h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This entry gives clear and simple instructions on the Buddhust Loving Kindness Meditation - which is a Meditation for Peace. It develops your ability to respond with loving kindness to any situation. We need this now.

It was prompted by the events of the 11th and 12th September, but it gives instructions on a practice which is over 2500 years old.

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a girl called Ben

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A631261

It's a good one, but I (of course) think it would be improved by some links and references.


Mikey

You are right of course, but I don't know my way around on-line Buddhism that well.

I think the links I would want would be to meditation classes.

It is intended to get people to do it. If we only change our actions if we change our hearts.

Good to see you hear Mikey.

Love

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a human called Ben

I've mentioned it off the article, but then I found this link, so I will say it again.

I think that you actually have two entries here, one on the loving kindness meditation, and another about meditation generally.

If you know about any other meditative techniques, you have got a university project, otherwise, you have a pair of reasonably good entries.

Xyroth

You are of course right.

However my hope is that people will DO the meditation - the more of us who can build peace in our hearts in this time, the better. As Churchill said - what we have to fear the most is fear itself. This helps to replace fear (and therefore hate) with loving-kindness.

I may split it into two in due course, but for the moment, I want to keep it as one entry.

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a human-being called Ben

I can see why you want to keep the "how to meditate" stuff in this one, but I think writing a general guide entry on "how to meditate" would be a great service to the guide.


Mikey

I think you are right about a general guide to meditation. But I think there are probably some much more experienced meditators on the site here.

Let me mull this one over.

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an apprentice called Ben

if you split the general stuff about preparing for the specific method off, you have an entry about how to meditate. you then add a bit at the end about how to revert back to normal, and a bit in the middle about reinforcing positive ideas, and that is your general entry.

Xyroth sweetie, I could take what is already there, and write it into an entry which looked as if it was about meditation.

My point about being an apprentice meditator is that there is so much about meditation I do not know.

There are walking meditations, ways to meditate on pain (which require you to be in physical pain), meditations listening to music, a whole raft of stuff. I do not meditate daily, (though I am meditating daily now). I do not teach meditation. I am not experienced or qualified enough to write a good piece, and I respect the process too much to write a bad one.

What is there is the minimum necessary to enable a novice to have a useful self-guided experience with the Metta-Bhavna. Take out the Metta-Bhavna and what is left is contextless, if well-meaning. And to describe the Metta-Bhavna without providing guidance on how to do it is to fall into the trap that western religions have fallen into when they record the words of prayers but give no guidance on how to say them.

I may well write an introductionary artical to meditation, but I don't feel like doing so at the moment.

But tomorrow is another day...

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a horse being led to water called Ben

Can I just point out that I would be more strongly inclined to recommend this one if the bit in the beginning about emailing it on to other people was left out -- this is a great entry, but I would be very peeved to receive it as spam.


Mikey

No problem, Mikey - the email thing was specific to when it was written on the 13th September.

To be honest I am not entirely sure I want it recommended now. I don't trust the editorial process - it needs to be edited by a meditator, preferably a Bhuddist.

But the point about emailing is a good one and I will remove it.

B

Ben wrote: "To be honest I am not entirely sure I want it recommended now. I don't trust the editorial process."

My 2 cents is that you should start a uni project -- then you'd have some control over how it's edited. Yes, yes, I know you don't consider yourself knowledgeable to be the one writing all sorts of entries about meditation -- I'm not saying you should write them all, just that you should start/run the uni project. You could then recruit all sorts of writers. I currently have a uni project going where I've written well under 25% of the entries -- you gotta love delegation....

Just let us know what you want -- if you don't want this one going through PR, now would be the time to move this thread.

Mikey

Sounds interesting... Where do I find out more about Uni projects?

Ben

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'The Loving Kindness Meditation - How to Pray for Peace'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!