1 - What is Meditation Flashcards

Question

In Taking the Leap, what 3 qualities does meditation cultivate, and why does the word "natural" precede each of them?

Answer 1

Intelligence. Not meaning doing well on an exam! Meaning, the natural ability to know what we need, what will help and what will not. Warmth. Shared capacity to love, appreciate, have a sense of humorOpenness. A flexibility, spaciousness, curiosity of the mind. Kids minds are like this naturally. Not conditioned yet by the fear of rejection. Why does "natural" precede these three things? Because these are all innate, they are qualities already within us, we must simply access them, slow down and recognize them.

Answer 2

Vii) what is the solution for self-absorption? Slowing down, recognizing itVii) how can we inject a pause into your life? Three deep breaths. Don't need to take an hour everyday to meditate, just simple.

Answer 3

.steadfastness, clear seeing, courage, attention, no big deal.steadfastness, staying with your experience, respecting your current experience no matter what it is, opening to it, allowing yourself to experience it, a willingness.clear seeing, working on developing a nonjudgmental clarity, nonjudgmental being important.courage, to face and sit with your emotions no matter how bad it might be, also a courage to have a less self-centred view of the world.attention, ability to become awake in our lives.no big deal, of your both your triumphs and tribulations,

Answer 4

Look at the brain. First time spiritual experiences can happen at least since the mammalian brain with neocortex.Reptilian brain, basic life and physiological function, no emotionsPre hominid, emotions now, cingulate cortex, etcMammalian, now neocortex, problem solving, inhibit responses, decison makingPotential to meditate has been around for thousands of years

Answer 5

Ethnobotany, scientific study of the traditional knowledge of plants and its medicinal valueHow traditional cultures have used plants, as medicine, for religious experiencesLooks like archaic humans have had a very good knowledge of plantsWhat they could eat, couldn't, what to use for medicine, and which plants had psychoactive substancesLooks like from archaeological digs, these plants were set aside in storage, were special

Answer 6

Indo-Aryan & Indo-Iranians: SomaSoma meaning mind altering plantsHuni-Kui of upper AmazonTake psychoactive plants and go on vision questConsume a plant, has great meaning for them, and focus on psychoactive effects with attentionCould make potions to take to see into the future, or to acquire special kinds of knowledgeFrom drug-induced ecstasy to ecstasy (without drugs)

Answer 7

Hunting: quiet and identificationHad to be stealthy and quiet, had to have patience, had to be focusedMaybe out of that came the necessary skills for meditation?The good hunter can "put himself in the mind" of their prey, identify with their preyRemoving yourself from yourself and acquiring a different perspective

Answer 8

FightingRequires discipline and a focused mind, must be open and aware A precursor to meditation?SexReaching climax, thoughts all melt away, you lose yourself, and lose a sense of separateness, a non-duality

Answer 9

Physical, if you broke a bone thousands of years ago, you were fucked. Long time to heal couldn't do anything. How do you deal with that intense pain? Maybe "remove" yourself from your bodyPeople in near death experiences report similar things, leaving the body, or even ecstasy

Answer 10

00k year ago, domestication of fireWe gathered around the fire because it was warm and safe and nice, felt protected, together all focusing on it, the fire can be hypnotizing, there is a fluidity to it

Answer 11

!Kung San (Kalahari): !kia & n/umUp until recently they lived as if in Stone Age in Africa, like twenty years agoThey had dance practices, a specific one called !kia, a form of ecstasyIt releases n/um, which is a power or energy, which comes form the danceWhen you dive into that, you can experience that ecstasy or !kiaHealers go into this dance to gain knowledge to help otherseDance will often go from dusk till dawn, women will sit around fire singing and slapping thighs, providing rhythm, the men dance around them all night longGradually, people enter into a trance or state, and that's when interesting stuff happensWhat's really interesting, is that we can enter into this without drugs, through this specific methodology they have cultivated over timeThese types of cultures are called... shamanistic: initiation, death, rebirthTo be a shaman, you must symbolically "die" and be reborn, which is associated with feelings of ecstasy

Answer 12

Greece: EleusisPeople in Ancient Greece were supposed to make a pilgrimage to Eleusis at least once in their life, with help of something like LSD, People who didn't have these experiences, were treated like zombiesChristianity put an end to this thoughStill, in some cultures with this type of tradition, people are considered powerless until having gone through this type of journeyMoses did this, went on a vision quest of sorts, was a shaman, talked to inanimate objects, saw god in in them

Answer 13

Yoga, oldest word we know of that refers to meditation, means "to yoke" or to harness your "horse" to a chariot, meaning self-discipline, and means union with divineSomeone who practices yoga is a yoginIndia-Aryans harnessed their horses to battle with chariots, had to have great skill and sophisticated equipment to do this, where the word yoga came fromOriginally, yoga also referred to words like war, conquest, warrior, and skillSo yoga is training a skill, involving harnessing previously uncontrolled forces, being your horse, like mental forces

Answer 14

400 BCE, start to get the word yoga being metaphorically, priests harnessing their minds for sacred thoughts, to better praise godsBefore Indo-Aryan invasion, we find artifacts with pictures of people maybe sitting in lotus position, maybe meaning they practiced meditation, not for sure though

Answer 15

Daoist philosopher from 300 BCE!!Came up with "Basic Writings" which was a document with instructions in how to meditate, to train the untrained mind

1 - What is Meditation Flashcards

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