Ep. 8 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - The Buddha and "Mindfulness" 

Prof, @ 43:53 , You say “language of explaining rather than the language of explaining”. Did you mean the language of training rather than the language of explaining? Earlier, you were making a distinction between both of those terms, and I found this part confusing.

This is like therapy for people who overthink.

This should be the most widely viewed video on the internet. I don’t think I’ve gone a day since Covid without listening to or engaging in conversation on mindfulness, and this is this most detailed and helpful description I’ve heard of how to actually practice.

17:22 "Negation is not transcendence. To negate something still frames it in the same way" These are wise words that I will be forever grateful for. Thank you Dr Verneake.

Mr. Vervaeke, you have NO IDEA how valuable these lectures are in shaping our understanding of our own human nature, at a personal level. The last few decades of disintegration of value systems and the arbitrary nature of mass media messages had left millions with NO meaning. The likes of you and your efforts allows individuals to rediscover the right path back to the True, the Right and the Beautiful. We are eternally in your debt.

IT'S FRIDAY, FRIDAY COG SCI TIME ON FRIDAY EVERYBODY'S LOOKING INWARD FOR SOME MEANIN'

Anticipating Vervaeke's new lecture every week like it's the newest episode of Game of Thrones.

Thank you so much, Dr! I came here because of your conversation with Dr Jordan Peterson. Now, I have discovered a gold mine! I even have goosebumps while listening to this lecture. Thank you so much! 🙇🙇🙇

I'm beginning to wonder where I'd be today if I'd known about this series back when they were being released. Thank you from the deepest places of my being.

For decades anxiety has tormented me and dominated my life. Within few weeks with your lectures my anxiety has reduced significally. I feel hope, for the first time in my life, that I can cure completely from the anxiety. This feels like permanent change in my person, not just shallow relief. Words cannot express how I feel right now. I cry out of happiness and gratitude here. Thank you, thank you, thank you! 💜🙏

I feel so fortunate to have access to your lectures. I am experiencing this series for the 2nd time with more understanding after the last year I've been a RU-vid/podcast student. I just wanted you to know that I'm growing with you and through you.

I get smarter with ever lecture, or I realise how little I was actually taught! Thank you!!

I wonder if, for John, giving these lectures are flow-state experiences. It certainly appears so. He seems so in tune with the content and seems to effortlessly find the perfect words and body language. Truly a joy to watch these lectures. Edit: A couple of hours later listening to episode 11, he actually mentions getting into the flow state during lectures.

05:00 meeting sickness, age, death and renunciate. running back to a castle as remaining in our comfort zone 11:35 dissilliusionment 12:55 leaving home and family to rediscover meaning 14:00 self-denial as an opposite of self-indulgence. Trying to not have is also a modal confusion 18:00 as in music: strings cannot be too tight or too loose ... Feature of mindfulness 40:00 how these features relate? 45:30 right and wrong concentration ... yelling or soft vigilance .. renewed interest (being within something) 48:30 too hard!! Too loose!! Keep the interest, be in experience. Tuning as taking time 49:30 attention as spotlight metaphor, more salient, but incomplete, because it does not have wisdom

this is where my heart and wisdom comes alive :) Thanks John ! loved this episode and you spoke my language without me having to , i completely agree with you with this view and aim

This is probably the best introduction to Mindfulness on RU-vid! I plan on watching all of Dr. Vervaeke's videos and buying his books as well. I'm so grateful that there are people in the world like him sharing their wisdom. Thank you very much Doctor!!!

What a cliffhanger! Thank you very much Mr. Vervaeke. Once again, amazing lectures you are sharing with the world!

Greatest thing on youtube..

Wow as a meditator this is a really revolutionary example for me! Thank you.

That soft vigilance concept is amazing. I think I do that intuitively on long subway drives from time to time.

The musicality of intelligibility. I loved that term. Also, the "soft vigilance"! Often, with highly stressful situations within the learning process, my vigilance tends to be so hard that I am stuck.

