Eastern meditation technique in a Western theoretical framework

The technique of mindfulness meditation is all right, but not the esoteric conceptual cargo that so often comes with it. Luckily, there are a couple of quite good alternatives to be found in the western philosophical heritage, which, to me at least, are more palatable. 

Pyrrhonism is the earliest school or tradition of Skepticism. It’s named after Pyrrho, who probably wasn’t a very rigorous Skeptic by our standards, but then again theoretical skepticism wasn’t his main goal. His goal was to attain a good life through a mental practice of suspending judgment. This already sounds Eastern, and in fact it is, as Wikipedia informs me: “Pyrrho, along with Anaxarchus, travelled with Alexander the Great on his exploration of the East, and studied under the Gymnosophists in India and the Magi in Persia. This exposure to Eastern philosophy seems to have inspired him to adopt a life of solitude”.

Pyrrho aimed for ataraxia, which means freedom from worry or a pleasure that comes when the mind is at rest. He didn’t write anything himself, so most of what we know about his teachings comes from Sextus Empiricus’ “Outlines of Pyrrhonism”. I guess that’s where this explanation comes from (found here, unsourced): “By suspending judgment, by confining oneself to phenomena or objects as they appear, and by asserting nothing definite as to how they really are, one can escape the perplexities of life and attain an imperturbable peace of mind.”

I have great respect for ancient Skepticism, but wouldn’t have if there was no theoretically rigorous side to it. I’m not completely sure, but I think that side of Skepticism was the main focus of the sister tradition of Pyrrhonism, “Academic Skepticism”. The most prominent character in this tradition was Carneades. His focus was less meditative. He combined severe criticism of every kind of dogmatism with allowing for a probabilist basis for our judgments and our lives. He proposed the strictest possible philosophical rigour, so strict that the resulting agnosticism is all-encompassing. He even found reason to doubt logic. He held that nothing is certain, and even included this claim itself. This position is maximally careful and, if you will, maximally humble. But contrary to Pyrrhonism, the Skepticism of Carneades is not impractical and ascetic, because of the probabilistic account of knowledge. I think Carneades might be my philosophical grandfather, just like Nietzsche’s was Heraclitus. (In case you’re wondering, Nietzsche’s philosophical father was Schopenhauer, and mine is Nietzsche.)

Epicureanism is another really interesting tradition. It is less rigorous than Skepticism, but more charming. The Epicureans was interested in natural philosophy as well as the good life. Like the Pyrrhonians, they used the word ataraxia to denote the sought-for state of mind. To them, it signified “the detached and balanced state of mind that shows that a person has transcended the material world and is now harvesting all the comforts of philosophy” (source).

I don’t know very much about Epicureanism, but Nietzsche was very fond of it, so I guess I should look into it some time. From reading the Wikipedia entry on the subject, what strikes me the most is that Epicurus “conceived the gods as blissful and immortal yet material beings made of atoms inhabiting the metakosmia”, which was understood to be “the relatively empty spaces in the infinite void where worlds had not been formed by the joining together of the atoms through their endless motion”. I love ideas like this, ones that make me associate to the modern conception of virtual space. (I should start collecting.)

The last tradition I’ll mention is Stoicism. Instead of ataraxia, they called the good state of mind apatheia or apathy (absence of passion). I don’t have much to say about this, because I’m not very familiar with it. But I’ve ordered Seneca’s Epistles, so I might come back to it later. I’ve read a couple of his letters already, and he’s very likable, but I don’t think that goes for the Stoic philosophy in general, as it is quite similar to Christianity in several respects.