Who is interested in a Less Wrong Meditation Day? Will_Newsome originally proposed this possibility:
I was thinking about scheduling a Less Wrong Meditation Day, in a week or two after people get a chance to read up, where we choose a Saturday and everyone meditates for 6 hours, all starting at roughly the same time. You put social pressure on yourself by committing to report back with your experiences, and this way you can try out extended meditation without having to go through with the scary 10 day retreat. Lots of people won’t be able to find time in their schedule, but I think a few people might, and if there are enough people then it could be good. I’m really interested in seeing the variance of experiences.
I’m curious about how fast Less Wrongers can progress in comparison to the general population. People can also use this opportunity to identify problems with their practice, which we can work together to solve.
I’ll put my money down. If LWers try the six hour meditation, they will turn out to progress about as fast as the general population, allowing for backgrounds in martial arts or any other meditationish practice.
I don’t have any strong opinions about whether anyone will try it. I’m dubious about the value of starting with such a long session, but this is just based on an impression that meditation practice is normally started more gradually.
Wondering how one is doing compared to other people is an added challenge which probably isn’t going to help.
I would be interested in participating in one of these but not that soon—I’m up to half an hour right now and am not sure I’m prepared to commit to a six hour sitting. But I’d be up for one that was scheduled for a bit further out, after I’ve had time to get into a routine and practice longer sittings.
I’m up to half an hour right now and am not sure I’m prepared to commit to a six hour sitting.
I’m not sure if Will_Newsome meant this, but I imagined it would be six hours for the whole day and not a six hour sitting. The six hours could be broken up in one or two hour blocks. Sittings any longer than that might well be physically harmful.
Ah! I was also reading it as 6 hours at once. I think I would be interested in this.
For myself, have been trying to meditate every day since Monday. No progress so far except that while meditating I find it much easier to notice the effect specific thoughts are having on my emotions and finding it relatively easy to stop thinking about them by focussing on breath every time I notice an emotional reaction.
Who is interested in a Less Wrong Meditation Day? Will_Newsome originally proposed this possibility:
I’m curious about how fast Less Wrongers can progress in comparison to the general population. People can also use this opportunity to identify problems with their practice, which we can work together to solve.
I’ll put my money down. If LWers try the six hour meditation, they will turn out to progress about as fast as the general population, allowing for backgrounds in martial arts or any other meditationish practice.
I don’t have any strong opinions about whether anyone will try it. I’m dubious about the value of starting with such a long session, but this is just based on an impression that meditation practice is normally started more gradually.
Wondering how one is doing compared to other people is an added challenge which probably isn’t going to help.
I would be part of this experiment.
I would be interested in participating in one of these but not that soon—I’m up to half an hour right now and am not sure I’m prepared to commit to a six hour sitting. But I’d be up for one that was scheduled for a bit further out, after I’ve had time to get into a routine and practice longer sittings.
I’m not sure if Will_Newsome meant this, but I imagined it would be six hours for the whole day and not a six hour sitting. The six hours could be broken up in one or two hour blocks. Sittings any longer than that might well be physically harmful.
Ah! I was also reading it as 6 hours at once. I think I would be interested in this.
For myself, have been trying to meditate every day since Monday. No progress so far except that while meditating I find it much easier to notice the effect specific thoughts are having on my emotions and finding it relatively easy to stop thinking about them by focussing on breath every time I notice an emotional reaction.
Good point. I still don’t think I’m there yet, but certainly sooner. :)