If we would have guided meditation for effective altruists (e.g. loving-kindness meditation focused on not only far way humans, but also animals and future generation), would that be nice or cultish? (or both?)
Hopefully the former, haha! I really like this idea, as metta meditation is something I often neglect in favour of “concentration meditation” on the breath. I really like something Matthieu Ricard suggested, which is just a few times a day for a few moments wishing all beings well with the effects of this well-wishing staying with you throughout your day.
That is nice! Here are some other ideas for guided meditation:
For during EA events: they can be very exciting and very taxing, and the meditation could help to calm people down, refresh, process what’s going on, etc.
For demotivated moments: sometimes EA feels like running against a wall—the effort just seems a complete waste, and it’d be nice to have some meditation to turn to. It could help people deal healthily with setbacks by trying to learn from them, and then accepting whatever is.
There’s a bunch of other types that might be interesting to explore via meditation, such as obsession, suffering (of others and oneself), egoism, (dis)connection to EA’s and non-EA’s, value drift, multiple things from the replacing guilt series and other EA self-care stuff, etc.
In general, I think meditation is a very interesting medium for learning that we aren’t using much yet. I would be very interested in seeing someone do a few of these to test the idea, and I’d be interested in getting someone funding to increase the volume if the pilots are successful.
Love these ideas. I think I saw a mediation session in an EA Global Event schedule once but can’t remember which one, I’m afraid. Leading a session like that would be a dream come true.
I’d also be interested in getting funding to test out the effects more fully for the good of all EAs. :)
If we would have guided meditation for effective altruists (e.g. loving-kindness meditation focused on not only far way humans, but also animals and future generation), would that be nice or cultish? (or both?)
Hi Siebe,
Hopefully the former, haha! I really like this idea, as metta meditation is something I often neglect in favour of “concentration meditation” on the breath. I really like something Matthieu Ricard suggested, which is just a few times a day for a few moments wishing all beings well with the effects of this well-wishing staying with you throughout your day.
That is nice! Here are some other ideas for guided meditation:
For during EA events: they can be very exciting and very taxing, and the meditation could help to calm people down, refresh, process what’s going on, etc.
For demotivated moments: sometimes EA feels like running against a wall—the effort just seems a complete waste, and it’d be nice to have some meditation to turn to. It could help people deal healthily with setbacks by trying to learn from them, and then accepting whatever is.
There’s a bunch of other types that might be interesting to explore via meditation, such as obsession, suffering (of others and oneself), egoism, (dis)connection to EA’s and non-EA’s, value drift, multiple things from the replacing guilt series and other EA self-care stuff, etc.
In general, I think meditation is a very interesting medium for learning that we aren’t using much yet. I would be very interested in seeing someone do a few of these to test the idea, and I’d be interested in getting someone funding to increase the volume if the pilots are successful.
Hi Siebe!
Love these ideas. I think I saw a mediation session in an EA Global Event schedule once but can’t remember which one, I’m afraid. Leading a session like that would be a dream come true.
I’d also be interested in getting funding to test out the effects more fully for the good of all EAs. :)