Not all professions have this issue. Math is still math.
It was my impression that mathematicians mainly discuss math and not the skill of doing math. I witnessed explicit discussion of how to do math in neither school nor university. I haven’t had any discussion about what it means to build skill as a biologist either (I studied bioinformatics).
On the other hand, I have plenty of exposure to strength training and the plenty of gyms even buy expensive body weight scales to help their students to measure their body fat percentage better.
Magicians aren’t a community that likes to publicly discuss technique, they have a lot of taboo against that.
Meditation is a subject that’s a lot more complicated. There’s always the concern that too much intention to get better in a way that a person already knows leads the person away from being open for the change that they need to progress. John Yates who wrote maybe the best book that’s currently out there (The Mind Illuminated) that sees meditation as a skill with a clear progression tree recently lost his position as a teacher because he didn’t pass the minimum skill requirements for the role after four decades of hardcore meditation practice (upholding the five lay precepts). While I don’t necessarily find the argument against explicit meditation training conclusive, I think there are good arguments on both sides.
I meant that math is still math at the academic research level. Math has lots of problems at the primary school level. In my experience as a mathematics major, it’s barely possible to discuss advanced math without a basic foundation in the intermediate stuff.
You make a good point about strength training. I wish I had gyms like yours in my neighborhood.
While magicians tend to avoid discussing technique with the public, the opposite is true within the magical community. Magicians love showing off technique to each other behind closed doors. The best of us are practically fetishists for it. We’re open to accepting earnest newcomers into our community and once inside all the important doors are unlocked.
The Mind Illuminated absolutely goes against this trend and I like the online community surrounding the book. In my personal offline experience talking to people in meatspace, The Mind Illuminated’s systematic approach is not representative of the majority of Western meditative practice. However, meditation is inherently a private affair so I am highly uncertain how representative my sample is.
Meditation is indeed additionally muddled by the fact that at after trying really hard to achieve results you have to let go of your intention to achieve results. I do not intend to misconstrue this particular phenomenon as evidence for a taboo against technique.
It was my impression that mathematicians mainly discuss math and not the skill of doing math. I witnessed explicit discussion of how to do math in neither school nor university. I haven’t had any discussion about what it means to build skill as a biologist either (I studied bioinformatics).
On the other hand, I have plenty of exposure to strength training and the plenty of gyms even buy expensive body weight scales to help their students to measure their body fat percentage better.
Magicians aren’t a community that likes to publicly discuss technique, they have a lot of taboo against that.
Meditation is a subject that’s a lot more complicated. There’s always the concern that too much intention to get better in a way that a person already knows leads the person away from being open for the change that they need to progress. John Yates who wrote maybe the best book that’s currently out there (The Mind Illuminated) that sees meditation as a skill with a clear progression tree recently lost his position as a teacher because he didn’t pass the minimum skill requirements for the role after four decades of hardcore meditation practice (upholding the five lay precepts). While I don’t necessarily find the argument against explicit meditation training conclusive, I think there are good arguments on both sides.
I meant that math is still math at the academic research level. Math has lots of problems at the primary school level. In my experience as a mathematics major, it’s barely possible to discuss advanced math without a basic foundation in the intermediate stuff.
You make a good point about strength training. I wish I had gyms like yours in my neighborhood.
While magicians tend to avoid discussing technique with the public, the opposite is true within the magical community. Magicians love showing off technique to each other behind closed doors. The best of us are practically fetishists for it. We’re open to accepting earnest newcomers into our community and once inside all the important doors are unlocked.
The Mind Illuminated absolutely goes against this trend and I like the online community surrounding the book. In my personal offline experience talking to people in meatspace, The Mind Illuminated’s systematic approach is not representative of the majority of Western meditative practice. However, meditation is inherently a private affair so I am highly uncertain how representative my sample is.
Meditation is indeed additionally muddled by the fact that at after trying really hard to achieve results you have to let go of your intention to achieve results. I do not intend to misconstrue this particular phenomenon as evidence for a taboo against technique.