thing and be certain of a financially stable future, be fulfilled in the sense that I am contributing at least something of value to society via their respective end means, and also, would likely serve and provide just as much personal meaning, given the above.
Of course I have proclivities.
Life is confusing to me. Reality is terriyfing.
I think, therefore, I am.
More like, I think, therefore, fuck!
@@curtiso779 Great response! Mindfulness won't tell you what to do with your life, but it does quite literally make you more open and available in the moment to decide for yourself what to do, and that is really everything.
Being in that calm, vibrant openness... That's where you make your best decisions, weighing options, responding to opportunities, etc. You are not distracted by often unhelpful, even destructive, thoughts; you are not thoughtlessly reacting to what happens in your life, you are thoughtfully responding to it. It's a simple, but profound difference.
I'm not saying that there aren't hundreds of programs still running, doing their thing. The benefit of mindfulness comes from a "dropping away" of identification with thoughts that can often drive you away from where you really want to go. When you're not identified with your thoughts, when you lose the mistaken sense that you are a single object instead of a fluctuating process, you find life and its ever-changing variety to be much easier to navigate.
It sounds cliche, but I'm saying it anyway, because it's true. On the one hand, you become less concerned with what you should do with your life, because you realize that you, this, is already everything. On the other hand, your decisions and actions take on a supreme importance in the light of mindfulness, where you can see clearly the ripples you make in the world. It seems to me that being free of the anxious "what should I do with my life" narrative, while also being aware of the ultimate value of your actions is the perfect place from which to make any choice, especially the big life choices.
I'm sorry, it's hard to describe it succinctly in a way that doesn't sound both too obvious and too obtuse, so my apologies if my response is inexhaustive. In fact, the most useful response I could give would be, "don't listen to me, go and find out for yourself" but that can sound dismissive even though it's not meant that way.
Honestly, meditation is not magic, it's not a secret that requires a guru and an expensive trip to a remote mountain ashram. Mindfulness is available to you now, and you will only find out, as many have, exactly what value it has by doing it. No sales pitch is going to convince you more than just sitting and breathing.
@@BrentARJ Honestly, this is pretty useful. I mean just the fact of someone laying out in their own words, the exent to which you have, is kinda reassuring in ways. I would say I am already pretty mindful, but this mindfulness tends to be somewhat destructive, in that I allow negative thoughts to override emotion, or become subsuming, which tends to dictate action, or lack of. It seems hard to just let negative thought float off, recognise them for what they are, and yeah, realise they are just thoughts which you ultimately have control over.
@@BrentARJ "Mindfulness and meditation are really the same thing" Sorry but no. Mindfulness is one small fraction of the numerous and greatly varied traditions that we lump together into the term "meditation". The explosion of mindfulness in the west through people like Harris is awesome, but it has left people thinking that mindfulness is all there is.
Joe wants to talk about his abs
Yep and thats also what placebo is .. when you mentally think of healing you physically can heal
Really, what it boils down to is what Alan Watts said, which was, "You are the universe experiencing itself."
No, its not that mystical. What sam is talking about is far more pragmatic.
@@sethe.2468
Are you NOT the Universe experiencing itself?
How could you be ANYTHING ELSE in your most essential form?
Especially if the constructed self and it’s thoughts are simply a stream of energy focused into your present moment.
Why argue against the obvious?
I don’t get this aspect of ‘materialism.’
‘Matter’ is energy.
Energy is not created nor destroyed
The energy that is the matter that is you …. has always been part of this Universe.
And now here you are experiencing it.
I really don’t get what there is to argue against.
@@benevolentconcepts I am talking about what Sam Harris believes and his perspective, not Alan Watts or you. Sam Harris is a proponent of a much more pragmatic view of meditation and its benefits, separated from the cultures who spawned them. Don't believe me? Watch his debate with Deepak Chopra and the idea of "woo woo". Again, whether you are the universe or not makes no difference in this context. OP wrote what Sam meant boils down to "X". It doesn't.
@@sethe.2468
I’m not talking about Alan Watts.
I don’t even really care what Sam Harris thinks.
I am also a student of meditation AND ‘mysticism’ divorced from the cultures that spawned them.
And I don’t think it’s trendy to be an anti-spiritual “because-religion-doesn’t-make-sense-then-all-spirituality-is-irrational” meditator.
Op can arrive at whatever conclusion they wish from what Sam says, whether they agree with Sam or not. It’s pretty obvious that Sam has arrived at conclusions from the ‘cultures that spawned’ ‘woo-woo’ that differ from their original meanings, and you accept his arguments and conclusions.
I’m not a Deepak Chopra ‘person’ either, so I really don’t care about Sam debating someone as mainstream as Chopra.
Sam Harris has to waste SO MUCH TIME rejecting religious ideology that I have yet to hear him make a truly productive point about much of anything …. but then again, I don’t really resonate with him, so I don’t listen to him very much.
The only reason I was here is because a friend of mine said they no longer believe in Free Choice because of Sam, and I find it utterly ridiculous to assert that someone who spends so much time arguing and dissecting the way people think about things and then teaching them to CHOOSE to meditate doesn’t believe that they had any part to play in the choice to engage in said arguments or practices 🤷🏽♀️
Go ahead - deny your choice to put your finger to keypad and write a clever retort.
The pragmatism of realizing that we are all Fractals (self-similar repeating patterns of energy and information with infinite scalability in which part contains whole and whole contains part) of the energy of the universe will become clear in time as more and more individuals awaken to the FACT that BECAUSE we ARE the universe experiencing itself, we also have access to everything the Universe knows about itself.
Solutions to all of our ‘problems’ - personally and collectively - will come from more and more of us having this realization and allowing it’s implications to be manifest in our experiences.
And that’s all I have to say.
I’m glad Sam teaches meditation because that is so key 🔑
@@benevolentconcepts I have nothing to say to that rambling statement except my intital point still stands.
Just drove a nail in my knee, can’t seem to think my way out out of how much it fucking hurts🤨
Yeah, I'm not sold on this. Pain can be so bad it makes you pass out. You don't need to worry about future pain in order to find current pain unbearable.
He nailed it. People are walking around, believing the little thoughts, with meaning, that goes on in "their" heads. When it's all just a bunch of sounds.
He’s joe knows this stuff
He knows it don’t matter how much u tell people
It’s too hard for most and they give up
Lost in thought forever
whys your stomach hurt
@@slimdilly_ smoking marijuana developed a stomach disease
Joe is a muscle head and followed none of that
lol
He's trying to relativise suffering. Suffering isnt absolutely relative.
Basically don’t overthink anything because things are going to happen regardless of what you want
Genuine question, how is this not common sense to people? I’m 12 and i knew this my entire life but I can’t explain it to the olds
Oh yeah? Well I’m 4.
I wasn't even conceived yet and I already know this