I released the latest update to my SitQuietly meditation timer on Sunday. It’s occurred to me that while I both endorse and practise meditation, I’ve never made the case in writing for it. This isn’t all of it, I will continue and will expand this into future posts. This is a start.

On a personal level, I have found that it improves reduces stress, promotes mindfulness and helps my creativity. Others that I have spoken to at Buddhist centres have told me that they are less verbally aggressive and calmer. But all of this is anecdotal. It used to be that Meditation was something strange people did, I was even laughed at once when I admitted practising it! But today, those of us who sit are having the last laugh. People in all walks of life use meditation and benefit from it.  The list includes celebrities, business leaders and soldiers it’s not just for robed monks!

This article from Men Journal goes into more detail on a study into the use of meditation in the US Marine Corps to improve the ability to act under duress. The exercises detailed here are simple, but clearly powerfully effective.

That’s a recent study, but looking back we find a report in Scientific American on neuroscience work at MIT, Stanford and the University of Wisconsin, this certainly makes the point that meditation produces tangible effects on the brain. The study of meditators in an MRI machine is even helping to unravel new discoveries on the structure of the brain.

Frankly, there is now a growing body of research that supports the decision to make meditation a part of your life. The research points to changes not only in our conscious minds, but changes that we are not directly conscious of.

Surely the question is not “Why do you meditate?”, but “How can you not?”

I treated myself to a budget smartphone a week or two ago, which is running the Android Operating System.  I have to say, that it’s been a very pleasant experience so far.

With this in mind, I’ve been looking around at various Tablet computers and realising that the whole way we compute is about to change forever.  The IPad has started a ball rolling, and while I think it’s pricey for what it is, I do accept that it’s an idea whose time has come.

I have been able to write and answer emails, browse the Internet, test write a draft for this website and even perform simple network diagnostics from my phone.  The phone even has GPS and there is a free GPS suite called Skobbler that’s well worth a look, I’ve also found that the location aware services are eye opening.

With access to the Google Apps suite and a decent size screen, I would have less reason to use my laptop PC.  I honestly can say I think Android is going to overtake Apple’s IOS, and I can genuinely see cheap Android devices sparking a revolution in the way we do mobile computing.

The future is looking very interesting!

The slow changing of the way of life we take for granted here in the West is proceeding relentlessly.  Along the way it’s turning out to be fairly instructive to watch the politics and the posturing.  Quite a few of our leaders can be seen clinging to the old ideas, the old paradigms.  They’re trying to defend a status quo that is, at least partially, undefendable.

It seems to me that the logic used to do this defensive work is often that of duality. For example they put forward the idea that it’s “growth or ruin”, or in terms of transport that it’s “oil power or green tech”.  The list goes on and I imagine every reader could add an example.  All of this is presented to us in a very “good vs evil” dualistic way.  We are reassured by the simple plain views, the clear easy choice, but are these choices really that clear cut?

Take oil power or green cars for example, why no mention of a boost in public transport and the creation of walkable cities?   Also, economic growth vs deflation is presented with a few assumptions about which is best, but with no mention of the steady state society.  Also no mention of the fact that future growth might be very constrained.

I’ve come to the opinion that the point of this sort of thing is to prevent a real debate on the very important issues.  We are steered onto desired courses via a ‘false dilemma’ fallacy, presented with two choices chosen from a larger set with the aim of blinkering us to the possibilities. The whole aim of this seems to me, to be to present a series of false choices that defends the status quo to the bitter end.

We need our capabilities of skepticism and critical thinking more than ever.