Dr. David Alter

Yeah, that's good.

But the real benefit is that it creates a lifestyle that's more health oriented and meditative practices are about not just what you do for that five or 10 or 20 or 30 minutes,

or if you go on a 10 day meditation retreat, it's really that you're creating a different lifestyle that orients you toward healthful awareness, healthful practices that put a stop to some of the stress mediated difficulties that accrue and take us into hypertensive or sleep disturbing or depressive or anxious or maritally distressing

conflicts and puts us in a position where we can be less reactive and more responsive.

The third thing that I heard you mention, Stan, is some of the modern research.

And I hope we get a chance to get into that.

There's lots of evidence

now that we can bring modern scientific methods of some of the specific health benefits that accrue to people who are engaged in a lifestyle that may include meditative practices.

So it's a win-win, it's comforting, it's soothing, and it's health promoting.

So I'll stop there, but those are three points I heard you allude to.

I love that observation and that question, Clarence.

What it touches on for me is how much contemporary life, especially here in the West and in America in particular, is very oriented to techniques.

How do you do this?

How do you do meditation?

How do you do weightlifting?

How do you do running?

How do you do healthy eating?

And what I'm trying to convey, and I'll probably come back to it a number of times, is that it's not just about what we do, but it's about changing how we are, how we show up in our day-to-day lives.

So as a concrete example, when people are nervous about the weirdness of meditating, right?

Am I going to become a zombie?