Meditation, Part II

This continues my previous post on Meditation.

For the most utilitarian of reasons, I've been wanted to start meditating for a while now. Perhaps meditation would help me maintain concentration at work, which is something that wanes more than I'd like it to. I sometime feel a little guilty that my goal is just for improved focus instead of inner peace or spiritual fulfillment. But, in the spirit of Stoicism, the more you can focus, the more you can help others, and the more rational you can be.

I've finally started a month ago. Every day I mediate for 10 minutes, which is all I think I can spare for now. I can't say I've seen any particular difference in my life so far, but it seems to be pretty good at breaking up bad thought patterns and sort of "resetting" my mental state. So far, this has been of some limited use.

One of the thoughts that often (and involuntarily) cross my mind while meditating is imagining the scene of a room full of monks meditating, who are watched over by their teacher, who occasionally hits them with a stick. I don't know where I've seen this, and I have no idea what this practice is called. I also have no clue as to why the teacher is hitting them. But I wonder if he just hits everyone. Imagine trying to meditate when you know you'll get hit at some random time. If you knew this, the only way to meditate successfully would be to live entirely in the present. Your focus would have to be very strong for this. If it is a real technique, it is a pretty interesting one, and I'm almost curious to try it. But I doubt I'll ever be good enough to attempt such a feat.

I haven't decided yet if meditation would be useful to Stoicism. In theory, I'd say it would be, since it would help with the Stoic detachment that is often necessary. In practice, I'm not sure what use I'm getting out of it. I'll keep meditation for another month or two and re-appraise the situation at a later time.