Experience Is Food, Thoughts Are Shit

Meditation is a wonderfully challenging practice for the contemporary person because it challenges all of our cultural notions of value. We’re taught to spend money on elaborate entertainments and gadgets. The most entertaining and fulfilling practice of all is simply to sit in silence and let your mind rearrange itself into something autonomous.

Once you meditate for long enough, there’s no need for forced fun or superfluous experiences. You can go about your day as if it is a work of art, experiencing everything with a fullness previously unimagined. This is precisely because meditation allows us to transcend the barriers of signs and symbols.

When you teach your mind to let its thoughts subside, you come to direct experience. This is experience of life unimpeded by representations. Instead of staring endlessly at the menu, you get to eat the meal. Instead of reading the GPS screen, you go for the hike. As has been said, “The map is not the territory”. Meditation teaches your monkey brain to look up from your map and realize that you are surrounded by beautiful territory.

Language is like a middle-man between individual and experience. It robs us of a bit every time we use it. It’s good for communication, introductory study, and little else. Language is a cul de sac at the end of a really long road. Use it for what it’s good for, but work on divorcing your mind from its thoughts. Direct experience is food, and your thoughts are shit. You need to let them exit in order to stay clear-headed.