"Many stressed-out people are attracted to eastern meditation, believing that it will give them relief from their "monkey mind" and lower their anxiety about life. Unfortunately, the monkey usually wins because people find the mental focus required for meditation devilishly hard. On a trip last year to India, I asked a Buddhist teacher why Westerners struggle so much with the practice. "You won't get the benefit from meditation," he said, "as long as you are meditating to get the benefit.""
"You might call this the "meditation paradox," and it seemed like the most Buddhist thing I had ever heard. But when I thought about it more, I realized that the teacher's epigram held a deep truth about a lot of life's rewards: You can only truly attain them when you are not seeking them. Consider the relationship between money and happiness, about which you've no doubt received mixed messages your whole life."
Meditation often fails to relieve anxiety because the concentration required is difficult and pursuing benefits directly undermines the practice. A principle emerges: some rewards are attainable only when not actively sought. This principle applies to money and happiness, where cultural messages conflict about whether wealth increases well-being. Economic research found positive correlations between income and life satisfaction up to a threshold, after which gains flattened. Subsequent studies using larger datasets have questioned that threshold, indicating complexity in how income relates to momentary and long-term well-being.
Read at The Atlantic
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