Mindfulness & Metaphysics 01 - A Short Talk & Commentary

A seven-minute talk introducing the metaphysical philosophy of idealism, followed by a breath-based mindfulness meditation commentary. Recorded live with just minor editing. Background sounds include a blackbird.

Transcript

I used to practice other forms of meditation that had some sort of theoretical framework or ideology behind them or belief system or whatever but mindfulness purposefully was created to strip out all of that so it's basically a Buddhist practice but all the Buddhism was taken out and that appealed to me I liked that idea but then I noticed that I was having the same experiences with mindfulness that I would have in a spiritual practice so that led me to think that it would be nice to have some sort of theoretical framework behind the practice so it's not just an isolated exercise so that there was something, A framework within which to make sense of the experiences that arose from the practice and so my little project that I'm engaged on is to use a philosophy called idealism it's a metaphysical philosophy and it's opposed to other metaphysical philosophies of materialism and dualism and for me idealism fits perfectly for my practice of mindfulness so I'm just going to briefly describe what idealism is as it might be new to you it might not be but it might be and I think most people intuitively and in practice are quite dualist we talk about mind and matter, Body and the spirit so this idea I think for most of us most of the time is there's realities composed of physical stuff and mental stuff but there's a bit of a problem with that when you're looking at the philosophy and the science as if there are these two completely different types of stuff that reality has made up there's a problem called the interaction problem, How do they communicate with each other if there are these two things then obviously they do because we're the living examples of that but in terms of understanding how that would actually happen and explaining that that becomes a bit of a problem so the alternative to that for being a dualist is to be a monist so to think that everything is made of one stuff rather than two types of stuff so then you've got the choice of choosing matter or mind as your one stuff from which to explain everything else so materialism is the attempt to explain everything as just arising from matter that everything can be explained in terms of physical stuff but that comes across an equally perhaps insurmountable problem to the interaction problem which is called the hard problem of consciousness because there's no way even in principle that anyone has been able to explain how inanimate physical stuff can create conscious experience, Subjective experience, Inner experience now that hasn't stopped scientists having a good go so there's a lot of neuroscience going on what neuroscience tells us is there's those very strong correlations between brain activity and those subjective states that we all know from our own direct personal experience but correlations aren't causation so no one can tell you, They can't even say in principle how it's possible that an arrangement of neurons which are just inanimate objects can create what you're experiencing right now which is your own subjective experience of this moment so that's a complete unknown so there may be a correlation between the taste of chocolate and that subjective experience and a certain brain state there may be a correlation between the feeling of happiness or seeing the colour red and some other arrangement of neural activity but if you were to ask a neuroscientist, Well why does that particular arrangement of neurons make me feel like I'm in love and why does that particular range of neurons make me see green or taste salt nobody's got a clue, There's nothing to even begin an explanation of why one arrangement would create one kind of subjective experience and why another arrangement would create something completely different so that's the hard problem of consciousness so dualism has the interaction problem, Materialism has the hard problem of consciousness so another option is idealism or ideaism, So the idea that everything is an idea or everything is mental, Everything is mind so can we explain everything if the only stuff we've got to work with is mental stuff or mind so the first problem we might come across is how can we create the physical world just with our minds well first of all it's an assumption to say there is a physical world out there and quantum mechanics, The best science we've ever had, Actually says there isn't, There isn't such a thing as an external physical world there's only one way out of that for materialists and that's the many worlds theory, Which is quite a crazy theory so we have an example every night that we all experience of how we can very easily create an experience of a physical world when we dream so in a dream we have a body, We have physical experiences, We see, We hear, We touch, We taste, We interact but what's that dream made of? There's no physical world that we create in our dreams, It's all a mental creation so we know that that's possible and if you're lucky enough to have had a lucid dream you'll know that our dreams can be at least as real and they can actually feel even more real than waking in life so mindful meditation is all about mind, It's all about awareness, All about consciousness and if your philosophy is that that's what everything is made of it actually makes the practice, For me anyway, More meaningful, More significant, More fundamental as it's not just an experience but I'm sort of tapping into reality in a more intimate way so I'll do a commentary for about 20 minutes and leave a bit of science at