Making Sense - Sam Harris - January 02, 2024


#347 — Finding Sanity in 2024


Episode Stats

Length

9 minutes

Words per Minute

152.89752

Word Count

1,401

Sentence Count

112


Summary

Sam Harris argues that meditation is the key to understanding our minds, and to finding meaning in the chaos we see in the world. But what does meditation actually do, and what does it teach us about the nature of the mind and how it relates to our problems? In this episode of the Making Sense Podcast, Sam discusses the benefits of meditation, and how you can practice it to find meaning in your life and the world around you. He also suggests that meditation can be a useful tool for dealing with your mind's problems, and that you can use it to help you live a happier and more fulfilled life. If you like what you hear here, please consider becoming a patron patron of the Waking Up Meditation app, which is a great place to learn about meditation and the benefits it can bring to your life, as well as to your mental health and well-being. You'll get a lot more peace and quiet, and a better night's rest, if you meditate. Make sure to check out our companion app, WakingUp, wherever you get your meditations. It's free, and it's a great resource for learning how to practice mindfulness and focus on the things we can do to become more peaceful, peaceful, and productive. You'll learn how to become a better human being and a more productive human being. Thanks for listening, and Happy New Year! Make sense of it all, and let us know what you think of it in the comments below. Timestamps and tweet us what you thought of it! :) and your thoughts about it in your own thoughts about the things you're grateful for it. Tweet me or your thoughts on it :) or send it to someone else! or share it on Insta: on the if you think it's helpful or are looking for a better way to help someone else do something like that. or you're feeling better? or have a good day! and I'll be listening to this podcast in a podcast about it :) :) :) :) Timestories: . . . . - making sense - - The Making Sense - by Sam Harris is a podcast that helps us all be more mindful, more peaceful and less stressed, more productive, more awake, more restful, more meaningful, more grateful, more positive, more beautiful, and more peaceful


