CurtisSerVaas comments on Personal Notes On Productivity (A categorization of various resources) - Less Wrong

5 Post author: CurtisSerVaas 25 March 2015 01:35AM

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Comment author: CurtisSerVaas 24 March 2015 01:45:16PM *  0 points [-]

That's from the short-book "Progressive Stages of Mindfulness in Plain English". Specifically, it's from the section on stage1, where the goal is to develop a habit of meditating. This is the section of the book in which the author has the least original insight. The rest of the book lays out a detailed granularization of how to develop the skill of concentration.

In general, I think this advice doesn't seem to contradict advice the advice on how to deliberately practice any skill.

I would expect that most people do something that hinders meditation if you speak to them about focusing their efforts on some goal.

Why is that? How are you supposed to get better at concentration meditation unless you really want to? The goals he's talking about are things like "focus for 5 minutes without letting my mind wander once."

Comment author: ChristianKl 24 March 2015 02:37:36PM 1 point [-]

"Letting go" is something that can't be forced.

Why is that? How are you supposed to get better at concentration meditation unless you really want to?

I have not said something about "really wanting to" being bad. The problem is attachment. If you have once a really great experience meditating and then get attached to the idea of recreating that experience you usually don't get anywhere.

Comment author: CurtisSerVaas 24 March 2015 04:59:48PM 0 points [-]

"Letting go" is something that can't be forced.

IIRC, the author doesn't use the phrase "letting go" anywhere in the book. He operationalizes all the terms/skills/states he talks about like differentiating between continuity of attention and sharpness of attention. I think the goal's he's talking about are very specific/operationalized.

I have not said something about "really wanting to" being bad.

My bad. That was a bit of a straw man on my part.

The problem is attachment. If you have once a really great experience meditating and then get attached to the idea of recreating that experience you usually don't get anywhere.

The author addresses that specific concern:

A warning is inorder here. It is very important not to sacrifice the development offull-minded awareness for sake of rapid progress in concentration. Todo so will lead to the development of concentration with dullness.This will produce very pleasurable meditative states that are dead-ends in themselves, leaving the meditator without the capacity for full-minded awareness necessary for completing the 10 stages of this method.

Overall, I think the first section of the book is skippable. You can use what's useful to you and leave the rest.

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