Some resources on meditation that the HN community might find helpful, generally ones with a scientific, skeptical and secular perspective.
Apps
Meditation is somewhat inherently incompatible with the late stage venture funded scale based defensibility model of doing business. You actually become less dependent on paid resources as you advance in the skill. For this reason I think the mainstream apps like Calm and Headspace really help in the beginning but plateau you at a level you will continue paying at. That said, don't let this stop you from using what works for you.
- My favorite for getting started was 10% Happier. The format is an interview between a skeptic and a usually well trained meditation teacher, usually a founder of the IMS, which started the whole Buddhism in the West movement. Same business model as Calm and Headspace so some of the same problems. [1]
- Once past a threshold, most meditators use Insight Timer. They are a much leaner operation and the business model is designed to avoid the pitfalls of having to scale to recoup heavy investment.
I found that wiring myself up to a low-price EEG and looking at the raw data over a few months was a good way to convince myself all of this works. I use Muse but not their own app, someone out there built an app to chart the raw data called Muse Monitor that's much better.
Insight Meditation Society (MA) and Spirit Rock (CA) are mindfulness meditation centers that are a good place to start. If you want something lower-priced Dhamma.org is a much-lower-price (both are donation based but the suggested range varies), worldwide set of spaces but the teachers are less adapted to a western context.
I was using these apps for about 2 years, and I got to a point where I would use it daily and feel better for it, so it was a subscription worth paying for.
Later on, I went on to read some books that really answered a lot of my "am I doing this right" questions that the content in the apps didn't. Now, there's no reason why the apps can't have more the material that those books presented, but learning from a book made me confident enough in my understanding of the methods that all I needed afterwards was a simple timer.
I was using the standard iOS timer for a long time. I didn't like the noise knocking me out of my session. I built an app (https://quantifiedsit.com) that gently taps me on the wrist using the Apple Watch at the end of my planned session. That way I don't have to stop the timer.
I wouldn’t suggest that anybody needs a smart watch in order to meditate. I get a lot of value out of it myself. I enjoy keeping metrics such as heart rate and using reminders and tracking the time I’ve spent meditating. Your mileage may vary.
The threshold is around complexity of your practice, and you don't need a complex practice to get very far. It just helps if you have specific goals for your practice.
What you're doing is totally fine. Insight timer gives you some useful additions like repeating timers or sub-timers with different bells, e.g. if your practice requires changing the style of meditation 20 minutes in, etc.
Also, the sounds on Insight timer are Tibetan bells typically used for coming out of meditations, which have a long but diminishing sound so as to bring you back gently.
Apps
Meditation is somewhat inherently incompatible with the late stage venture funded scale based defensibility model of doing business. You actually become less dependent on paid resources as you advance in the skill. For this reason I think the mainstream apps like Calm and Headspace really help in the beginning but plateau you at a level you will continue paying at. That said, don't let this stop you from using what works for you.
- My favorite for getting started was 10% Happier. The format is an interview between a skeptic and a usually well trained meditation teacher, usually a founder of the IMS, which started the whole Buddhism in the West movement. Same business model as Calm and Headspace so some of the same problems. [1]
- Once past a threshold, most meditators use Insight Timer. They are a much leaner operation and the business model is designed to avoid the pitfalls of having to scale to recoup heavy investment.
Books
This list. Everything in here is generally high signal/noise ratio, and very little that you have to take on faith. https://deconstructingyourself.com/best-meditation-books-201...
Tools
I found that wiring myself up to a low-price EEG and looking at the raw data over a few months was a good way to convince myself all of this works. I use Muse but not their own app, someone out there built an app to chart the raw data called Muse Monitor that's much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX-4rpCegjk
Places (mostly aware of US only)
Insight Meditation Society (MA) and Spirit Rock (CA) are mindfulness meditation centers that are a good place to start. If you want something lower-priced Dhamma.org is a much-lower-price (both are donation based but the suggested range varies), worldwide set of spaces but the teachers are less adapted to a western context.
[1] https://www.tenpercent.com/ [2] https://insighttimer.com/blog/something-magical-is-happening...