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast.
00:00:22.220 This is Sam Harris.
00:00:25.360 It's now widely acknowledged that even in the most affluent societies,
00:00:30.000 perhaps especially in the most affluent societies,
00:00:33.420 there's a crisis of meaning.
00:00:36.080 There are many signs of this.
00:00:37.940 There's what's often described as an epidemic of loneliness.
00:00:41.620 There's also a widespread erosion of social trust
00:00:44.480 and new extremes of political partisanship.
00:00:48.260 There are soaring levels of drug addiction and overdoses in many Western countries.
00:00:53.320 It's pretty clear that the abundance of modern life
00:00:56.160 is no guarantee of living a good life.
00:01:00.000 Simply buying more stuff and watching hours of TikTok each day
00:01:03.660 can't be the final fruition of millennia of human striving.
00:01:09.320 It certainly seems like something is missing.
00:01:12.420 The question is, what?
00:01:15.020 Well, there are many levels on which our collective problems need to be addressed,
00:01:19.440 and there may be many ways to alleviate this apparent crisis of meaning.
00:01:22.620 But one remedy is for more of us to understand our own minds directly
00:01:27.260 and to take responsibility for them.
00:01:30.440 All the chaos we see in the world, beyond natural disasters,
00:01:34.500 is a symptom of human minds being out of control.
00:01:39.180 Greed, fear, hatred, ignorance, false certainty,
00:01:44.080 these states of mind can reduce whole cities to rubble.
00:01:47.500 Of course, most of us can't change the culture in any significant way.
00:01:52.720 We can't change the laws.
00:01:54.280 We can't change our institutions.
00:01:56.020 We can advocate for change.
00:01:58.060 We can add our voices to the cacophony on social media.
00:02:01.400 But there are very few people who can affect things quickly at scale.
00:02:05.780 However, each of us can radically change our own lives
00:02:08.780 and the lives of those closest to us
00:02:10.760 by understanding our minds.
00:02:13.860 We live under the curse of partial attention,
00:02:17.280 partial attention to the people we love
00:02:18.960 and to our deeper priorities
00:02:20.740 and to the ongoing consequences of using our attention
00:02:24.040 in such superficial ways.
00:02:26.280 We don't notice what we don't notice,
00:02:28.260 almost by definition.
00:02:29.780 So we tend to be bad judges
00:02:31.220 of what this fragmentation of our minds is costing us.
00:02:34.980 Even when we've gotten almost everything we want,
00:02:37.600 we're strangely unsatisfied.
00:02:39.580 We're never quite full of happiness
00:02:42.460 or ever truly empty of desire.
00:02:45.740 Therefore, we're almost never at rest
00:02:47.820 or even at ease.
00:02:49.840 And many of us aren't even sure we want to be.
00:02:52.920 Aspiring to contentment
00:02:54.440 somehow sounds like an admission of defeat.
00:02:57.760 This has been a perennial spiritual problem, of course,
00:03:00.860 but there's reason to worry that modern life
00:03:03.020 has made it harder to understand,
00:03:05.140 much less solve.
00:03:06.100 And an endless series of life hacks
00:03:08.820 won't do the trick.
00:03:10.420 It's not a matter of dialing in your sleep
00:03:12.240 or your diet
00:03:13.320 or your fitness
00:03:14.440 or your finances.
00:03:16.100 Those are all good things to sort out, of course.
00:03:18.420 But the problem we face is deeper.
00:03:20.900 It's quite literally existential.
00:03:23.420 With the passage of each new year,
00:03:24.800 we're all forced to confront
00:03:25.920 the finiteness of life,
00:03:27.660 as well as our tragic failures
00:03:29.400 to make the most of it
00:03:30.440 and to appreciate what we have
00:03:32.440 in each moment.
00:03:34.540 A real understanding of our predicament
00:03:36.540 requires meditation.
00:03:39.580 And by meditation,
00:03:40.540 I don't mean some strange practice
00:03:42.520 propped up by stranger beliefs.
00:03:45.200 I mean an actual awareness
