Original subtitles

you have done a lot of deep thinking

about the world about yourself this kind

of introspection

how do you think

If You by way of advice but just

practically speaking

day to day how do you think about

difficult problems with the world

first of all I take time off

like mother the the most important thing

I do

I think as a writer as a scientist that

I meditate I spend about two hours every

day in silent meditation

observing as much as possible

non-verbally what is happening within

myself focusing you know Body Sensations

the breath

thoughts keep coming up but I try not to

give them attention don't try to drive

them away just let them be there in the

background like some background noise

don't engage with the thoughts

because the mind is is constantly

producing stories with words these

stories come between us and the world

they don't allow us to see ourselves or

the world like for me the most shocking

thing when I started meditating like 23

years ago

I was given this simple exercise to just

observe my breath coming in and out of

the nostrils

not controlling it just observing it

and I couldn't do it for more than 10

seconds I for 10 seconds would try to

notice oh now the breath is coming in

it's coming in it's coming you know it

stopped coming in and now it's going out

going out 10 seconds and some memory

would come some thought would come some

story about something that happened last

last week or 10 years ago or in the

future and it the story would hijack my

attention it would take me maybe five

minutes to remember oh I'm supposed to

be observing my my breath

if I can't observe my own breath because

of these stories created by the mind how

can I hope to understand much more

complex things like the political

situation in Israel the Israeli

Palestinian conflict the Russian

invasion of Ukraine if all these stories

keep coming I mean it's not the truth

it's just the story your own mind

created so first thing train the mind to

be silent and just observe so two hours

every day and I go every year for a long

retreat between one month and two months

60 days of just Sonic meditation silent

meditation for 60 days yeah to train the

mind forget about your own stories just

observe what is really happening

and then also on other throughout the

day

have an information diet

people are today many people are very

aware of what they feed their body what

enters their mouth mouth

be very aware of what you feed your mind

what enters your mind having information

diet

so for instance I read long books

and I prefer like you know I do many

interviews I prefer three hours

interviews two five minutes interviews

uh the long format is in it's not always

feasible

but you can go much much deeper

um so I would say an information diet be

very careful about what you feed your

mind give preference

to big chunks over small uh books over

Twitter yes books over Twitter

definitely

and then you know when I encounter a

problem a difficult intellectual problem

then

um I give it I I let the problem lead it

lead me

where it goes and not where I want it to

go

if I approach a problem with some

preconceived idea solution and then try

to impose it on the problem and you know

just find confirmation bias just find

the evidence that supports my view it's

this is this is easy for the mind to do

and you don't learn anything new

do you take notes do you start to

concretize your thoughts

on paper

I read a lot I don't I don't usually I

don't take notes then I start writing

and when I write I write like a torrent

just right now is the time you read you

didn't meditation now it's the time to

write write don't stop just right so I

would write from memory

and I'm I'm not afraid of formulating

say Big Ideas big theories and putting

them on paper

the danger is once it's on paper or not

on paper on the screen in the computer

you get attached to it and then you

start with confirmation bias to build

more and more layers around it and you

can't go back and then it's very

dangerous

but I I trust myself that I have to some

extent the ability to press the delete

button the most important button in the

keyboard is delete yeah

I I write and then I delete I write and

then I delete and because I trust myself

that I'll have the every time I come to

press delete button I feel bad like it's

a kind of pain and I created this it's a

beautiful idea and I have to delete it

but you're still brave enough to press

delete I try and hopefully I do it

enough times and this is important

because in the long term it enables me

to play with ideas I have the confidence

to start formulating

some Brave idea most of them turn out to

be nonsense

but I trust myself not to be accused not

to be attached not to become attached to

my own nonsense

so it gives me this room for playfulness

I will be emissive I didn't ask for

people interested in hearing you talk

about meditation if they want to start

meditating what advice would you give

and how to start you mentioned you

couldn't hold the fur you couldn't hold

your attention on your breath for longer

than 10 seconds yes first

so how did they start on this journey

first of all it's a difficult Journey

it's not fun it's not recreational it's

not kind of time to relax it can be very

very intense the most difficult thing at

least in the meditation I practice uh

vipassana which I learned from a teacher

called Essen goenka the most difficult

thing is not the silence it's not the

sitting for long hours it's what comes

up

everything you don't want to know about

yourself yeah this is what comes up so

it's very intense and difficult if you

go to a Meditation Retreat don't think

you're going to relax

so what is what's the experience for

meditation and tree when everything you

don't like comes up first for 30 days it

depends what comes up anger comes up

you're angry yeah for days on end you're

just boiling with anger everything makes

you angry

again something that happens right now

or you remember something from 20 years

ago and you start boiling with it's like

I I never even thought about this

incident but it's some it was somewhere

stalled with a huge huge

pile of anger attached to it and it's

now coming up and all the anger is

coming up maybe it's boredom

you know

30 days of meditation you start getting

bored and it's the most boring thing in

suddenly no anger no it's the most

boring I I another second I scream

I mean and boredom is one of the most

difficult thing to deal with in life I

think it's closely related to death

death is boring you know in many movies

death is exciting it's not exciting when

when he died ultimately it's it's

boredom nothing happens it's the end of

exciting things and many things in the

world happen because of boredom to some

extent people start entire Wars because

of Bordeaux people quit relationships

people quit jobs because of boredom and

if you never learn how to deal with

boredom you will never learn how to

enjoy peace and quiet

because the way to peace passes through

boredom

and and from what I experience with

meditation I think

but maybe it was the most difficult

maybe at least in the top three like

much more difficult to say than anger or

pain when pain comes up you feel heroic

I'm feeling pain

when boredom comes up

brings it you know with depression and

feelings of worthlessness and it's

nothing I'm nothing

the way the peace is through boredom uh

David Foster Wallace said the key to

life is to be unborable

uh yeah it's just a different

perspective on what you're talking to is

there truth to that yes I mean it's

closely related I would say like I look

at the world today like Politics the one

thing we need more than anything else is

boring politicians

we have a super abundance of very

exciting politicians who are doing and

saying very exciting things and we need

boring politicians and we need them

quickly and

yeah the weighty pieces through boredom

that applies in more ways than one