Book Summary: Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr | Forces of Habit

Posted on April 13, 2018

Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics by Reinhold Niebuhr

The Essence

Theologian and public figure Reinhold Niebuhr refutes social idealism as he refutes the collective’s ability to be governed by ethics. Groups cannot be held to the same standards of moral and social uprightness as individuals. We as individuals can overcome our predispositions towards sin. Yet the tools we use to liberate ourselves are insufficient when dealing with the collective ego of a given group. The collective’s vices cannot be eliminated, they may only be subdued by the brutal nature of other groups seeking to assimilate the larger collective.

Moral Man and Immoral Society Summary Journal Entry

This is my book summary of Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics by Reinhold Niebuhr. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. The Journal write up also includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

“A Sharp distinction must be drawn between moral and social behavior of individuals and groups.”
Reason v. Fanaticism. I took this to describe the relationship between his own Christen realism and the idealistic causes of those in power—the ideal can only go so far.
Humans are better off recognizing the limitations of our imaginations when it comes to the future of a society. We have tons of ideas about how to change society for the better. But society is not governed by the same rules that our human experience would assume it to be and therefore cannot be controlled by similar means as we do for the individual.
“spiritual wickedness in high places”
Economic circumstances ultimately influence, perhaps even determine, the social and ethical outlooks of their members.
Man is a brutal ego driven creature—Niebuhr would probably call this the innate sin of man. Man will justify his needs above others and attempt to take more then what is needed. Therefore what is altruistic is of the highest morality.
As a social power grows, so does its propensity to develop social inequality. “No impartial society determines the rewards. The man of power who control society grant these prerequisites to themselves.”
Our herd tendencies are one of our greatest enemies when prescribing absolute ideals. The power of the group has shown to become a very dangerous asset to leaders whose intention do harm to large sects of people. Niebuhr saw WWII as an example of human nature falling prey to the dynamic power of herding.
Society is the product of our wants and government of our wickedness” -Thomas Pain
We are a bundle of our most preciously held illusions. When redeeming ourselves from egoism. Those who are most effective are able and willing to sacrifice the illusions of the past and substitute them with the more accurately postulated.
What is our most important illusion? “The collective life of mankind can achieve perfect justice.”
Niebuhr knows of one way to increase the purity of social morality. It’s through the efforts of the psychological sciences. Science can aid man in becoming increasingly more aware of his motives as well as what pretenses his true desires.
The human mind is a slave to the passions—emotions rule us. “One is never certain to what degree the fears of the privileged classes of anarchy and revolution are honest fears which may be explained in terms of their imperfect perspective upon social facts; and to what degree they are dishonest attempts to put the advancing classes at a disadvantage.” Those in power may not realize that by way of passion, they have reasoned to strip the opposing classes of dignity. And they choose to justify such actions though seemingly rational fears. Yet can we determine if these are acts of protection or an attempt to eclectically assemble more then what is minimally needed?
No power hold more claim over human associations than that of the modern nation.
“Only history can answer…”. One of my favorite quotes from the book. To me, it represents an admittance to the uncertainty of what is to come. Hindsight is 20/20—or at least our perception of ‘truth’ can be justified
Violence and revolution are not intrinsically immoral. Niebuhr cites two misconceptions as to why someone would believe otherwise:
1. How we categorize violence. The belief that violence is a natural expression of ill-will, and non-violence of good-will. And citing violence as therefore being intrinsically evil and non-violence as intrinsically good.
2. Values that do not match to orthodox are immoral. We uncritically identify the traditionalized instrumental values with intrinsic moral values.
“No society has ever achieved peace without incorporating injustice into its harmony”

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what discussed in Moral Man and Immoral Society

1. Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

2. The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City by Alan Ehrenhalt

3. The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon

Find the book on Amazon: Print

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Reading

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Audiobooks

Posted on April 11, 2018

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Audiobooks

Listen here folks—off to a great start with the audio puns—we need to talk about audiobooks; my concerns can be summed up in one sentence.

Audiobooks are supplementary, not substitutional to reading

Like any other medium we use to acquire information, audiobooks have some caveats that you best consider before pressing play.

But I don’t mean to sound like a book purist, there are numerous benefits to come from audiobooks when done right.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of audiobooks that I have found to be most the valuable. After reading this you’ll sure to be an expert on when to listen and when to read.

Advantage: Audiobooks reinforce or prepare you for reading

Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858) by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Audiobooks are great for strengthening your base knowledge on a given topic. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr pronounced, ideas are never the same when we encounter them again. So when you work with material multiple times over, you increase the chance of gaining value from the work just by having more exposure to the concepts.

For example, let’s say you listen to the audiobook before reading. This can prime you to better understand the text down the road. Personal I have used audiobooks as book prep work for reading books with more complex topics or vocabulary—especially the vocab.

When you are introduced to a book that seems ‘out of your league’, listen to a few chapters, write down words you don’t know, and the general ideas. Your hard work becomes clear when you finally pick up the book. Now you have a list of the words you struggled with ready, and some general themes prepared for if you get lost.

But perhaps you read the book before listening—there’s still huge value here.

Listening to a book can reinforce what you already read. This can be a very useful tool when you are seeking out more ways to engage with an author’s writing.

Before you start listening I recommend you grab a blank piece of paper and write down everything you remember about the book. Then as you listen frequently stop and check your knowledge. You can do this by using a tactic I call Projection Reading.

How Projection reading works is when you think the author is about to explain a concept or anecdote that you are familiar with, immediately stop the audio recording, and explain it to yourself. Resume playing to check how you did. Projection reading works by taking advantage of immediate feedback audiobooks provide—a type of trial and error. It is a simple way to give yourself a gauge on your understanding of a piece of information.

Advantage: Audiobooks tell a good story

You sit in a dark room, eyes closed, listening to the Lord of the Rings spoken by J. R. R. Tolkien himself. Your imagination paints the epic tale vividly, placing you in a state so scenery you begin to question why you aren’t an elf.

Audiobooks are an excellent storytelling device.

You can easily immerse yourself in the land of fiction by using them to paint the setting. By intentionally listening to the story, you can create the mental images to creatively explore your imaginary depiction of the scene.

The fictional simulations you construct are valuable tools for fostering creativity and empathy. Both of which can be used to address real-life circumstances.

I do not take advantage of this enough.

Advantage: Audiobooks are a tool for skill acquisition

Audiobooks are excellent tools for cultivating mental capacities. Just like with projection reading, we can use audiobooks as an instrument for strengthening a specific desired skill set. Let’s take a look at a two.

Reading Speed

To explain the relationship between audiobooks and reading speed let’s think about rubber bands.

Like a rubber band, the pace that we read can be stretched. And depending on how you listen to audiobooks, you may be able to change the speed; this is where we start stretching.