00:03:46.620 of what your mind is doing
00:03:48.180 in each moment.
00:03:49.780 The ability to pay attention.
00:03:52.440 The ability to stop talking to yourself
00:03:54.620 so that you can recognize
00:03:56.220 what the mind is like
00:03:57.400 prior to being distracted
00:03:59.160 every waking moment
00:04:00.900 by thoughts.
00:04:03.200 Real meditation
00:04:03.980 isn't a life hack.
00:04:05.860 It isn't a hobby.
00:04:07.140 It isn't even a solution
00:04:08.200 to a problem.
00:04:09.600 It's the recognition
00:04:10.480 of what the mind is like
00:04:12.000 prior to solving
00:04:13.460 any specific problem.
00:04:16.040 I occasionally talk about meditation
00:04:17.480 and related topics
00:04:18.560 on this podcast,
00:04:19.800 but most of what I have to say
00:04:21.520 about this is available
00:04:22.480 over at Waking Up.
00:04:24.240 We launched Waking Up
00:04:25.420 five years ago,
00:04:26.220 and at first it was
00:04:27.520 exclusively a meditation app.
00:04:29.820 My goal was to teach meditation
00:04:31.160 and its insights
00:04:32.100 in the most effective way I could
00:04:33.760 and the app is much better
00:04:35.460 than a book for doing this
00:04:37.000 and to do it without the clutter
00:04:38.520 of religious dogmatism
00:04:39.720 or New Age superstition.
00:04:42.240 Some of the insights
00:04:42.940 one can have about the mind
00:04:44.020 through meditation
00:04:44.640 sound obvious
00:04:45.900 or even trite
00:04:47.200 and yet they run very deep.
00:04:49.480 The experience of impermanence
00:04:50.580 I just referenced,
00:04:52.220 for instance.
00:04:53.480 Everyone understands it
00:04:54.820 conceptually.
00:04:56.060 We all notice how quickly
00:04:57.160 time is passing.
00:04:58.700 We see the face
00:04:59.400 in the mirror aging.
00:05:01.180 We know that nothing lasts,
00:05:03.400 but somehow this knowledge
00:05:05.200 doesn't make us wise.
00:05:07.540 Meditation allows us
00:05:08.560 to experience the truth
00:05:09.680 of impermanence
00:05:10.560 much more clearly.
00:05:12.420 When you pay attention,
00:05:14.220 you see that there's
00:05:14.880 a mirage-like quality
00:05:16.300 to even the most
00:05:17.160 intense experiences.
00:05:18.840 There's nothing you can
00:05:19.820 really cling to,
00:05:20.580 and while this might
00:05:21.700 sound depressing at first,
00:05:23.780 releasing one's hold
00:05:24.940 on experience
00:05:25.720 leads to a real
00:05:26.680 feeling of freedom.
00:05:28.580 More and more
00:05:28.960 one finds that one
00:05:29.680 can be truly fulfilled
00:05:31.000 before the next
00:05:32.820 good thing happens,
00:05:34.160 not merely because
00:05:35.560 it has happened.
00:05:36.960 The search to become
00:05:38.380 happy relaxes,
00:05:40.320 and one finds that
00:05:41.100 one can simply
00:05:41.680 be happy more and more,
00:05:43.860 even while one makes
00:05:44.740 positive changes
00:05:45.720 in one's life,
00:05:47.020 and even while one
00:05:47.740 seeks to make changes
00:05:48.880 in the world.
00:05:50.760 Of course,
00:05:51.220 there are other insights
00:05:52.040 from meditation
00:05:52.700 that sound far more
00:05:53.820 paradoxical or even spooky.
00:05:56.320 For instance,
00:05:56.760 the idea that the self,
00:05:58.280 the feeling that we are
00:05:59.180 the unchanging subject
00:06:00.400 of experience,
00:06:01.860 is an illusion.
00:06:03.040 This insight into
00:06:03.840 selflessness,
00:06:04.820 or what can be described
00:06:05.700 as non-duality,
00:06:07.060 can be hard to understand
00:06:08.280 conceptually,
00:06:09.600 and hard to experience
00:06:10.720 directly,
00:06:11.620 but it is available,
00:06:13.520 and it is without question
00:06:14.740 the most important thing
00:06:15.780 I've ever learned.
00:06:17.580 Amazingly,
00:06:18.060 waking up has now
00:06:19.200 become a regular
00:06:19.880 source of instruction
00:06:20.840 about this insight
00:06:22.040 for hundreds of
00:06:23.140 thousands of people.
00:06:24.620 While it seems crazy
00:06:25.500 to say it,
