Meditation and Me Time

The question of the soul versus the self

The plague of anxiety which is engulfing what we laughingly call our society is at fever pitch. Of course, a consumer culture such as ours transfers all the emotional cost of the profit system to the private individual. Isolated, alone, and faced with one hysterical crisis after another, it is unsurprising after the solitary confinement of lockdowns that people have discovered they don’t like being with themselves.

Meditation is a big business. It is now called something like ‘wellness’ - or, in the words of Sadiq Khan - ‘Mennal elth’. To look after your ‘mennal elth’ has become a duty. Self care, they call it. Candles, duvet days, hot rocks, yoga, dolphin themed tarot cards, mindfulness. Cometh the hour, cometh the merchandise. This, however, is yet another cure which will make you even more sick.

Meditation in all its forms is to do with the self. Most meditation is mental masturbation - it’s a habit to make you ‘feel good’ which is bad for you, because it makes you more and not less …