By finding a pace that feels slightly uncomfortable, we can start to stretch our capacities to follow along with the reader. Doing so can move us more quickly through a text without sacrificing clarity—clarity is safeguarded because anytime we are unclear, we slow it down.

We can stretch our reading comprehension by reading as we listen— we will discuss this in depth later this month when we talk about speed reading tactics.

Language

A new language is best supported through continual practice in every way you can. So when you are learning a new language it can be very helpful to listen to the pronunciations from a native speaker.

Becoming accustomed to the subtle ways an accent sounds can train the ear to notice the difference in tonality, allowing you to then surrogate what the native speaker does into your own linguistic pallet—in other words, you copy them.

A Study tiled Imitation Improves Language Comprehension published by Sage had this to say:

“Imitative behavior streamlines social interaction and aids in learning to replicate actions… Post-training measures showed that accent comprehension was most improved for participants who imitated the speaker’s accent.”

Improving your own language capabilities can become a little less stressful with the accessibility of audiobooks. At any free moment, you can immerse yourself in the language you’re studying, while accruing the benefits of potentially imitating the native speaker’s accent.

Disadvantages: (Most) nonfiction audiobooks are not efficient for growth

Not all books are read equally. So when you download Plato’s Republic, don’t expect to casually listen to it while you do the dishes—and if you do, don’t expect to become a professional philosopher from a few dishwashing session on 2x speed.

Certain books are just not transferable to the audio platform. Some concepts need visuals, must be reviewed several times, and aren’t written for spoken words—even if they ought to be. This is why listening to complex titles is almost impossible through audiobooks.

Nonfiction tends to lack the immersive storytelling methods that make for a great fiction audiobook. That does not mean that Malcolm Gladwell or Michael Lewis could not take us on a journey for intellectual pursuits. It’s simply in most cases, nonfiction is best read especially if you’re seeking to develop a deep understanding of the material.

Disadvantages: Audiobooks are less engaging

If reading is a long-term relationship, then audiobooks are speed dating.

One of the reasons people tend to listen to audiobooks over reading is due to convenience. But don’t forget: Audiobooks are supplementary but not substitutional to reading.

But why does a more engaging experience matter anyways?

Being more engaged means we are more likely to reach a state of disfluency. Disfluency occurs when we’re working hard. You put more effort into organizing all the questions, concepts, and examples that are flowing through your head to make sense of what you’re engaging with. And through that, the brain creates stronger connections to make sense of all the information. What was once an unorganized garble of information about the book now becomes a functional model for understanding the text.

When we read our eyes are committed to a cause. With Audiobooks you cannot highlight, take notes in the margins, and conveniently reread a page over and over. So when you plan to listen to a book keep in mind that you are shallowly engaging with the text.

Disadvantages: Audiobooks cognitively reduce reading competence

As the last point foreshadowed, since you engage shallowly with auditory content, you do not gain the same benefit you would if you read the book.

This may seem contrary to popular beliefs, but listening and reading do not provide the same experience to your brain cognitively and therefore, are not synonymous enough to be used interchangeably for intellectual pursuits.

Research conducted by the University of Waterloo titled The way we encounter reading material influences how frequently we mind wander had this to say about the effects of listening to a passage v. reading it in silence.

“Listening to the passage was also associated with the poorest memory performance and the least interest in the material. Finally, within the silent reading and listening encounters we observed negative relations between mind wandering and both memory performance and interest in the material,”

If our minds are constantly wandering from audiobooks, it will be extremely challenging to reach states of disfluency while engaging with the material. As readers for self-improvement, we must be wary of tactics that aren’t as effective at consolidating information that we invest our free time in consuming.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with preferring audiobooks to reading—perhaps it is simply more convenient and that is what matters to you.

But when you choose audiobooks, you must understand that you’re sacrificing your engagement with the material for convenience. Reading’s dominance over audiobooks is not any less significant because of your life situation.

We all have a choice when it comes to how deeply we would like to engage with information, it’s up to you to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of both listening and reading given your circumstances.

If you are looking for ways to start reading more often check out my post on the various ways I use to read more.

Why do you read? And are you reading enough?

If you’re looking for some great books to start reading more, go check out the titles I have reviewed in my 2017 journal. There are tons of books about psychology, philosophy, meditation, and so much more. Go check out the special page I created to share what I’ve learned about living intentionally with you.

Find the Book Summaries page here.

52 in 52 Book Summaries

Book Summary: Iconoclast by Gregory Berns | Forces of Habit

Posted on April 6, 2018

Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently by Gregory Berns

The Essence

An Iconoclast is an innovator. Someone who achieves what the majority saw as unfeasible. Neuroscientist Gregory Berns has isolated the three mental barriers that separate most people from being an iconoclast—perception, fear response, and social intelligence. Iconoclasts have used these neuro advantages to escape conventional thinking, reaching never before seen heights of creativity and nonconformity. But recent findings in neuroscience have allowed us to notice a rate of neural plasticity far greater than ever assumed. Because of this, Bern believes we can train our minds to mirror the iconoclastic. The mindset that sets the few apart is available to all of us, the question is now who is willing to equip themselves with the tools that have best served the radical thinkers of our species.

Iconoclast Summary Journal Entry:

This is my book summary of Iconoclast by Gregory Berns. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. The Journal write up also includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

