You are not crazy! For me, I always feel great after getting the stubble off my face. I feel nice n clean!
Shaving and endorphins
- Thread starter clark1109
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I think that's a bit of a cliche.
Meditation has alot of religious and spiritual significance for many people (and I suppose, even me). It is not really a sensual experience or merely about relaxation.
Yeah well... it's good that some people derive a sense of love and forgiveness from Christianity but trying to misrepresent the religious and spiritual practices that hundreds of millions of people take seriously, just to sell people on a fundamentalist version of the religion, shows a lack of true integrity.
And the dualistic worldview that would see mindfulness meditation as evil because it can involve confronting what Jung called the Shadow, just seems to be fundamentally ignorant.
Meditation has alot of religious and spiritual significance for many people (and I suppose, even me). It is not really a sensual experience or merely about relaxation.
Yeah well... it's good that some people derive a sense of love and forgiveness from Christianity but trying to misrepresent the religious and spiritual practices that hundreds of millions of people take seriously, just to sell people on a fundamentalist version of the religion, shows a lack of true integrity.
And the dualistic worldview that would see mindfulness meditation as evil because it can involve confronting what Jung called the Shadow, just seems to be fundamentally ignorant.
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Ignore the religious part, I posted it for the data presented about what negative side effects meditation can have on human mental health. It's unpacked throughout the video, if you can persist further than the intro it's well worth watching it.
I believe those "negatives" are misrepresented for polemical purposes. Very few people that meditate have negative experiences they cannot handle. And in some cases those negative experiences become part of personal growth.
Part of meditation is learning acceptance, and that includes experiences that could be potentially frightening. Returning to our object of meditation or our awareness is what is key.
There's academic research presented. Your broad statement aligns with the pop culture cliche about meditation being always good.
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To be fair, there are titles of academic research papers presented. There aren't any actual papers presented. Academic research usually isn't in-depth enough to prove anything. The studies that were presented were observational. By definition, they can't prove anything except associations.
Meditation is like taking a walk. A person can go to good places or they can go to bad places. Or to coin a trite phrase, "Meditation doesn't kill; people do."
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I doubt newbs who take in meditation know there are bad places to go to. The general Westerner mindset about yoga and meditation is like going to the spa and the gym, not to a religious ritual, exorcism, astral projection and dancing with demons.
If the calmness and quiet is all a person seeks, by all means take an actual walk, or like the OP shave and enjoy. Meditation is not for everyone.
Since Christianity depends on proving the Jews were wrong, I'm not going to discuss Jewish mystical paths with you. As a Christian, you don't have the vessel to understand.
I'm quite familiar with Indian religious teachings used in Jewish mysticism. But this isn't the place for such discussion.
I initially taught myself to meditate and I had no experiences I could not handle, especially as I was studying Buddhist philosophy around the same time period. Later I studied Zen as part of a humanistic Buddhist group founded by Thich Nhat Hanh. In my experience, people that meditate are remarkably sane, whereas I cannot say the same of everybody that reads the Bible.
I assure you at BOSC only thing everyone reads are the soap labels or honing tutorials 24/7. I may be the odd man out.
I'm quite familiar with Indian religious teachings used in Jewish mysticism. But this isn't the place for such discussion.
Chuckles. You miss where the Indian teachings came from. If you knew the history, you'd know they aren't used in Judaism although, on the surface, they look similar. By the way, Hebrew doesn't have a word for religion. Our way is a way of life.
I was referring to Rig Veda vs Torah. I'll have to look up Brahmanism and Kabbalah topics, as I haven't checked in religious apologetics for a while. I love such topics and by the chuckles I see you do too. Feel free to share some food for thought links in PM.
I may have gotten into Jewish mysticism more deeply than you can imagine. I translated this book from Hebrew and Aramaic. As far as I know, it's the only complete translation in the world. To learn it, you would need to learn Hebrew and Aramaic. Then you'd have to practice it.
Amazon.com
www.amazon.com
Neat. I'll check it out.
Many of the prominent entrepreneurs and creative thinkers of the past 70 years have either used psychedelic drugs like LSD or psilocybin, or they have practiced something like Zen or mindfulness training.
Mindfulness gives a person access to inner freedom. The only people who are threatened by that are people that do not want you to have access to that freedom in the first place.
I prefer sobriety and clear thinking. I don't consider Pentagon's psyop propagandists as innovators, spiritual or in any way great. Too much Kool-Aid even for me.
Oh boy, this thread went downhill really quick. What a mess.
Oops 
I wouldn't be surprised if menthol does release endorphins. The experience can be very intense, especially menthol shave cream.
