How much of mindfulness is genetic?

[quantumspiral]

Of course, mindfulness can be cultivated to an extreme degree. But are some people naturally born more mindful?

Naturally talented musicians come to mind as someone who could fit this description.

How much does mindfulness vary between children (who haven't been formally trained in meditation)?

Are there examples of kids born freakishly mindful and aware?

Edited August 9, 2024 by quantumspiral

[Leo Gura]

10 minutes ago, quantumspiral said:

Are there examples of kids born freakishly mindful and aware?

Yes

But you are underestimating the issue. It's not about mindfulness. Mindfulness is BS. It's about baseline state of Consciousness.

[Yali]

@Leo Gura Considering that most haven't tried psychedelics, I find it hard to believe that 60 percent of Americans have had a non-dual experience, let alone a non-dual experience lasting anywhere from an hour up to a day. And Ken Wilber claims to be in this state quite a bit, but what's the elephant in the room? His genetics, which most people don't have.

Ken Wilber:

Quote

Recent polls have shown that more than 60 percent of Americans have had an experience that they describe as being one with everything. It’s usually a onetime, spontaneous experience that lasts for an hour or two—a day if you’re lucky—but it profoundly changes people because it shows them this state is reality. Ninety percent of them describe it as the most real experience they’ve ever had.

When you practice the type of meditation that specifically gets you into these unity states for 10, 20, 30 years, you’re going to be in those states quite a bit. You can be in the satori state in some central way most of the time. That’s true in my case, and it’s certainly true for all the teachers I’ve ever had.

 

Edited August 9, 2024 by Yali

[Leo Gura]

It's called: selection bias.

[Raze]

Dr. Jeffery Martin studied people who had persistent mystical experiences and he said he couldn’t find any genetic correlates 

Edited August 9, 2024 by Raze

[Salvijus]

A physical body is not even necessary to be aware. That should give a clue what role genetics play in your awareness. 

The cultivation of the energy body is related more than anything else to your spiritual abilities and level of awareness. 

Without the energy body, no matter how good your genetics are, it's just a dead corpse capable of no awareness whatsoever. 

 

Edited August 9, 2024 by Salvijus

[Girzo]

@Raze that just tells you about the resolution of tools we have at hand. Not so high.

[Raze]

2 minutes ago, Girzo said:

@Raze that just tells you about the resolution of tools we have at hand. Not so high.

That’s only assuming there must be a biological cause, the point is we do not currently know this.

[Carl-Richard]

1 hour ago, Raze said:

Dr. Jeffery Martin studied people who had persistent mystical experiences and he said he couldn’t find any biological correlates 

There are neural correlates though.

[Raze]

1 minute ago, Carl-Richard said:

There are neural correlates though.

True, I meant genetic not biological, my bad.

[Girzo]

@Raze yeah, but in that fight I evaluate us not knowing how genetics fully work yet as a stronger fighter than the thesis that genetics play little to no role.

[Raze]

56 minutes ago, Girzo said:

@Raze yeah, but in that fight I evaluate us not knowing how genetics fully work yet as a stronger fighter than the thesis that genetics play little to no role.

But we don’t need to know how they fully work, we can just look at patterns.

There are many genetic diseases we don’t entirely understand, but we still can tell they are genetic because they show up in patterns.

[BlessedLion]

You can develop your consciousness, it just takes work that. 99% of people won't do

[quantumspiral]

@Leo Gura Ok thanks for clarifying, I was using them synonymously

[quantumspiral]

@BlessedLion Of course. I'm just interested in how much of consciousness can come about naturally- either from nature or nurture, without formal practice.

For example, was there an environment, perhaps in ancient history, that was extremely conducive to the development of consciousness? Such that the people in that environment naturally developed high levels of consciousness without formal meditation practice. Maybe this would be a tribe that was not war-like in close contact with nature.

[NoN-RaTiOnAL]

nobody knows. we barely even understand what the brain is.