“Iconoclast | Noun | \ ī-ˈkä-nə-ˌklast \ A person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc. As being based on error or superstition.”
Some examples of Iconoclasts: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Richard Feynman, and Martian Luther King Jr.
“We take for granted that our perceptions of the world are real, but they are really specters of our imagination, nothing more than biological and electrical rumblings that we believe to be real.
The iconoclast’s brain sees things differently than other people’s brains. The literal reality that an Iconoclast perceives daily differs so much that it may yield riskier decision making.
The iconoclastic brain differs in three main functions.
1. Perception: seeing differently than others
2. Fear Response: the ability to tame stress responses
3. Social Intelligence: connecting with others
When we use our imagination we are simulating reality. It is a tool that attempts to see the world differently than the categories we are currently using to perceive it. But for our imagination to be most effective we need novel experiences. Without them, the brain crystalizes the categories it has available thereby limiting its ability to simulate novel thought via imagination.
When we create we are also destroying. Creativity can be thought of as an unorthodox combination of what already exists. So when we create, we are essentially destroying what stood before, and rebuilding with the pieces.
Test with the intention to fail, because with failure we come closer to the truth—this is the beauty of trial and error.
Predictive coding: The brain makes predictions about what it is sensing and alters these predictions when it realizes it has made an error. This realization may not be conscious, nor does the error have to fit into our subjective preferences for how we ought to live.
All fear steam from only 3 things:
1. The unknown; Ambiguity Aversion
2. Failure
3. Looking stupid
“Do not be paralyzed by risk.” Our species is founded on risk. We either take risks or falter as a species. By becoming too risk aversive, you are taking part in the destruction of manmade breakthroughs.
Everett Rogers 5 Attributions to Innovation:
1. Advantage over other ideas.
2. Compatible with current values and norms.
3. Complexity is inversely related to adoption rates—more complex, less adoption.
4. Triable with little cost to the potential users.
5. Visible results; users can judge the idea without even trying it.
"Attention Changes Perception"
Cognitive Reappraisal: Reinterpreting information provided through affect or thought in such a way that its effect becomes diminished. This is our strongest weapon in the war against our passions. Fear, in a way, is only our biological dispositions to react in a specific way. So by reinterpreting the signals, we can remove the power of fear. This does not mean we ought to remove all fear—fear is good, it saves our lives in moments when conscious awareness is not quick enough to act.
“An absence of fear of the future and of veneration for the past. One who fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. What is past is useful only as it suggests ways and means for progress.” - Henry Ford
Fear can be compared to alcohol: while under its influence, your ability to make decisions is impaired. You don’t make long-term decisions drunk, so don’t do it under duress either.
The brain is lazy: time is energy. The brain does not like to work hard, which is why it is constantly rewiring itself to create stronger connections for what works and weaker for what doesn’t. Once comfortably set in its ways, remodeling takes some effort.
Novelty v. Familiarity: this plays on the lazy brain idea. When we are young we're constantly seeking out new ideas, experiences, and so on. But with age, people are said to become ‘set in their ways’ why is that? It’s in part due to how the brain sifts through information during our lives. During youth, the brain is seeking out models that work to strengthen synaptic connections, while as we age, the brain has winded down enough of the noise to settle into a pattern of connections that have worked the longest—the lazy brain in action. Meaning that any incoming novel stimuli during old age make the brain work hard to understand. So rather than approach, experience makes us aversive to creating new channels.
Taking the perspective of the brain, it isn’t what is more familiar is more pleasurable or rewarding; it’s just that the unfamiliar things tend to be those that are alarming or dangerous.
The fear response system in the brain is called the Amygdala. As we become more familiar with something, it inhibits a response that may normally cause the amygdala to stimulate bodily arousal and conscious reasoning.
Repetition Suppression: As we are exposed to specific stimuli over time, our brains learn to respond with less robustness—this is how habit forms. When we intentionally do something every day, whatever excitations that may have been preventing us from engaging in the behavior prior disappear over time.
Beware of herd behavior. As social animals, we tend to see things how others have seen them on the basis that others have seen them—social proof.
A group’s opinion has the ability to alter our perceptions before we are able to become aware that we have been influenced. It is important that we intentionally aim to think differently than the consensus option—especially when we agree with the majority opinion.
The commonplace fits directly into the perceptual model the brain loves; a lazy one. It takes little energy to process perception when its categories are well entrenched into a culture. Taking the perspective of the brain, ideological alignment is the most efficient way to perceive the world because it takes the least amount of energy to discern the categories of the model due to all the incoming data from those around you most frequently—its like planning to build a house but the shingles are already installed.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what discussed in Iconoclast.

1. The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge

2. How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker

3. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

Find the book on Amazon: Print

Check Out More 52 in 52 Challenge Summaries

Reading

How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness by Russ Roberts

The Essence

Russ’ spin on a classic. Taking experts from Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Russ reignites the lesson from a timeless piece which prescribes how to live with respect for others and oneself. How humans morally treat one another is based on the actions each of us takes in our daily lives. We all have a role in developing the culture of the time. How we act forms the bases for the system humanity unconsciously agrees upon. Meaning our moral senses are created through the consensual behavior of the species. We create them, but not in the regular sense of the word—through us they are created. Adam Smith’s economic theories may have been popular, yet with the help of Russ, Smiths work shows us that humans are far more complex than the classical economic models' detail.

How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life Summary Journal Entry:

This is my book summary of How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life by Russ Roberts. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. The Journal write up also includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

“If you want to make good choices you, you have to understand yourself and those around you.”
Impartial Spectator: An imaginary figure whom we converse—in some virtual sense. It is the imaginary little guy on your shoulder who comes when something is astray. He sees the intention of our actions clearer then we can. It is the figure you answer to during moral deliberation; what we consider morally right or wrong.
Iron Law of You: You think more about yourself than you think about another. This does not mean you are not altruistic, it is just describing the self-referential nature of thought. Thought almost obsessively things about the self. And from this subjective state, it can make sense of the world around each of us—thought it would be tough to say that it was a clear picture.
“Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, be to be lovely”.
What Adam Smith means is we all want to be respected; we desire the attention of our peers. Whether it be to appreciate, admire, or cherish, a desire for loveliness means seeking the approval of the public.
Moral sense is relative, depending on where you grow up and how you are raised. Or is it? Moral sense to me is a bit more than this. I believe humans all have a universal predisposition for moral senses. Which exactly that is may be is up to debate, but morality itself is held by all of us. I cannot believe that the frequency of moral sense is up to the environment. We all have been dealt temperaments that vary tremendously and are constructed from a collection of our prior experiences and genes.
Emergent or Spontaneous order: organization out of chaos. It is unintentional creation through a seemingly meaningful arrangement. Through a combination of factors, a force is brought to life and its life is so vibrant that it looks to be governed by a larger system. Examples include language, the economy, internet, and the evolution of our spices. We can learn a lot by accepting the spontaneous nature of many of life’s mysteries. Recently I have been using an emergent model to think about my own brain. It is far too complex to ever put a nail down on what really makes up my last choice in its totality. So instead I can stop seeking some universal order and start looking for more practical models that can help explain the parts.
To get the most of life we ought to make choices wisely.
That means we ought to keep in mind two things.
1. Being aware of how choosing one road closes another
2. Being aware of the impact of my choices on other and more subtle interactions
“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” - George Eliot
We are prone to self-deception. Consider us all drunk, looking for our keys under a lamppost, are key are never found, but not because we aren’t looking, we are only looking where the light is.
“The sea gets deeper as you go further into it.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb: As we learn more, it becomes clearer how much we really do not know. Stop pretending to know everything, it only shows others that you really do not know much or anything. Admit to ignorance, here you’ll find bliss.
Look around you. So many aspects of our lives look orderly but are under no one’s control. They are the result of human action, but not of our conscious design. Together we create the illusion of order through our collective action, but no one solely can plan or intend the resulting outcome.
All of us have an impact, it just so happens that only together do our choices determine the collective outcome. The underlying social fabric that dictates acceptable behavior collectively draws from how you and I choose to interact with our peers.
Adam Smith’s thoughts concerning special circumstances: “When once we begin to give way to such refinements, there is no enormity so gross of which we may not be capable.” If you give a little towards your impulses, you can gradually notice how it cascades. The example I like to think of is the petty thief who starts with small crimes. Over time, what he considers a small crime changes, and as he commits them more and more the petty thief is now a full-blown criminal. Do not justify breaking your small rules, soon what is excusable will be what was formally intolerable.
Propriety: The ability to act and behave while conforming to the expectations of those around you and they, in turn, conform to your expectation. It is acting and requesting action under the guides of your given social fabric. You don't ask too much of others, nor do you behave in a way that would cause others to act out.
To be good:
- Prudence: Taking care of yourself. Wise and judicious care of your health, your money, and your reputation.
- Justice: Not hurting others. Precise, accurate and indispensable.
- Beneficence: Being good to others. Loose, vague, and indeterminate.
Justice is like grammar. While Beneficence is like writing well.
Like grammar not harming others is bound to a set of practical rules to follow. It is easy to not harm others because it is set in stone what is consider harm. Yet doing good is less clear. Just as we can acknowledge good writing when we see it, we can point out acts of beneficence.
“The prudent man always studies seriously and earnestly to understand whatever he professes to understand, and not merely to persuade other people that he understands it; and though his talents may not always be very brilliant, they are always perfectly genuine.” -Adam Smith
Adam Smith on the prudent man: “His conversation is simple and modest, and he is averse to all the quackish arts by which others people so frequently thrust themselves unto public notice and reputation.”
The unexpected beauty of strangers: Spend more time with them.
Strangers affect us differently than those close to us. Because we have no attachments or presumptions of intent, they act as an emotion cool down—they help us regain our emotional equilibrium. Even with good friends, we have systems of thought that claim our interactions. The calmness of a stranger allows us to reflect on how differently we act towards our peers.
Pay attention to the channels you use to pursue loveliness. Wealth, power, and fame may work, but wisdom and goodness work better.
On Sympathy; Adam Smith finds that when it comes to sympathy small joys and great sorrows are what we lean towards. Emotional responses are asymmetric when it comes to joy and sorry. We love joy and are not too fond of sorrow. That explains why it takes a great sorrow, but only a small joy us to resonate.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what discussed in How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life.

