Think You Suck at Meditation? This Conversation Could Help. | Ofosu Jones-Quartey

Overview

This episode explores how to embrace meditation, even if you feel like you're bad at it. Meditation teacher and hip-hop artist Ofosu Jones-Quartey shares his journey with open-awareness meditation, its benefits, and how it helped him navigate OCD and neurodiversity. The conversation also delves into self-compassion, depersonalizing suffering, and the intersection of mindfulness and creativity.

Notable Quotes

- Turns out the pain that I was holding really wasn't mine. – Ofosu Jones-Quartey, on depersonalizing suffering.

- Meditation is where perfectionism comes to die. – Dan Harris, on the paradox of meditation.

- You don't have to chase the dharma. The dharma's chasing you. – Dan Harris, on the ever-present nature of mindfulness.

🧘‍♂️ Open-Awareness Meditation: A Radical Approach

- Open-awareness meditation, also called choiceless awareness, involves observing the flow of thoughts, sensations, and emotions without anchoring to a single focus like the breath.

- Ofosu describes it as the meditation of no meditation, offering freedom from the rigidity of traditional concentration practices.

- This practice helped Ofosu manage OCD, as focusing on a single object often triggered anxiety.

- Techniques like mental noting (e.g., silently labeling experiences as hearing, thinking, or pleasant) can help beginners stay present.

🧠 Neurodiversity and Meditation

- Ofosu shares how his OCD made traditional meditation practices feel like hell, but open-awareness provided a compassionate alternative.

- He emphasizes that meditation isn't about achieving perfection but about finding a practice that works for your unique mind.

- A key insight: suffering is often impersonal, shaped by conditioning and circumstances beyond our control. Recognizing this can reduce self-blame and foster healing.

💔 Depersonalizing Suffering

- Drawing from Buddhist teachings, Ofosu explains how suffering is universal and not a personal failing.

- A monk once advised him to view his suffering as part of a larger human experience, which helped him feel less isolated.

- This perspective aligns with the Buddhist concept of not-self, which sees emotions and thoughts as transient, impersonal phenomena.

🎵 Mindfulness Through Music

- Ofosu, also known as the hip-hop artist Born I, integrates mindfulness into his music. His lyrics explore themes of pain, healing, and self-awareness.

- In his song The Hundreds, he reflects on his struggles with addiction, mental health, and the transformative power of meditation.

- His new book, Lyrical Dharma, combines his lyrics with commentary on his life and Buddhist philosophy, offering a unique lens on mindfulness.

💡 Lowering the Bar: Self-Compassion in Practice

- Ofosu advocates for lowering the bar in meditation, letting go of perfectionism and rigid expectations.

- He reframes meditation as an act of self-compassion: Just sit and let yourself be.

- This approach can make meditation more accessible, especially for those who feel like they're failing at it.

- Dan Harris adds, The point is not to feel a certain way. It's to feel whatever you're feeling—clearly.