this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Depends on the form of meditation. For general, workplace-endorsed "mindfulness" meditation, you allow yourself to think whatever you think, but instead of reacting to it, you merely observe and acknowledge that you're having that thought. You don't let yourself get carried along with it though. You let it pass and let another thought come along, observing your own mind. Other types of meditation are about striving to think nothing, and it's expected that you'll fail, and take years to accomplish that after a great deal of practice.
That sounds pretty dismissive. It's very sad that capitalism co-opts these things to squeeze out even more energy from workers, and that people think this is just something PR or HR or whatever came up with.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and similar techniques (e.g. autogenic training) are effective and empirically proven methods to combat depression, eating disorders, chronic pain, etc.
Every mediation final goal is to achieve tranquility of mind which is only possible if mind is in present and when you quietly listen to inner voice without reacting, it slowly start fading away and meditator goes in one of the jhanas state