1. The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

2. The Road to Character by David Brooks

3. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt

Find the book on Amazon: Print | Audiobook

Meditation

Common Misconceptions About Meditation

Posted on March 28, 2018March 30, 2018

Common Misconceptions About Meditation

Meditation can't be all I talk it up to be.

How could ‘doing nothing’ seemingly be helpful in any realm of our lives?

Please, be a skeptic. I certainly was.

Consistently when I started, I found numerous holes in what I thought meditation actually entailed—when will I be able to float again? But I can say that meditation became nothing like what I thought it was going to be when I started. As meditated more, I stumbled upon experiences no one had ever cared to share, lessons that I have greatly impacted me.

So let’s discuss some of the myths commonly associated with meditation. Here are 6 that I have seen people consider as ‘truths’ of a meditative practice:

It Takes Years Of Meditation To See Any Benefits

You can actually start to see substantial benefits of meditation after only a few consecutive sessions.

In research published in The Scientific Journal on Consciousness and Cognition, participants were found to have shown similar benefits to those commonly associated with long-term meditation practitioners. "Our findings suggest that 4 days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators."

Now of course more substantive benefits are shown in long-term practitioners, but you do not need to compare yourself to monks to notice the impact of a meditative practice after 3 or 4 sessions.

I’d say you even have the potential to accrue the benefits of meditation after your first session.

On the face of it, your first session may seem minor. But that experience is important. Your first session represents the first small win in a chain of potentially thousands of hours of practice. We all have to start somewhere, and the first sit is no exception. So do not stress about when the benefits will arise. When you sit, the benefits are accruing.

Meditation Is Running Away From Your Problems

It's actually the opposite. If you ask me, meditation is more like running head first into a brick wall.

If your goal is to escape from your problems meditation is the last thing I’d recommend. If anything, meditation will bring forward the root of your problems.

Meditation tends to familiarize you with underlying problems you may not yet be aware of; we do this through observation. As we become adept at discerning our feelings from one another, the minute differences between them become clear and what at first seemed synonymous couldn't be any more different. From the clarity, you may find that the magnitude of these problems grows larger, so large it can no longer just be ignored. You become enamored with your feelings, curious what lies beyond and what can be uncovered through more meditation, more insight.

Meditation Is Only For Relaxation

Is meditation focused solely on relaxing? Not really.

This is probably the most common misconception that I have seen amongst meditators.

Let’s think of relaxation as an effect or byproduct of meditation—a happy consequence perhaps. While relaxation is nice and all it, is not the goal. The purpose of meditating lies deeper then entering a relaxed state. The purpose is insight, insight into the true nature of our being; to see reality as it is.

We tend to make life harder than it has to be for ourselves. So instead of viewing meditation as a tool for distressing, see it as the means to relinquish any stress from arising in the first place.

Meditation Is About Being In The Present Moment

Once again I think people are confusing a byproduct of the practice with intention.

Becoming present is more of an effect of a meditative practice rather than the purpose. During meditation, distractions arise. These distractions tend to be thoughts and are created by way of our habitual reaction or innate predispositions. But as you develop your practice, you can start to notice a pattern; everything in your head is either self-referential, about the past or future, or interpersonal—a simulation.

That means the mind is constantly attempting to run reproductions of the past and future to attend to the next decision.

Now is this present? Not at all.

But like habit formation, observing the cues is the first step to changing the habits. So if our default habit pattern of the mind are these things—the not present stuff—it isn’t that mediation is about being in the present, the present just begins to reveal itself more frequently as you claim more control over the thought patterns.

Living more presently becomes our natural state once we stop attaching ourselves to the simulations that we use to create past and future versions of reality.

Meditation Takes Up Too Much Time

Absolutely not true.

Why do you have hygiene habits? Some would say it was so they don't feel nasty or so others wouldn’t judge them harshly.

No matter the reason, you take the precautionary efforts to assist your wellbeing all the time. Well, why should this only be the case with the external? If you are willing to bathe & brush your teeth, you can take a few moments to clean up your mental state as well. Believe it or not, a dirty inside is just as impactful as a dirty outside.

Everyone has time. You are just choosing to prioritize yours differently.

If this warning isn’t enough I challenge you to start writing out what you do with your off time. Are you on social media? Watching Netflix? Try to write out how you spent your time in last few days. I can almost guarantee there will be gaps. And if you can find a gap that is even a minute long, you have time to meditate.

Check out my post on developing a meditation practice one minute at a time.

Small Actions and Meditation: The One Minute Sit

Meditation Will Make Me A Vegetable—I Will Become Emotionless

I want to preface what I have to tell you about the relationship between meditation and emotion with this; it’s what you choose to make it.

