A friend sent me this link recently and said the following:
"I watched this great video of a ted talk with Chad the other day, and I said to him, wow! Now we just need to figure out how to induce that sort of experience without the stroke part. He was like yeah, that's the basic concept of transcendental meditation and samati experiences and all that. And I think I finally got why you do silence retreats - but I mean really got it. I would probably be utterly bored, I'm very ADD, I like to find more engaging ways to turn off left brain chatter, but I understand the motivation much better than I did. It's a very direct path - silence through silence."
I responded thus:
Yeah, that's it, that's why I meditate, practicing the right brain experience of oneness and compassion. It brings such peace within myself. It is on some level a purely selfish pursuit, but it is in our self-interest to help others and make the world a better place. The more I love myself the more I love others the more I love myself the more... the happier I am the happier others are the happier I am the happier...
The thing about meditation, some kinds anyway, is that even though you're doing nothing you're not really doing nothing. Keeping the mind quite, calm, and focused is possibly the most challenging thing anyone can ever attempt. Partly this is because we are all filled with so much pain and suffering, and by bringing ourselves into the present moment we become aware of that reality and experience it fully. But the only way through it is to experience it, with awareness and equanimity. But somehow, for some reason I don't fully understand, that's where we learn love and compassion.
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