A quick tip on meditating

Positivity of the kind used in meditation and perhaps Indian philosophy¹ is not just a pragmatic psychology but is grounded in a very powerful ontological position. I will briefly describe that position before sharing a tip on meditating.

That position, nearly espoused by Hegel, and at times by Spinoza, is that only positive assertions can be true. More precisely “some things exist,” or “some sentences are true.” That is, more or less, a solution to the problem of nonexistence–for the most part, a problem that arises when we wonder what nonexistence is, what it is “not to be,” what existed before the universe if anything, or even theories of ontological change–i.e., how one thing becomes another or otherwise develops.

Says Hegel, the only thing that can be said of being is that “it is;” anything else involves negating. Hegel does continue by negating things in his triadic logic but he does so with the great caveat that no assertion beyond “it is,” “being exists,” “to be is to be,” or semantic equivalents, is really true. So, although his triadic logic might make sense to us, it’s not really true (which is not a bad strategy inasmuch as it leaves him on equal epistemic footing with the rest of us, since we do claim to hold truths beyond “it is”). Says Spinoza, and I’m paraphrasing quite liberally here: God exists, nothing else does, and the only true sentences are those which predicate information of God. But to say that something is not Godly or does not belong to God, e.g., as a property or characteristic, is not to predicate any information of God but, rather, to predicate it of something else. Since nothing else exists, such predications, or sentences including it, are false. Thus, any time we say anything true, it must be a positive assertion. And it must be about God–however, Spinoza defines God technically; to paraphrase again, God would be the singular origin of everything that is, could be, and will be. Leibniz, who independently created calculus at around the same time as Isaac Newton, espoused a nearly identical view. (I think that I will have to add a caveat to my manifesti; while I may not always mention this, most philosophical positions I’ve ever come across, no matter who is saying what about what, were espoused by one or another ancient Greek philosopher, be he one of the three most famous, their interlocutors, or the preceding “pre-socratics.” This is also true of the ontology herein.)

I want to share a tip for meditating with y’all so I will cut the ontological talk short for now. Furthermore, the language to discuss the above thoroughly is very confusing; we’ve designed and sculpted our language to express negative assertions and barely work without them. Speaking only in positive assertions would require a philosophical revolution so radical that we’ve never seen anything like it since perhaps the birth and evolution of language itself; other than that, perhaps including it, I don’t think we’ve ever seen such a radical change in mindset.

The tip is, when meditating, focus on something. Focus only on that thing. “Should I avoid focusing on other things? Should I not think about my troubles, etc.?” My response would be simply, “focus only on the object you’ve chosen. That object should be present. Ideally, you can feel the object and it is part of your anatomy. Focus on the feeling of it; perhaps it is your toe, perhaps it is your belly. Focus on that and count your breaths as you do. Every time you think about something that is not the feeling of that object, focus on that object and start the count over. Try to make it to five. Unless you are extraordinary, this should be very difficult. For me, it took a few weeks to be able to count to 20 this way. This is a good place to be, being able to count to 10-20 while focusing on the feeling.” Now, I said anatomy. I think this is the easiest kind of object to focus on. But some might be able to place an object before them, like a rock or idol, and feel it in a way, or at least feel like they feel it or believe they feel it. And this is not a bad strategy either–as long as it is only the feeling of that object that the meditator focuses on.

I focus on the feeling of breath entering and exiting my nose. To me, this is mostly the feeling of the brush of the air. However, if you are having a hard time finding that feeling, try to feel the light coldness as air enters the nose, and light warmth as it exits.

There you have it; that is really all there is to it.

1. My view of Indian philosophy is fledgling; what I know of it as of the publishing of this post, I’ve gleaned from William L. Reese’s Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion. When I refer to Indian philosophies, I do not mean to ascribe views to anybody nor pretend to know about a culture, just to refer the reader to a general area of philosophical literature that might offer more information on the views I’m discussing.