As you meditate, you develop a newfound relationship with your emotions. Such a relationship could certainly be used to subdue your feelings and deliberately tune yourself out to things.

But it does not have to be that way. We can use the clarity to deepen our relationships with our emotions.

As you move further along in your practice, you are not becoming a veggie—meditation will once again actually do the opposite. What we are practicing to develop is a form of selective engagement with feelings. That means choosing which of your emotional states are worth engaging with and opting out of reacting towards the ineffective ones.

So it isn’t that we are emotionless, it’s that emotions tend to become clearer after developing a practice, so clear, that we can pick and choose which we react to.

Note that a lot of meditators do not have to worry about full nonattachment from emotions—that is a state that calls for thousands of hours of practice, most of which will take place in a quiet place in solitude. Something tells me you are not looking to become a monk, so you do not need to worry about issues that only pertain to practitioners whose sole purpose is the travel further down the path towards liberation—they are all in.

As a regular meditator, you will move toward liberation, but I just do not think emotionlessness is something to consider unless you yourself are all in.

I hope this post has shared insight into some of the misconceptions I see as becoming more prevalent in the west as meditation begins to catch on. More and more people are starting meditative practices and that means there will be a greater need to dispel misconceptions like these.

52 in 52 Book Summaries

Book Summary: Mindfire by Scott Berkun | Forces of Habit

Posted on March 23, 2018

Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds by Scott Berkun

The Essence

A collection of various tidbits about life. After years of experience as a writer and public influencer, Scott address the questions we ponder in our everyday lives. Mindfire is a collection of Scott’s best digitally published works, made to challenge our conventionally driven minds to start thinking the ‘right’ way. And the right way is to reevaluate how you spend and think about the concepts of time, creativity, and criticism. Become intentional with your time, set limits on yourself to foster creativity, and take all the criticism you can get.

Mindfire Summary Journal Entry:

This is my book summary of Mindfire by Scott Berkun. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. The Journal write up also includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

“Hate is easy.” When we choose to hate something, we are refusing to be compassionate to someone else's cause. Instead of hate, try to change your perspective on an issue. See it from another person viewpoints. You will find the one you disagree with is not so crazy under different guiding premises; this is the better way for understanding someone's cause.
A desire for something has little bearing on the desired outcome occurring. You need to understand that a hope in itself does not yield results. To misplace your beliefs in this way will not lead you to wisdom.
Looking for passion? Just pick something. Do it. And do it wholeheartedly. If you are having trouble keeping your heart in it, do another thing. We must repeat this process until our last day; that is how we continue to live intentionally.
“An idea is a combination of other ideas.” Innovation steams from a mesh of the conventional wisdom of the past.
We always have time. You are not too busy for anything. You simply do not want to allocate the 24 hours you are given to that specific task. “If you can’t do something, it’s not about the quantity of time. It’s really about how important the task is to you.”
You are the only one who can reinforce what matters to you in the entire universe.
Stop confusing popularity with goodness. Popularity is pricey: you accept what is bland, predictable, and meaningless, in exchange for what is interesting surprising and meaningful.
When you confine your mind to a single way of thinking you are harming yourself. Depledge your allegiance to any ideas, and put faith in your ability to learn.
Minimize worrying by:

Understanding some choices really aren’t that deep—they matter less then you value them.
Keep in mind what worrying does. You will not make better decisions just because you have decided to worry about them—in fact, you’ll probably make worse.
Confer with others if need be. A second opinion concerning your worry can be liberating just as long as you are honestly assessing the situation. You will notice how needless the worry is after you explain it to someone.

“A small idea, applied consistently, can have disproportionately large effects.”
Wise people love mistakes and aren’t afraid to share them with others. Most of the best lessons, if not all, stem from learning valuable lessons through mistakes. They will accelerate your progress in any endeavor.
Try the PNP Sandwich: PNP stands for positive negative positive and is used when giving constructive criticism. By starting with something nice, the person you are critiquing will open up to what you are saying. Use the opening as an opportunity to give the bad news. Finish up by saying something positive again. You do not want to break someone’s spirits or cause them to believe you are just complaining, so you say something nice to offset the positive-negative-positive ratio.
Feedback is the key to developing ideas. Without it, we are having a never-ending conversation with our preconceived notions—improvement becomes unattainable.
Be Bold. Boldness gets people’s attention.
Good criticism serves one purpose: it gives the creator of the work more perspective. A newfound perspective then functions as a priceless tool for making the next set of choices.
Misconception: The bigger the idea, the bigger the value.
What tends to actually hold people back from achievement is not these big ideas, but the small things. When we consistently overlook the tiny stuff, we miss out on the compounding effects of the seemingly insignificant.

Learn to appreciate effort. With enough effort, you can always outwork someone better than Always.
STOP READING, START DOING! This is a recent lesson for me. Part of the reason I now write these book summaries is due to my eclectic reading habits. I read and read, but what is the use of constantly taking in more information if I was not going to put it to good use.
Fight for your right to think things over. Do not be pressured to make quick decisions that will impact you in the long term.
Law of lost attention: the value of something you spend attention on is dependent on how much attention you spend on it. Single Task. When you are executing a task or engaging in an activity, be with that and only that. By doing this you give it the attention it deserves. Even the most tedious things can become quite intimate when you give them the entirety of your attention.
If you want to be creative start be changing your assumptions on what it creativity encompasses. “Creativity has more to do with being fearless then intelligent or any other adjective superficially associated with it.”
A sure-fire way to spark creativity is to set constraints. With limits, humans tend to look at whatever they have at their disposal and use it in strange new ways. It is in part due to our natural tendency to adapt.
To learn from our mistakes, we need 3 things

Putting yourself in situations where you can make a range of unique mistakes.
Have the self-confidence to admit to the mistakes.
Being bold enough to make the necessary changes.

Ask more questions. Period. Do not take information at face value no matter the source. Investigate every assumption. Over time, you may come to realize that fact of the matter is still subjective.
It takes hard work to free our minds. “Being free has never been easy, which explains why so few, despite what they say, truly are.” Do you remember the last time you were truly free? Our lives are saturated with categorized systems that rule our minds. Take a step out of the glass box and begin to observe and listen to what reality has to offer.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what discussed in Mindfire.

1. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

2. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

3. Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

Find the book on Amazon: Print

Check Out More 52 in 52 Challenge Summaries

Meditation

Vipassana Meditation: How to Prepare for a Silent Retreat

Posted on March 21, 2018

Vipassana Meditation: How to Prepare for a Silent Retreat

I’d love to say a silent meditation retreat is for everyone. But there are exceptions.

