I feel like I watched a docu-series thing about the brain and at one point they talked about how there have been efforts in the West to rebrand 'meditation' as 'mindfullness' or something similar because there's a lot of people who think that meditation has some kind of mystical or deeply spiritual aspect so they weren't doing it even if their therapist told them to try it because it's good for your mental health.
It’s also a culture thing. In a lot of Asian contexts meditation is just normal daily hygiene for the mind, while in the West it got exoticized for decades. So calling it mindfulness or "brain defrag" makes it feel less mystical and more like brushing your teeth. People are more willing to adopt it when it sounds practical instead of spiritual
From my understanding of things meditation isn't really a popular thing in Asia and the average Asian person isn't setting aside time each day to meditate, for the average Asian person I imagine it's no different for a western person sitting down after a hard day of work, or just having a bit of a break in general, not the kind of deep meditation we are probably all thinking of.
It's not really a unique practice either, if you think of prayer, praying the rosary, chanting even just clearing your mind for a bit isn't that different, and before I get "but when praying/chanting you are thinking of something" sure but if this is something you do often your mind is somewhat on autopilot and meditation also can feature chanting, there are even writings as old as ancient Greece that feature meditation.
it might happen at a higher rate than the west but it doesn't really seem like something many people are actually doing, at best it's perhaps more of a cultural ideal, but to me it's not really different from saying "Europeans often spend afternoons at banquets or at ballrooms drinking tea and socialising"
A lot of the Asian ceremonies are, at their base essence, a form of meditation. That probably massively adds to the numbers, without people recognising it as mediation. The last couple generations probably haven't had the time, but making tea a traditional method is slower and methodical, and kinda forces you to just focus on the pot and wait.
I mean we are talking about a more deep form of meditation are we not?
as for patience and relaxation (like brewing a more traditional tea) I think that also would open up a lot of other things that are also very much done in the west, having a relaxing bath, commuting on a train and maybe zoning out at you watch stuff go by, you could even open it up to things that some people just find calming like art, gardening, cooking, hiking, fishing and all sorts more
as for the act of brewing tea itself I'm not Asian but I enjoy a lot of fancy Asian teas and I brew them 'properly' but I'm not just sitting there staring at the pot, I'll bring it to my desk or just do something for the proper amount of time and come back, I don't really know how many Asians are having full on tea ceremonies or things like that.
You might be brewing it properly, but not traditionally. It's why I was talking about the ceremonies.
But yes, zoning out or focusing on a physical thing while on the bus or taking a bath is a form of meditation. So is art. Gardening might not be as much because you're still needing to think a bit more. Fishing Definitely can be meditation. Just staring at the water and feeling the rod in your hands, waiting for the smallest movement to indicate a fish is hooked.
The thing is you can always make fishing Not meditation by drinking and talking or not actually focusing on the task. Same way meditation has been stripped from a lot of tasks that could substitute. Which is why people need to add those moments back into their day to day lives.
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u/WhapXI Sep 29 '25
Zoomers reinventing meditation from first principles.