If a philosopher who meditates spends five hours per day on philosophy, how many hours should he spend on meditation? One correspondent of mine, a retired philosophy professor and Buddhist, told me that if x hours are spent on philosophy, then x hours should be spent on meditation. So five hours of philosophy ought to be balanced by five hours of meditation. A hard saying! I find it very easy to spend five to eight hours per day reading and writing philosophy. But my daily formal meditation sessions are almost never more than two hours in duration. There is also mindfulness while hiking or doing other things such as clearing brush or washing dishes, but I don't count that as formal meditation.
What are the possible views on this topic of time apportionment?
1. No time should be wasted on philosophy. Pascal famously remarked that philosophy is not worth an hour's trouble. (I am pretty sure he had his countryman Renatus Cartesius in mind.) But he didn't proffer his remark in defense of Benares, but of Jerusalem. Time apportionment as between Athens and Jerusalem is a separate topic. Note that Pascal made an exception in his own case. He left behind a magnificent collection that comes down to us as Pensées. So no philosophy is worth an hour's trouble except Pascal's own. It would have shown greater existential consistency had the great thinker devoted himself after his conversion to prayer, meditation, and charitable works. But then we would have been the poorer for it.
2. No time should be wasted on meditation. Judging by their behavior, the vast majority of academic philosophers seem committed to some such proposition.
3. Time spent on either is wasted. The view of the ordinary cave-dweller or worldling.
4. More time ought to be devoted to philosophy. But why?
5. The two 'cities' deserve equal time. The view of my Buddhist correspondent.
6. More time ought to be devoted to meditation than to philosophy.
What could be said in defense of (6)? Three quotations from Paul Brunton (Notebooks, vol. II, The Quest, Larson, 1986, p. 13):
- The intuitive element is tremendously more important than the intellectual . . . .
- The mystical experience is the most valuable of all experiences . . . .
- . . . the quest of the Overself is the most worthwhile endeavour open to human exertions.
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