Here’s why:

If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking this doesn’t look relaxing at all; that’s because it's not. A meditation retreats purpose—or at least one in the Vipassana tradition—is not to calm the mind; we are seeking insight and that does not necessarily mean a good time.

When you sign up for a retreat, you come to work. The introspective work done during a meditation retreat is for those who are willing to accept the external and internal challenges that may arise during a stay.

But if you have made it this far I assume you are still interested in taking the challenge or have already signed up.

So let’s talk strategy.

Rather than philosophical or metaphysical, the best ways to prepare for your first meditation retreat are mostly logistical. This may seem counterintuitive, but preparation involves no prior meditative practice or theory.

That’s right. You can attend a retreat with no prior knowledge of the Vipassana technique and you’ll probably be better off than a well-seasoned meditator set in his ways from a different tradition.

So I won’t give you any advice directly related to your meditative practice, but I will caution you of some of the most common concerns people have after having sat a course.

I would recommend you consider these 5 things as you move towards siting your first meditation retreat.

1. Overlook the Rules

First and foremost. If you have done any research you may have noticed the code of discipline;

Read it.

You are requested to read the code as you sign up, after you are accepted, and when you arrive. And if its importance hasn’t been stressed enough, you’ll review it one more time before the course begins.

People who do not take the rules seriously will either harm themselves or someone else. Most if not all of the rules outlined have been tested over thousands of years and function as a system for creating an environment conducive to attaining clarity of mind.

I think I made my point here. Read the code.

You can find a link to the rules here.

2. Sleep Schedule Training

The crack of dawn probably does not do justice to how early you have to wake up on a retreat.

If you’re not an early riser, you may want to consider starting to prepare to wake up very early. As you saw in the timetable above, meditation starts at 4:30 am. So if your bedtime is anywhere close to that, I recommend you prepare for a literal rude awakening.

I have seen many meditators struggle with this. And during you’re retreat I am sure you will notice some empty cushions during the morning meditations.

Here are some ways you can begin to prepare to wake up early enough for a Vipassana retreat.

Start by setting your alarm and placing it across the room. Turn off the snooze option to ensure that you get up out of bed in the morning.

Now after waking up at 4 am, keep the momentum by…

Drinking a glass of water immediately.
Runing a mile.
Doing 25 push-ups.
Taking an ice-cold shower.
Drinking a cup of coffee or tea.

This list is not exhaustive. Its purpose is to give you an idea of the type of things you may want to consider to help you build a habit of waking up early.

For an excellent resource on changing your sleeping habits, check out this article titled “The Most Successful Techniques for Rising Early.”—I think the title speaks for itself; check it out.

3. The Eating Schedule

During a retreat, you are served two vegetarian meals a day and a snack consisting of fruit in the evening. So if you are accustom to eating three or more meals a day and have dire cravings for meat, then a silent meditation retreat may leave you feeling hungry.

The best thing you can do to prepare here is to start eating smaller portions at similar times. If you can habituate your eating habits to mirror that of the timetable above, then you should have little trouble getting used to eating intermittently.

And if you are really having trouble here I recommend you also start cutting out meat and caffeine—both of which will be sparingly available. Personally, I quit drinking coffee a week prior to my retreat to remove the chance of a withdraw symptoms harming me.

4. Posture Preparation

Beginner meditators tend to have issues finding a seated position they feel comfortable sitting in. Unless you work at a desk job, you probably aren’t aware of how tasking sitting in the same position for hours upon end actually is.

So prior to your retreat go take a look at the various types of seated positions in advance. This will give you time to experiment and find one that works for you.

It really does not matter what position you start with. Just try to sit in that position as much as possible to get through the initial body aches early. And if you find that the position you have chosen is too painful, try another.

You can find more information on the types of meditation postures here.

5. But most importantly, take it easy on yourself

It’s your first time, and as a new student, you ought to understand from the start that the practice is challenging. And no amount of beating yourself up for having a difficult time will change that—this was the lesson I needed the most during my first retreat.

Whether you keep waking up late for meditation, are having leg cramps, or just plain old hungry having some compassion for any given state you are experiencing can take the edge off.

Keep in mind that ultimately the precautions above are mentioned because these are common experiences. So instead of beating yourself up with doubt or any negative self-talk, get excited. You are experiencing something so common—so human—that many before you and many to come will also undergo similar suffering; you aren’t the first, nor will you be the last.

Accept that and I can almost guarantee you will learn something during the course of your silent meditation retreat.

For more information on the importance of mindset, see my article on the 5 meditation mindsets that are imperative to a developing practice.

Please do not take what I say lightly. A silent meditation retreat will be one of the most demanding trials of your life. So prepare yourself.

For more information on Vipassana check out the official website or my post detailing my first silent retreat below.

Vipassana Meditation: What Ten days of Silence Can Do

Official Vipassana Website

You all know that I meditate every day. But have you seen the other habits?

I have spent years tirelessly hunting for the best daily habits to incorporate into my life. Meditation is one of them. But that’s only one. Check out the other four in a copy of the Top 5 Habits I Do Every Day—for free of course.

52 in 52 Book Summaries

Book Summary: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Forces of Habit

Posted on March 16, 2018March 16, 2018

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Essence

Using his experience as a day-trader and qualitative analyst, Nassim Taleb urges us to stop using the observable past as an indicator of the future. Humanity as a species have used data about the past to justify the narratives of the up and coming; this is inherently flawed and seeded in our predisposition for the sensational. Taleb pinpoints a variety of cases, showing that nothing we know or understand about the world at that time of a rare occurrence could have indicated nor predicted such an event; these are the Black Swans. By observing the nature of highly unpredictable events, we can come to appreciate a newfound caution in our application of systems and models of the world used to predict the future.

The Black Swan Summary Journal Entry:

This is my book summary of The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. The Journal write up also includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

