What do Bill Gates, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and historian-philosopher Yuval Noah Harari have in common?
They all meditate.
They also all write stuff that I really like to read. Especially Yuval, he’s literally my favourite author. Last year D bought his book, Sapiens, which is about the brief history of the human species. In it, Yuval states “Homo sapiens rules the world because it is the only animal that can believe in things that exist purely in its own imagination, such as gods, states, money and human rights.” D and I both consumed the book, night after night, then bought his second book “Homo Deus”, then “21 Lessons for the 21st Century.” As a result, similar to when one is in a new romance, we couldn’t help talking about the new lessons Yuval had imparted on us, sharing excepts with our friends at dinner parties, loaning out our own copies, and buying the books for family as gifts. It’s not uncommon in our household to hear a sentence start with the phrase “ As Yuval says……..”
The first book ‘Sapiens’ was listed as recommended reading in Bill Gates’ blog, which is where D first came across it. Gates has posted a more recent book review of Harari’s newest book ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century.’ Harari discusses that “in a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power.” He also touches on the subject of meditation, and this is the section Gates comments on in the review. “He doesn’t suggest that the world’s problems will vanish if enough of us start sitting in the lotus position and chanting om,” observes Gates who meditates two or three times a week for about 10 minutes each session. He adds “life in the 21st century demands mindfulness – getting to know ourselves better and seeing how we contribute to suffering in our own lives.”
It’s worth noting at this stage that both Harari and Jack Dorsey practice vipassana meditation, or “insight meditation,” a technique that focuses on observing and understanding thought patterns.
“I do two hours every day of meditation,” Harari told GQ in 2018. “I go to a lot of retreats, up to 60 days every year, and it works for me. I won’t say that it will work the same for everybody. Different techniques work for different for people.”
Dorsey also meditates for two hours daily, and has been on 10-day silent meditation retreats.
This all sounds super impressive, but for the rest of us, that’s a lot of time dedicated to self-awareness, even in this Covid Age of unemployment and social isolation, which applies to a lot of us right now.
I first introduced meditation into my life 6 years ago. I spent a lot of my time in those days lying on a mat thinking “Goddam it, how do I clear my mind?” These days, whilst I am not always successful, I try to fit in 20 minutes a day, and agree that meditation is a survival technique, and maybe these super-bright figureheads of society are onto something we can all benefit from. Before Covid-19, when life was ‘normal’ I would always say I was “too busy, not enough time, there was always too much, too much to do!” Meditation kept me sane, and has always helped me to take a deep breath, and try to stay in the moment.
Now it serves a very different purpose. I suddenly have plenty of time, but I continue to meditate for different reasons.
D and I swim laps as the sun sets. The dog watches us, with a wise look on her face, as if to say “Why are your souls not still?”
D used to meditate daily too. Interestingly, he has stopped since lockdown started. He used to go to a kickboxing gym in George Town, kick and beat the crap out of a bag, or another skilled boxer in the ring, then come home and meditate along with an app called Headspace, and sit on the couch with his eyes closed, looking like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Aside from the odd bruised nose or ear, you’d never know he could harm a fly.
“Why did you stop meditating during lockdown?” I ask D, because it has now only just occurred to me.
“Because I reached enlightenment” says D with a grin.
“How do you know when you’ve reached enlightenment?” I ask.
“You just know” says D.
Headspace are apparently giving away a year’s free subscription to anyone who’s unemployed. If you can bring yourself to click on the blue “Unemployed?” button, (as I couldn’t, because that’s too loaded a question right now,) you could be in for a real treat.
There are loads of great apps out there offering guided meditation, and they all offer a host of different experiences. I think we each have to find the right one that speaks to us. I continue to meditate as much as I can in this age of silent chaos, because the constant chatter in our heads only holds the power we choose to give it. To meditate might be our best shot at silencing it. It might help answer the question; “How do we survive, and thrive, in this new reality?” Or it might just help our souls to be still.
