[Buddha-l] there he goes again (sam harris)

[Joy Vriens]

ALex wrote:
>> The attempt to wrest some reinvention of "meditation" without "the 
>> beliefs of Eastern religion" seems likely to miss the point almost 
>> entirely. 

Richard answered: 
>Our experiences apparently differ. The contemplative exercises I have  
>consistently found most useful are the four foundations of mindfulness and  
>the mettaa-bhaavanaa, neither of which buy in any way into beliefs of any  
>kind. 

Don't those "picking up" the "practice" of "the four foundations of mindfulness" believe (for lack of a more appropriate word) that it is the only way for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana?
That somehow, someday, somewhere there is a link between contemplating the body, feeling, consciousness and mental objects and attaining something called, spelled, transmitted and revered as being Nibbana?      

>> What is "meditation", after all? 
 
>A pretty much useless word in desperate search for a meaning. I think there  
>should be a twenty-year moratorium on its use---along with a fifty-year ban  
>on the use of such meaningless expressions as "enlightenment." 

:-) Meditation is the whole of the mental construction supporting and especially motivating our mindfulness of body, feeling, consciousness and mental objects.