“Humans are great at self-delusion.”
A Black Swan is:
1. An outlier; Rarity.
2. Carries an extreme impact.
3. Retrospective Predictability.
“Making a naïve observation of the past as something definitive or representative of the future is the one and only cause of our inability to understand the Black Swan.”
We tend to learn the precise, not the general. This stems from our excessive focus on what we know for ‘certain’. Yet nothing is truly ever known for certain.
Platonicity: “The desire to cut reality into crisp shapes.” Our tendency to mistake the map for the territory. We tend to focus more on what is clearly defined and allow it to blend into on conceptions for various generalizations. For example, how we use utopias, nationalities, and even abstract notions of shapes to dictate how we then come to conclusions about reality.
Triplet of Opacity: The human mind has become diluted by three notions. Due to how humanity has operated with history our judgment is clouded by:
A) the illusion of understanding
the world is far too complex for anyone to understand what is actually going on. We have ignored this. We think we know what is going on when in reality we cannot ever understand what is happening.
B) the retrospective distortion
Our propensity to use hindsight bias to explain phenomena. We believe things can be accessed "as if they were in a rearview mirror."
C) the overvaluation of factual information and the handicap of authoritative and learned people
Using Platonicity. Our categories for generalizing are shrewd, and inept at predicting future outcomes. The learned people use the categories they create to justify actions to the public, as though through the models they are granted foresight.
We as humans are categorizing machines. It becomes pathological however if the categories created are thought of as being absolute—as we tend to make them. By accepting a category as law, it removes the cynicism surrounding it. And without space left open for new interpretations, we strip the category of its true complexity.
“Uncertainty is our discipline, and that understanding how to act under conditions of incomplete information is the highest and most urgent human pursuit” -Karl Popper
“In a primitive environment, the relevant is the sensational.” Yet, in our current environment, “the relevant is often boring, nonsensational.”
Platonic Fold: The place where the platonic representation enters into contact with the reality and you can see the side effects of the models. It’s the place where you notice your models aren’t making total sense.
We Don’t Learn that We Don’t Learn.
Mediocristan: Dominated by the mediocre with few extreme successes or failures. No single observation can meaningfully affect the aggregate. “when your sample is large no single instance will significantly change to aggregate or total.”
The bell curve is grounded in Mediocristan. Examples include physical matters like height and weight.
Extremistan: Where the total can be conceivably impacted by a single observation. “Inequalities are such that one single observation can disproportionately impact the aggregate, or the total.”
Almost all social matters reside in Extremistan. Examples include social matters like wealth and academic publication.
Bleed>Blow up: When we “bleed” we lose over time, for a long time, gradually taking little loses that yield a disproportionately large gain due to the risk tolerance on the investment.
When working with uncertainty. Experimentation will yield sounder results then storytelling.
No matter how brilliant the model, abstract statistical information has little weight to us relieve to an anecdote.
Ludic Fallacy: The manifestation of the Platonic fallacy within the study of uncertainty. When we attempt an analysis of chance based on the narrow world of games and dice, we are committing the ludic fallacy. Platonic randomness has an additional layer of uncertainty concerning the rules of the game in real life. Said differently, the attributes of the uncertainty we face in real life have little connection to the sterilized ones we encounter in exams and games—like the methods we are taught in the classroom.
Those who study vigorously in school have a tendency to become fools to the ludic fallacy.
Domain Specificity: The reaction, mode of thinking, or intuition, depends on the context in which the matter is presented, what evolutionary psychologist call the “domain” of the object or the event. We process information using not only logic—if any logic at all—but the environmental framework that surrounds colors the information. So how we approach a problem in one domain may not mirror another.

Taleb is prolific. And with so much material, his terms can easily be misconstrued. Check out this brief video of Nassim Nicholas Taleb explaining what a Black Swan is. I also encourage you to check out his other publications for further clarification regarding his ideological footing in all matters concerning uncertainty.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what discussed in The Black Swan.

1. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip E. Tetlock, & Dan Gardner

2. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

3. Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller

Find the book on Amazon: Print | Audiobook

Check Out More 52 in 52 Challenge Summaries

Meditation

Vipassana Meditation: What Ten days of Silence Can Do

Posted on March 14, 2018

We are worrisome people.

We worry about what we will eat tomorrow, where we will sleep, what she thinks of me, will I be accepted, can I be loved?

Now imagine a place where you can learn the answers to these questions and many more without having to utter a single word. Were you are fed, and sheltered. A place of no words, only love and compassion; welcome to the Dharma teachings.

I’d like to share an account of my first silent meditation retreat. From nonverbal wars over bananas to the weariness of just being alone with myself, A silent meditation retreat taught me that meditation could be something more than just a tool used to de-stress. It taught me that through meditation I can begin to understand how I think about myself, and how to maneuver the world I reside in.

To Start I think it is best if we talk about what Vipassana even is. What does it mean? What do we use it for?

What's Vipassana?

"Vipassana is… a process of self-discovery, a participatory investigation in which you observe your own experiences while participating in them as they occur.”

-Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Vipassana or insight meditation is one of the oldest techniques of meditation taught by the Buddha which focuses on developing our capacities for mindfulness and concentration to reach profound levels of insight into the internal workings of ourselves.

The foundation of Vipassana is taught with little spiritual underpinning, meaning that anyone of any secular decent can learn and use the technique; you don’t have to be a Buddhist.

As I said Vipassana is sometimes called insight or liberation, but what are we really achieving here? What is this insight we are seeking?

It is an insight into ourselves. Insight into our minds and

There’s an Ancient Pali narration that explains what I mean. It goes something like this:

Meditation is likened to taming a wild elephant. The method for taming an elephant in ancient times involved tying a freshly caught wild elephant to a post with the strongest rope you had available. The elephant would shriek and trample with all its might for days on end. Until one day, the elephant accepts its fate and clams itself.

With the elephant is clam, tamers would begin tending to him. They would feed and wash the elephant, gradually developing a relationship, but still on guard against to wrath that could arise at any moment.

In due course tamer would dispense rope, giving the elephant space to roam free; the elephant has now become accustom new life to leave. Now the tamers were free to teach the elephant various tasks, tasks that would be very useful and couldn’t be done without the abilities of the elephant.

This story is an analogy for Vipassana and meditation generally for that matter. Our minds are the elephants, the tamers are Vipassana, and tools used to tame the elephant are synonymous with a meditation practice.

So to answer our question about how to use Vipassana, we use it to train our minds. With a trained mind we can begin to observe the world less judgmentally and reactionary. We stop creating a world to view and start to just observe the world as it is; for lack of a better term, we can stop and finally smell the roses.

All of this and more has come to me all thanks to a few days sitting in silence. But that isn't the entirety of the story.

My experience at my first 10-day Silent retreat

I had just graduated undergraduate and had been seeking for a powerful experience that would challenge me. I pondered the idea of going abroad, getting lost traveling America, or even just going into the wood and only coming back when 'I knew'—whatever that means.

So got to googling. I discovered that there was a meditation center only three hours from me that ran ten-day retreats. Ten days initially sounded like a lot of time, but I didn't have plans anyway, so it didn’t make much of a difference.

When I started to fill out my application I did so with the intention to do it with a friend as a support method for the daunting experience that I had assumed was to come. But when I completed my application and as accepted before my friend even applied, I took it as a sign that this would be a solo campaign.

I arrived on day zero and was asked to sign a slew of forms asking me mental health questions. I choose not to talk to anyone directly, as a way to get used to the not talking thing. I did end up ease dropping. I overheard people talk about silent retreats of the past and the great horrors they had personally experienced. All of which just expatriated my own fears about what was to come in the up and coming days.

Days 1, 2, & 3: Just Breath.

