Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Towards a Secular Om?

Meditation has been dominated by mysticism from the start but shorn of its mystical accretions it is a useful secular tool to centre and relax the mind  to facilitate deeper levels of intellectual accuity and there is no reason why it should be exclusively the preserve and domain of mystics and anti life gnostics of spiritual babble. The mind is a complex tool and is subject to distortions abberrations and psychological malfunction and meditation can asssist in countering some of its more errant tendencies,focusing the conscious mind and facilitating greater efficacy in thought and deed and as a very effective assist in memory improvement.

Self awareness is invaluable to understanding personal motivation and the tendency of evasion that human beings are prone to. Too often it is tempting  to focus exclusively on what is wrong out there,in the world of culture and politics, to fixate on the failings of others and institutions to the exclusion of self examination -so much harder to apply the same rigour and analysis to personal flaws. This could explain the popularity of so called social media and blogs - how much more pleasant,satisfying and enjoyable -not to say addictive - is it to be permanently examining the mote in other's eyes rather than one's own! But without such self examination there can be no growth improvement and flourishing and deeper understanding of philosophy and personal motivation and in the absence of such, railings at the world and culture alone will serve us nought.

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