This post may be on the David Icke forums (!), but it’s a surprisingly good take on meditation:
The main thing you’ve got to ask yourself is “What happens when I concentrate and how do I set about the conditions to concentrate on concentration.”
When shooting a gun, you concentrate naturally for 5 seconds or so but you need to learn the process which you can do this for much longer. Still…People good at aiming a gun might have better concentration skills than those who meditate simply because they need to concentrate to hit their target. A person meditating doesn’t have that kind of target so they never build up a high degree of meditation in any of their meditations even if they do it 3 hours a day.
Sad news for French multiculturalism, as the only (!) politician who dared wear an islamic headscarf* has left the Nouvea Parti Anti-Capitaliste. Brent Whelan:
Moussaïd gave the party its most widespread–though least welcome–burst of publicity last February when she appeared on the list of local candidates in the regional election wearing the Islamic headscarf she favors. Squeezed between the strident criticisms of feminists and secularists, she held her ground–and insisted on her qualifications as a long-time social and party activist–with grace and poise that belied her 21 years. (See my previous post, “Veiled Threat,” 2/15/10) After a storm of polemics, mostly hostile, both inside the party and in highly visible venues such as the Idées pages of Le Monde, Ilham and her local supporters had hoped the delicate issues of tolerance and diversity she raised could be fully aired in a party congress. But as that public debate receded in time–originally scheduled for November, then December, now February–she apparently lost confidence in the party’s openness to her situation, and now her chapter is closed.
* We’re not even talking about a hijab here, by the looks of it — just a hair covering. i.e. something that wouldn’t be the faintest bit controversial in any halfway-sane political climate.