Mindblowing work you're doing John. I have never noticed before how people often describe mindfulness by its feature's list - like being present, not judging, etc. - but not at the depth of it like you described in this lecture. Thank you so much!

I'm a week into these lectures and I absolutely blown away. These are life changing

Stunning, crucial, compelling and soooo badly needed in my life.

There is so much wisdom in these lectures. Thanks Dr. Vervaeke.

"Negation is not transcendence"... so easy to understand intellectually... but perhaps impossible embody...Thank you John, your efforts are appreciated...

Wonderful lectures. Is anyone else watching this during the pandemic? It is really helping me see the world in a different way

This whole series is mind-blowing and the idea of not moving to the opposite but transcending the framework is shattering. Thank you for everything you do for us Dr. Vervaeke ♥️

Perhaps it is overly simplistic, but I have found that to be "present" just means to pay attention to all five senses without adding additional adjectives (without judgment): what do I hear, feel, smell, taste, and see. After getting focused on my breath, I start with each sense sequentially and then try to pay attention to all at once. The amount of raw information taken in makes it almost impossible for thoughts to form while actively being present in this manner. Doing this gives an idea of a feeling/mental "place" to return to as needed once it has been practiced.

Thank you for this, your insights are helpful

“Sati”. This is a much deeper definition and it’s starting to answer some deep questions I’ve had about meditation and Buddhism. Thank you!

This series is the most interesting thing I have ever encountered in my entire life. Mr. Vervaeke, I'm lost on that fascinating journey for a while, and you just gave me the more accurate map to date. Thank you, sir.

my week has been spent listening to these talks... amazing.. i fell so much joy for having access to this information. Thank you Professor Vervaeke!

God, I could watch 6 hours of this no problem. Thank you so much, John.

5:38 LOVE to see that passion. It's like vervaeke is on fire with a passion for waking us up. Beautiful!

You answered many of the questions I asked my self while thinking about my thoughts,I always ended up assuming they were a) stupid b) were not getting me any where. Thank you

THANK YOU!

This is completely amazing. Thank you for such an enlightning 'class'.

Eight episodes in and I am already learning a lot. Thank you Dr. Vervaeke and also Dr. Peterson for introducing him to us!

Thanks for the video.

The video has the highest rate of insight per word spoken of any video I have ever watched. A true example of an insights cascade!

The description of attention and how to focus in the end was just fantastic!

Absolutely brilliant John. Really getting a lot of value from this series. Thank you.

This man is pure gold. Interview - as soon as possible. Thanks a lot from the deepest depths of my heart. Regards from SA team.

This series is brilliant! Your knowledge is truly a gift. I applaud you for sharing. Thank you, kindly

Thank you, I love the detailed investigation

So much to read and realize, thank you again! When we ask our children to pay attention, this doesn't work until you engage their focus with participatory learning and I realize, as we grow-up, we loose sharpness of attention, so we require to remember what we are. How much of truth it is to hear about morning hours, when something is calling you up, almost begging to resist, transform and become your-self. How hard it is to realize you've betrayed yourself again, lost self-respect and you absolutely know that what your failure. But there is a hope in you, unless you've given yourself up. You may fall down only to learn how to walk more carefully. We don't need Myna's birds to call us for Attention only, it's not sufficient. We need structure which says to what attention should be paid and how to train attention. Thank you John for this dedication, it vibes through, how personally you are entitled to it.

Each episode is an awakening, well done!

This is a great episode. I've been practising mindfulness for several years and he really brought something new to it.

I truly appreciate YOUR time JV ❤️🍄

As also evidenced by Michael Sandel's compelling series, it seems pretty clear that intensity/depth/charisma is required to hold people's attention... In other words, I am hooked! LOL And it takes actual effort for me to refrain from binge consuming these lectures... Again, in being a history course where the subject is the mind, this series has been ridiculously interesting so far... BIG LOVE (whatever that word means)

So happy I came across this series.

enthralling lecture, very well done. thank you!