00:06:26.440 we might now be
00:06:27.060 delivering more guidance
00:06:28.140 on how to recognize
00:06:29.400 the non-dual nature
00:06:30.460 of mind than any
00:06:31.680 other resource on earth.
00:06:33.880 However,
00:06:34.480 waking up has become
00:06:35.140 more than a meditation app.
00:06:37.020 We now have a wide
00:06:37.760 range of courses
00:06:38.460 that are essentially
00:06:39.260 applied philosophy
00:06:40.560 and psychology.
00:06:42.000 Our life section
00:06:42.960 has series on
00:06:43.780 stoicism,
00:06:44.920 time management,
00:06:46.280 cognitive behavioral therapy,
00:06:47.520 and other topics
00:06:48.660 relevant for just
00:06:49.460 living a good life.
00:06:50.820 And this section
00:06:51.320 of the app
00:06:51.660 continues to grow.
00:06:53.240 So if you haven't
00:06:53.780 checked it out recently,
00:06:55.140 I want to encourage you to.
00:06:57.060 And as with the podcast,
00:06:58.260 waking up is free
00:06:59.020 for anyone
00:06:59.480 who can't afford it.
00:07:01.140 As I look forward
00:07:02.160 with some apprehension
00:07:03.680 to what seems likely
00:07:04.960 to be a very chaotic
00:07:06.040 new year,
00:07:07.460 I feel tremendous gratitude
00:07:09.040 to know how I will
00:07:10.400 stay sane
00:07:11.220 and seek to help
00:07:12.540 others stay sane.
00:07:13.860 It's obviously hard
00:07:15.520 to predict the future,
00:07:17.280 but 2024 seems like
00:07:19.080 an unusually open book.
00:07:21.340 There are at least
00:07:21.720 two wars of real consequence
00:07:23.500 being fought now.
00:07:24.760 And they're not just
00:07:25.540 regional conflicts,
00:07:26.900 but wars whose outcome
00:07:28.280 seems likely to affect
00:07:29.300 the international order
00:07:30.240 for a generation.
00:07:31.660 And it's easy to see
00:07:32.780 how war might spread.
00:07:34.860 In fact,
00:07:35.260 it's becoming a little hard
00:07:36.300 to see how it won't spread.
00:07:38.360 And the 2024 presidential election
00:07:40.380 in the U.S.,
00:07:41.540 barring a miracle,
00:07:43.420 is going to be
00:07:44.160 some kind of nightmare.
00:07:46.240 Even in the best case,
00:07:47.240 it will further expose
00:07:48.160 and exacerbate
00:07:49.120 the divisions
00:07:49.640 in our society.
00:07:51.460 And the addition
00:07:52.000 of artificial intelligence
00:07:53.160 to the chaos
00:07:54.180 of social media
00:07:55.020 does not seem auspicious.
00:07:57.900 There is surely
00:07:58.480 a hurricane of lies
00:07:59.860 and misinformation
00:08:00.560 heading our way.
00:08:02.520 The tug of history
00:08:04.160 can be felt everywhere.
00:08:06.760 And it is ominous.
00:08:08.680 I honestly don't think
00:08:09.960 I've ever felt
00:08:10.680 this concerned
00:08:11.540 about the state
00:08:12.440 of the world.
00:08:14.100 But sanity
00:08:15.260 is possible.
00:08:17.040 Wisdom
00:08:17.440 is possible.
00:08:19.220 Love and compassion
00:08:20.400 and gratitude
00:08:21.380 are possible.
00:08:23.320 It is possible
00:08:24.140 to surrender
00:08:24.820 one's thoughts
00:08:25.580 about the past
00:08:26.400 and the future
00:08:26.960 so that the beauty
00:08:28.260 of the present
00:08:29.040 shines through.
00:08:31.660 Whatever happens
00:08:32.780 in 2024,
00:08:33.920 I'm going to do
00:08:34.800 more of that.
00:08:36.480 And I hope
00:08:36.980 you will join me.
00:08:37.560 I wish you all
00:08:39.440 much happiness
00:08:40.120 in the new year.
00:08:41.860 and I hope
00:08:42.040 you will find
00:08:42.840 one of those
00:08:43.720 peace.
00:08:43.880 No.
00:08:45.960 I hope we have
00:08:47.060 loved ones
00:08:47.880 and respect
00:08:48.540 one.
00:08:49.460 Bye bye.
00:08:50.240 Peace.
00:08:50.920 Bye.
00:08:51.060 Bye bye.
00:08:51.820 Bye bye bye.
00:08:52.440 Bye bye.
00:08:53.340 Bye bye.
00:09:01.620 Bye bye.
00:09:03.020 Bye bye.
00:09:03.620 Bye bye.
00:09:05.040 Bye bye.
00:09:05.920 Bye bye bye.
00:09:06.820 Bye bye.
00:09:07.840 Bye bye bye.
00:09:08.340 Bye bye.
00:09:08.700 Bye bye bye.
00:09:09.320 Bye bye bye.