Brian Johnson explores meditation practices from Ray Dalio's Transcendental Meditation to Vipassana and Nichiren, then introduces a single-word mantra experiment: "Arete." He uses it as an anchor to close the gap between your potential and what you actually do.
Questions this episode answers
October 4, 2022.
Arete.
Two 20-minute sessions: one after waking and one before dinner.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic One. This morning a friend of mine. Thank you, John sent me a link to an article on Ray Dalio's meditation practice. We linked it in the one in the app. Now as you know, if you've been following along, I'm a big fan of Dalio and his wisdom. We featured notes on his great book Principles in the Kids and I enjoyed the kids book he created on that book as well. We've also chatted about his five step Process for Success Note Step two is failure. Check out the links to that as part of our Win or Learn and Learning is winning so Win or Win philosophy. Each of those was linked to a plus one as well. But it wasn't until this morning that I learned about Dalio's meditation practice. He says it's his secret weapon. His approach Transcendental Meditation, otherwise known as TM. Now the key features of that approach include two 20 minute meditation sessions. Dalio does his first session after waking up and his second before dinner. Note he reduces the variability of his behavior to increase the likelihood of making the habit stick. Which, as you know, if you've gone through basic training and or the Mastery series and or habits 101 is a scientifically proven way to master yourself. Now another key feature of TM is a mantra. With Transcendental Meditation, you get your mantra from your TM teacher. You're not supposed to share it publicly, but it's something kind of like Om. You come back to that mantra again and again and again. It's the anchor see Meditation 101 in our collection of notes and plus ones on meditation that helps you still your mind so you can connect to something bigger than yourself while experiencing all the proven physiological and psychological benefits of meditation. Now I've studied TM and actually learned in the same room Maharishi Mahesh Yogi meditated in, as I was blessed to be trained by one of his top students and teachers. I've also studied Vipassana. We chat about my experience with Vipassana in our notes in As a Man Thinketh. Check those out. And we also chat about Vipassana in our notes on Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Check those out too. Now, Hirari is one of my favorite writers. The lucidity of his writing is extraordinary. Did you know he's been practicing vipassana and meditating for two hours a day for decades? It's true. And I've also practiced something called Passage Meditation developed by Eknath Esran. See those notes. And the style taught by Nichiren Buddhism. See those notes. And. Well, a bunch of other approaches. And I've also developed my own Heroic Meditation we'll talk more about soon. But today I want to share the new mantra meditation I'm going to start practicing as a little experiment, a single word. Can you guess what word I'm choosing? Hint. It's tattooed on my right forearm. The one word summation of my life, philosophy and ultimate target. Arete. That's the new mantra. Arete, Arete. Arete. On the inhale, Arete, Arete. Arete. On the exhale, Arete. Arete. Arete. Let's close the gap between who we're capable of being and who we're actually being. Not someday, not even some moment right now. And here's to soaking our consciousness in that ultimate target. If you feel so inspired, one breath at a time plus one arete plus one arete plus one aretek all day, every, every day. Especially today.
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