near death experiences tend to play out in a certain pattern, which is like what I’m claiming about the regularity of meditation experiences
Yes, that’s all I meant. NDE accounts are claimed to be similar to each other by those advocating that they reflect some supernatural reality. I didn’t realize the ambiguity in what I wrote; I meant artifacts as in distortions inherent in the mechanism). I tend to explain any ‘universality of descriptions of subjective experience’ at least partially with ‘there may be something about the way our brains work that causes that’. Since you haven’t claimed meditation is about anything other than thinking/feeling in ordinary ways, I’m not making any other point.
Honesty without limit is ridiculous, of course (unless it really is the predominant terminal value). I was thinking, specifically, of noticing when something would be painful to admit, and then experimenting provisionally with admitting it. Usually it’s a relief.
Honesty without limit is unhelpful, but in many contexts, the value of honesty at the margin tends to be high, which is why I’d say it’s great advice.
Are there times where there is something that would be painful to admit, but you don’t realize until later that it was weighing on you? I wonder whether you would find doing an active search for such things beneficial (in the right social contexts).
Are there times where there is something that would be painful to admit, but you don’t realize until later that it was weighing on you?
Yes, of course. Sometimes I’m too focused to notice in the moment.
Focus (actually trying to perform well at a given task) has its advantages. Maybe it’s possible to train (or cue with some external trick) brief moments of global or introspective thinking, but quickly returning to the flow if adjustment isn’t needed. Probably there’s both a trade-off and a happy medium.
I haven’t tried it much in real time; mostly post-mortem. I guess I could experiment with low-stakes cases (nearly anything with strangers in the city).
Yes, that’s all I meant. NDE accounts are claimed to be similar to each other by those advocating that they reflect some supernatural reality. I didn’t realize the ambiguity in what I wrote; I meant artifacts as in distortions inherent in the mechanism). I tend to explain any ‘universality of descriptions of subjective experience’ at least partially with ‘there may be something about the way our brains work that causes that’. Since you haven’t claimed meditation is about anything other than thinking/feeling in ordinary ways, I’m not making any other point.
Honesty without limit is ridiculous, of course (unless it really is the predominant terminal value). I was thinking, specifically, of noticing when something would be painful to admit, and then experimenting provisionally with admitting it. Usually it’s a relief.
Honesty without limit is unhelpful, but in many contexts, the value of honesty at the margin tends to be high, which is why I’d say it’s great advice.
Are there times where there is something that would be painful to admit, but you don’t realize until later that it was weighing on you? I wonder whether you would find doing an active search for such things beneficial (in the right social contexts).
Yes, of course. Sometimes I’m too focused to notice in the moment.
Focus (actually trying to perform well at a given task) has its advantages. Maybe it’s possible to train (or cue with some external trick) brief moments of global or introspective thinking, but quickly returning to the flow if adjustment isn’t needed. Probably there’s both a trade-off and a happy medium.
I haven’t tried it much in real time; mostly post-mortem. I guess I could experiment with low-stakes cases (nearly anything with strangers in the city).