the end and then we can wrap up so for the mindfulness meditations I've been doing lately I've been using the breath as the centre so I'm going to continue with that, I find that really helpful, I find the breath can really exaggerate the sensations in the body and so it makes it easier to be present with the body and in the present moment so what I'd invite you to do is to take a deeper, Longer and slower in-breath than you would normally and to simply release the whole of the out-breath, Like a sigh, Just letting it go so as you take that longer breath in then you can feel not just the breath entering your body but feel your awareness, Your consciousness filling the body as well so with each in-breath, Allowing yourself to be as fully present with the body in this present moment as you can be taking a nice, Full, Deep, Long and relatively slow in-breath so you really have time to feel the breath enter the body and to explore the sensations within the body and I'd also invite you to as much as possible keep your awareness as open, As wide and as broad as you can so this is right brain attention rather than left brain attention left brain attention is about narrowing your focus, Concentrating, Abstracting, Analysing right brain attention is about open awareness, Seeing the whole picture, Connecting with reality, With the body, With what's happening in the moment so rather than concentrate on the breath, See if you can experience your breath as happening in the centre of an open awareness so the way we can help create that feeling of space, That spacious awareness is as you breathe in, Be aware of the space around the body that you're taking the air from, So breathing in from that space into the body and then you're naturally connecting the breath with that wider open space all around your body right now and also with the out-breath as you release and let go of that out-breath, Experiencing the breath going from the body out into that vast open space that's all around you right now and the body, The breath at the centre of this open space and the breath connecting your body with that space so not concentrating on the breath, But experiencing the breath happening within this vast open space of your awareness breathing in from that space, Breathing out into that space and as well as having awareness of the space around you, Maybe being aware of the sounds that are happening around you, In the environment around you so listening out for any sound from your own breath and also noticing any sounds from the distance in the background happening around you and allowing all sounds of your breath and from the environment to all just take place to come and go within your open awareness checking with your in-breath, Checking it's nice and full and deep, Long and slow and with each breath entering the body, Your body feeling more present, More alive, More full of awareness if idealism is true, There is no separation between your consciousness and your body, There aren't two things, There's just one thing your body is simply the experience within consciousness of what it looks like and what it feels like to be conscious your body and your consciousness, Your awareness are one and the same thing, No separation just like your body in a dream is a creation of your mind feel the body, Feel the aliveness, The presence of the body, The awareness at one with the body the whole body alive, Aware, Conscious and the world around you is also just another experience happening within your consciousness, Within your open awareness so we can experience the body and the world as one, One experience within your one awareness again, No separation so be present with the reality of your body, The experience of your body and the experience of your consciousness and your experience of everything happening in the environment around you knowing that it's impossible to experience anything other than what is happening within your awareness so this moment right now is everything allow yourself to relax into this feeling of the spacious present moment so each time we breathe in it can be a reminder of our intention to be fully present for our full awareness to be one with the body and each time we release that out breath it's a reminder of our intention to experience everything, The body and the world around us as one, One experience within our open awareness, So just allowing everything to be just as it is flowing moment by moment so I'm going to leave five minutes or so without further commentary allowing yourself to be more present with the in breath and allowing everything to be just as it is with the out breath keeping that awareness nice and open so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so a few more moments, It's a really good opportunity to take in a really full long and deep in breath really allowing yourself to be completely present in and with the body, Really feel the aliveness, The consciousness of the whole body and releasing the breath, Allowing yourself to be part of this environment, Part of this one experience happening within your open awareness so so allowing your breath to return to a normal regular rhythm, Actually in its own time and notice how you are feeling in the mind and body so just enjoying these last few moments, Just being present, Being in the moment, The only place you can be, The only place you can ever experience so so so

Reviews

I practiced this peaceful meditationand found that ithelped me relax and feel completely centred. The space which Stephen created was so calming and serene. The talk about metaphysics was very interesting and I want to learn more about this complex but engaging topic! Stephen, a fascinating space and knowledge I have experienced. Thank you so much🙏🏻💚✨👌🏻♥️