This series is one of the biggest gifts of my life. A wild thing to say about a series of videos on RU-vid, but it's true. I've very slowly been getting clear, sober and finding that this series is adding to the illumination. Thank you, John. Your light shines bright and your intellect is a gift to all. Would love to study vipassana with you soon. Blessings.

2:48 Love learning about Sautama Giddharta

Thank you for your time.

I thought I knew how to pay attention. I am learning a lot during this series.

The self is central to both self-indulgence and self-denial, being transcends this duality

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu Great Great Sreat !

I wish I ☘️had heard this a long time ago, many thanks🙏🏻 so glad I came across this🎶

Basically my intellectual idol now John.

You are incredible, keep going!

Thank you John.

I'm in flow watching this series.

Of course intellectual endeavors are not competitions with others whom attempt similar explanations of such topics. But I must say, I have read all of Peterson’s books and listened to nearly all of his lectures and I’m deeply gripped by these lectures in a way that is hard to articulate. I bring that up due to the fact your discussion with him brought me here. Keep being persistent with content production please, you will reach people in unimaginable ways. May you be blessed with harmony and love John!

Thanks John.

This is very helpful John.

I noticed that buddha and river are associated and it makes sense because a river invites you to look at the whole picture, since it moves the whole eyesight has something to do, i.e. it affords RRR to break frame, because it makes you notice that 'everything flows', everything changes, everything is connected. But since on earth a lot of things change slowly our other half has it's affordances. But the main point is to distinguish between those modes of being and I think buddha did that, hanging down the river.

I find this is also linked to understanding an aspect of eating disorders in a semi abstract way. I think more so to recovery. Mindfulness is definitely a part of the recovery process. The soft vigilence , renewal of interest and then the spot light metaphor reminds me of photography and it's mechanisms for example: aperture and shutter speed.

He’s rather good at painting phenomenology. Ah, so finally in Ep. 8 he explains the title, what all 19 lectures are about. He spends about 30 seconds on it at 24:04. Probably need to listen from the start of this lecture to understand it. The training vs. explaining thing is brilliant.

That Sati girl from the Matrix makes a lot more sense now.

In Waldorf Education teacher training we were given very similar lectures! We studied the evolution of human consciousness through art history. We studied all of the great myths and epics of ancient civilizations including ancient India, Mesopotamia, Old Testament, etc. We looked at the “levels’ of the human being ie: mineral,plant,animal,mental,spiritual. Interesting that a lot of this information was given by Rudolf Steiner. I am now studying all of Campbell and Jung’s work. It all brought me to these fabulously done lectures!

Fantastic lecture

amazing, thanks for sharing.

brilliant series, some word games dont work in other languages. this needs to be made available also in german, spanish and french (at least!)

Hi @JohnVervaeke. This is the first lecture describing the "Having Mode" and the "Being Mode", and how one mode can't fulfill the other. Is there also something like a "Doing Mode" (e.g. work for happiness)? I find myself consistently focused on doing things with the mindset that if I do x-y-z, then I will be happy, but of course doing things only leads to doing more things. It's sort of orthogonal to both having and being. My mind thinks that If I build this thing (e.g. work) then I will earn money and I then will have this thing that will make me happy, or if I do this task (e.g. exercise) then I will feel young and I will achieve the being I want. What winds up happening is that I keep doing things, but not ever feeling fully satisfied when I achieve them. It's a feedback loop that exhausts me. Thanks.

Great work sir

Beautiful!!!

I had always envisioned memory as space and didn't really think of the problem with it until you brought it up. What if you added in gravity to the spatial map of memory? Where gravity is the question and how it arranges space is the retrieval. That leaves room for the palace of objects, but it also makes sense in the way you can still have room for shoe AND red next to blue because the gravity shifts based on the question: are we looking for a rhyme or are we looking for a color association? So it's not just a frozen moment in time but a matter of how the question's gravity shifts the room around.

The last part of the lecture reminded me of some passages from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values".

