Meditation is not about going blank and stay blank. Nothing is nothing.
Meditation is using nothing to fill the consciousness.
One has to choose to sit here, find or make a nothing, and have the will to stay in the mental state.
Some day, sometimes, something would barge in and refuse to go.
Something unexpected, annoying, negative, embarrassing, could be anything.
One has to to choose to accept, live with it, let it flow, let it go, then back to nothing.
Fighting back is futile. Accept, or understand are more effective.
The process could be long and uncomfortable, depends on the state of mind. Will over the turbulence and not give up is hard.
Meditation and exercise are useful to live in the era of twitter and instagram.
I have a carefully curated twitter feed. So at any given moment, I could find endless useful information on twitter, and endless cheap dopamine on instagram.
Choice is about agency and will is the source of endurance to see thing through.
That’s why practice choosing to sit, here now, for a period of time for nothing could be very useful.
The point is never to delete instagram or turn off the internet, but to maintain the level of agency and will for effortless control on all circumstances all time.
Forced no option is self-deceived control. Face the temptation directly, choose to say yer or no and know why is better. This is the same reason why stoicism doesn’t work. The will is there but forced suffering destroy the sense of agency, which makes the suffering meaningless. Effortless control is impossible. Only paralyzed sense and mind in return. Might as well just follow Epicureanism and be honest.