Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Navel Gazing: Contemplating or Napping?

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly
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(WQ) What is "navel gazing"? Falling asleep so deeply during meditation that one bends forward so as to seem to be staring at one's belly button?

It means self-absorbed abstraction, as if meditation only meant contemplation or woo-woo pondering.


Sati was translated as "mindfulness" and it stuck, but it was not always so. It is also translated as "wakefulness," "vigilance," "detached attentiveness," or "dispassionate awareness. See satipatthana. There will be no mindful meditation in the face of the mental hindrance of "sloth-and-torpor." Remaining attentive (without clinging to things, pushing them away, or being deluded by them) is the way to wake up. But I get sleepy!

Sunday Edition: "Navel Gazing" (I Hate to Break It to You/ punknews.org)

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