'Renewing interest is powerful for meditators. It's elegantly worded

"Sati" is Pali and the Sanskrit word is "smriti," what is "remembered." Dharma traditions have sacred texts classified under "shruti", "what is heard" and "smriti."

8 is a good number, curiosity brought me here, Thanks!

Amazing!!!

The idea of 'soft vigilance' seems much like what you do when you practice observational drawing.

Holy Hernan. This is the first person I've seen or read that has the idea that connects memory palace and myth. I had that idea thirty five years ago, that myths were much more than what they weemed and then when I heard memory palace described that was the first thing to come to mind, that a myth is a sort of memory palace.

thank you so much for this lecture, i really enjoyed and was even moved to tears. I think "'awakened" and '"enlightened" words in psychology or all these related/connected world are only belonged to Buddha who actually possessed the best qualities of it at ultimate level ! but nowadays a lot of people especially those who call themselves as gurus or masters or hypnotists or even some motivational speakers used they are enlightened or awakened people which really ruin these words and meaning of these words !

Let me know if this is an over-simplification or a quick synopsis, but what I got out of this is that mindfulness is one method by which we are attempting to recover a "way of being" in the world.

I think the story of Siddhartha also shows the necessity in dialectical movement. Siddharta HAD to negate his previous existance and go too far in the opposite direction in order to sublate them both, preserve and annihilate, to a higher level.

Thank you

WOW! Fantastic episode! Thank you, John. _/\_

Truly loving this series. What an avalanche of knowledge. I wonder if your channel would benefit from a Clips Channel alongside it; it could be a great on-ramp for lots of people and get more exposure to the main videos. E.g. a shortened clip from this lecture explaining concentration. I'm tempted to make a few clips myself but don't know if it would violate YT's copyright etc.

In Portuguese we say interesse (interest). But I didn’t know it’s root deeper meaning. Makes sense.

The Saints of India. I adore the Saints of India I adore Beloved Anandamayi Ma Will you be my Mother Beloved Anandamayi Ma I adore beloved KRiSHNA I devote myself to thee I feel you within mine Heart The happy bliss inside of me I thought I was a clever man Ignorance dwelled in I Now I am with you my All The Sun is my third eye I love the Saints of India I love the Saint Germain I worship many deities Divine love is much the same I open my Heart to The ELOHiM I AM an open door No human can close I AM the light of God I AM a Violet Rose CHRISTED ONE Oh yee Christed One Though wholly Heart before me From deepest love inside of me I assure I do adore thee For when one prays To thine own Heart One prays to God Directly And when one prays From thine own heart God's Angels can protect thee We must direct divinely The flame within our being We must ask direct divinely For your flame they will be seeing Tis why one must shine so brightly As bright as one can shine With sureity and wisdom And perfect love divine GOLDMANWALKiNG I AM POETRY ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--mTWUWGIm54.html 💙 💛 💜 💙 💛 💜 💙 💛 💜

This is potentially the best thing on RU-vid regardless of how it is visually playing out... Thank you sir! Seriously though thank you!

Thanks John!! Isn't there a form of "practice" or "paying attention" that doesn't optimise some activity (such as playing chess), but that can still lead to "cognitive coherence"?

Rumor has it around town, that religious philosopher, Martin Boober was a breast man !!! Hello John Vervaeke, THANK YOU for an outstanding series of lectures so far !!!!!!

You have my attention professor please stop yelling! Haha! Keep em coming!

I'm always looking for new interesting lectures on Psychology/Philosophy, please let me know if you guys have any recommendations, would be highly appreciated

Once again, my mind was blown. Thank you, John, for providing us with such tremendous insight. One question though: is the claim you made about Caledonian crows (seeking altered states of consciousness when sliding on rooftops) supported by evidence? It seems so plausible to me since there seems to be no other apparent reason for crows (or any other animal for that matter) to induce stress by means of vertigo, but I would like to know if there's some empirical data that supports this claim (albeit that, I absolutely consider John to be a scientific source 😂).