I barely slept the first day due to excitement for what is to come. I could only imagine what my first formal teaching in meditation would entail. But how could I be surprised that the first few days would only be breathing exercises whose goal was to develop focus and concentration on a single object; in this case, the object was the breath. So over the next few days, we only practiced breathing. But something strange began to happen, I began to feel really alone and extremely bored. I began creating narratives for all the other students. I made up past afflictions, their hopes and dreams all in my head. I made enemies and friends without having ever said a word—more on this later.

Day 4, 5, & 6: My Mind Reaches Critical Mass.

The day felt similar to the day prior except that this time at night, in my dreams I had lucid experiences that spoke to me. The messages my dreams brought where terrifying to keep it short. The message was I was only a puppet and the mysterious force up top—whatever that is—would ruin me. I spoke to the assistant teacher about how I was feeling, and he told me this:

The mind is really good at playing tricks, next time just observe the sensations on your hands and feet, do this and let me know what happens.

The dreams happened again the next night. So in my frantic state, I go ahead and give his advice and try. Now I am simplifying, but low and behold, the feeling of fear passed. This battle went on for several hours, back and forth between the feelings of fear in my mind about and a more objective observation of my body. Like the night before, I didn't sleep much, but this time I had learned a lesson, one that changed my perspective on feelings. I came to see that feelings can be overridden if you accept them fully, but do not engage. This was the first great lesson of my retreat.

Days 7, 8, & 9: The Great Banana War

Most of my last days on the retreat were very similar and I cannot recall any distinct differences. But I can remember one particular incident that bled into the last few days and taught me the most valuable lesson of the retreat.

It all stems from a strange source; Bananas

Each day when I entered the dining hall for food I noticed that, like clockwork, the bananas would be one of the first snacks that everyone would grab. So quickly that someday I wouldn't get the chance to grab have one for myself; I had enough-especially since I could point out several students who were notorious for taking multiple bananas.

Here I was about to sit in my regular seat in the dining hall about to dig into a mesh of yogurt and bananas—I spitefully took two bananas today—and it hit me. How could I know anything about anyone in this room? I am making judgments on their character from what? Only from my own thoughts. The whole banana fiasco is just an ongoing conversation with myself trying to convince me to be irritated or annoyed for a made-up reason. I was trying to justify anger and selfishness to myself. And I finally caught myself in the act; a breakthrough in the making. I learned a lesson in prejudgmentive thinking and my predisposal personal predisposal to selfishness. Crazy as it seems, bananas helped teach me one of the most valuable lessons of my meditative practice; you are not your reactions, nor do you have to feel bad about the reactions that come to mind.

Day 10: Noble Chatter Begins

We are taught the technique called Metta or love and kindness meditation. Love and kindness meditation tend to be undermined because of how ‘fluffy’ it can seem compared to the other techniques we learned. At this point in time, I had not learned much about it. But is worth mentioning that I did experience the pleasurable feelings Metta meditation is supposed to bring. But I attribute these sensations to my excitement to talk again. Day ten we were allowed to talk with all the fellow students sitting the silent meditation retreat. I connected with a group of guys around my age and we hit it off—they had also banana-based epiphanies—talking for hours into the night and leaving no room for sleep.

I still do keep in touch with that group of guys. It is strange to think I made life-long friends with people I spoke with for less than 24 hours with one another. The next morning, we cleaned the center, exchanged our contact information, and said our goodbyes.

What I learned

I would not change a thing about what happened during those ten days. Here are the main takeaways from my first silent meditation retreat.

Silent retreats are imperative

If you have a deep interest in developing a meditation practice, sitting a silent retreat is imperative. The world is very noisy, and it would be difficult to create a similar environment surround by the love and support of the dharma. Whether you attend to bolster your practice or re-center yourself, a meditation retreat provides the environment to work with as little interruptions as possible to reach deep meditative states. I now plan on sitting at least one ten-day silent meditation retreat every year.

Thoughts are constant

My mind just wouldn't shut-up. Each day as I started to have less recent memories for my mind to grab on to, I became more aware of how my mind wants to add its two cents to everything. It became almost debilitating to listen to myself go on and on about nothing! Thoughts became just a garble of excess sense-making.

I Don’t Have to Be My Feelings or Thoughts

I had been struggling with a series of nightmares for over two years. Learning Vipassana taught me how to live with the ongoing narrative of my life. I used to be scared, terrified even of what a night of sleep had in store for me. Now I have the tools to accept whatever gifts my mind has to offer me, especially in the form of dreams. By observing how my body feels after traumatic memory, paying attention to ebb and flow of bodily reactions, I learned what the events are and not what I was making them out to be.

Consider Learning Vipassana

I will be writing more about Vipassana in the up and coming weeks. But if you’re sold already, I’d encourage you to check out the Vipassana website. Through the love and kindness of others, a network of centers all over the world is able to offer millions of people an introduction to the art of living at no cost to the students.

A silent meditation retreat is a challenging and well-deserved feeling of accomplishment for anyone who can endure it. You will learn something about yourself, and if not, you now have the tools to do so.

Perhaps you’re looking for a smaller place to start? Check out my post on developing a meditation practice through small wins.

Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics by Reinhold Niebuhr

Check Out More 52 in 52 Challenge Summaries

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Audiobooks

Advantage: Audiobooks reinforce or prepare you for reading

Advantage: Audiobooks tell a good story

Advantage: Audiobooks are a tool for skill acquisition

Reading Speed

Language

Disadvantages: (Most) nonfiction audiobooks are not efficient for growth

Disadvantages: Audiobooks are less engaging

Disadvantages: Audiobooks cognitively reduce reading competence

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It Takes Years Of Meditation To See Any Benefits

Meditation Is Running Away From Your Problems

Meditation Is Only For Relaxation

Meditation Is About Being In The Present Moment

Meditation Takes Up Too Much Time

Meditation Will Make Me A Vegetable—I Will Become Emotionless

More Posts on Meditation

Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds by Scott Berkun

The Essence

Mindfire Summary Journal Entry:

Reading Recommendations

Vipassana Meditation: How to Prepare for a Silent Retreat

1. Overlook the Rules

2. Sleep Schedule Training

3. The Eating Schedule

4. Posture Preparation

5. But most importantly, take it easy on yourself

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Essence

The Black Swan Summary Journal Entry:

Reading Recommendations

What's Vipassana?

My experience at my first 10-day Silent retreat

Days 1, 2, & 3: Just Breath.

Day 4, 5, & 6: My Mind Reaches Critical Mass.

Days 7, 8, & 9: The Great Banana War

Day 10: Noble Chatter Begins

What I learned

Silent retreats are imperative

Thoughts are constant

I Don’t Have to Be My Feelings or Thoughts

Consider Learning Vipassana