07 Aug 2019 | Articles
Quietness and Attention: the oxygen of the contemporary societies
There is a reality of general frustration due to the lack of comprehension of the most profound and important meanings of our existence. We do not know the path of subjective well-being. Without this comprehension, we step back, we hide, and we dive into mere erudition and technique.
Disappointed, and sometimes pessimistic and bitter, we thrash about on the surface of the phenomena. The fundamental answers are not only in the intellectual discussions, or in the mere erudition, or in the technical complexity of the experts.
Our conversations, the source of learning, have not helped us much. In current conversation, the superficiality of “agree-disagree” prevails, and the value of introspection becomes a lesser, discredited skill, which is of little importance in society. Sitting down, closing your eyes, and observing the reality of the present moment, of your own body, the feeling, the emotions, of our most basic dimension of life, the breathing, is still a practice that is not welcomed regularly in education.
This is why we need to talk about the importance of the meditative processes. For self-comprehension and the comprehension of others, we must profoundly observe our own mind. The development of science in all areas of knowledge, from medicine designed for the body to astronomy that observes space with extreme curiosity, only arrived where it is today because researchers have profoundly analyzed and observed the phenomena of these realities in a disciplined manner.
In relation to the mind, this has not been happening. We know little and we have very little control over our minds. We are facing the challenge to know, for ourselves, our inner reality. Perceiving it as it is, without the filters of the cultural narratives and myths can significantly reduce our everyday suffering. The suffering does not come only from outside, it is created, to a large extent, by our own mind.
These processes of introspection we call meditation have been researched and studied by scientific logic. Science accepts the importance of meditation. We are still trying to understand the boundaries between the brain and the mind. However, we already know that they have distinct complexities, and that meditation is the path to understand the mind.
Knowing how to observe the reality of the feelings in the body and the mental reactions through the emotions is the base in the construction of being sensitive and the largest foundation in the development of social emotional skills.
In the complexity of contemporary societies, meditation is as important as the oxygen that we breathe. It will be vital to reduce errors and illusions in political, professional, and personal decisions.
Alongside the technological marvels that enchant us, there is a hidden and dangerous face that deserves our attention. Briefly, the algorithms and the artificial intelligence will dominate not only the management processes of professional businesses, but also actual personal decisions. If we do not investigate, for ourselves, the reality of the phenomena, particularly those of the mind, we run the risk of losing the space of choice in the future. And
this is very serious. There is still time, but not much. Meditative discipline can keep awareness and rationality open in order to decide the direction of our best interests.