Waking Up
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Andrew Wilkinson

Waking Up - Guided meditation with Sam Harris

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Join Sam Harris—neuroscientist, philosopher, and bestselling author—on a course that will teach you to meditate, reason more effectively, and deepen your understanding of yourself and others.

The Waking Up Course is for anyone who wants to begin the practice of mindfulness meditation, as well as for those with an established practice.

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Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
Hi All— If I knew how painful it would be to build a meditation app, I might not have tried. It only took 1189 days! (That is literally true.) But it's here, and I'm happy with it. And I'll be building out the curriculum over the next year—which will be the fun part. Looking forward to discussing it with you from 1-2 pm PT.
Jijo Sunny
Voicenotes
@samharrisofficial This is awesome Sam. I just received your Patron email for lifetime subscription access. As a super user of Calm and Headspace, so excited to give this a whirl
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@jijosunny Hope you enjoy it. And thanks for supporting the podcast!
Josh James
@samharrisofficial Any advice for hypochondriacs who find meditation difficult because focusing on our body is exactly what makes us nervous?
Yevgeny Simkin
@samharrisofficial I'm unclear on where this Live Q&A takes place on this page... am I overlooking some widget? (I'm sorry - I'm new to technology having only spent the last 20 years in the field, so all this is still quite new to me)
Mars Cheung
@samharrisofficial Hello Mr. Harris. Big fan and supporter of your work. I'm enormously excited to begin exploration of meditation under the guidance of your app. Having been a practitioner of martial arts, do you see any parallels between the meditative practices advocated and the 'moving meditation' espoused by some Japanese martial arts traditions? A Zen Priest and Aikido practitioner I once studied under stated something along the lines of one practice having influenced the other. Asian traditions, I think, would state this influence as a state of 'no-mind'. Could you comment on this?
Ryan Hoover
Product Hunt
Interesting to see this launch and surprised more authors/podcasters with large followings don't expand their reach in this way. What's the backstory, @samharrisofficial? Curious how long it's been in the works and what you think about the competitive meditation app space today.
Jason
plug.dj
@samharrisofficial @rrhoover "competitive meditation" that's such a hilarious phrase! 😉
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@rrhoover I think I can guess why more don't do it—building an app is hard! I naively thought it was analogous to building a website. After a very protracted and expensive false start, I finally found a team that I could trust to do it. The current version was build by the great people at Metalab, and we've now put a full-time team in place to maintain and develop it.
Michael Jones
@samharrisofficial @rrhoover @sixside I predict Sam's offering will fare well in the cutthroat, competitive meditation app space.
Carson Collins
Hi. @wakingupkarl @samharrisofficial Having a fantastic app experience so far, however, last night I was interested in listening to all of your lessons available consecutively and had to close out and re enter each one to do so. Are there any plans to allow auto-play functionality on the lessons?
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@wakingupkarl @carson_collins Yes. Or playlists. Please give any suggestions for new features you want through the contact form at wakingup.com. And thanks!
Carson Collins
Alan Balfe
Daniel Ku
When will it be available for Android?
Karl
Waking Up
Maker
@danzwku hey Daniel! The Android version is just in its final rounds of beta testing and bug fixes now. We’re hoping to release it very soon.
Daniel Ku
@wakingupkarl will it be available to everyone on release or subscribers only? If the latter, when will it be open to everyone?
Karl
Waking Up
Maker
@danzwku the plan is to release the Android version to everyone. You can sign up to get notified about the release at wakingup.com.
Nicholas Truscello
Can't wait for the Android release! All the best Sam and Team Waking Up!
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@army_leg123 I promise that won't take another 3 years.
Jay Irwin
@army_leg123 @samharrisofficial will you make the Android beta available to your paid podcast supporters?
Donal Hanway
Beautiful design and good UX, but amazing content above all! Great job Sam!
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@donal_hanway Thanks, Donal. The content will keep evolving. I'll be building the course out over the next year.
Brockton Anderson
Hi @samharrisofficial, Do you find particular environments more beneficial to meditate in than others, or is the idea of finding somewhere comfortable counter-intuitive to the introspective nature of meditating; i.e., letting sounds and feelings both pleasant and not arise in consciousness "neutrally." Should we establish a consistency in our meditative environment, or is a diversity in atmosphere useful? Also wondering when the Android version will be released. Look forward to using the app. Thanks, Brockton
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@brockton_anderson For this type of meditation (mindfulness, open awareness), the goal is to realize some fundamental characteristics of consciousness (e.g. selflessness, the impermanence of all phenomena, etc.). And for that, all environments really are more or less equal—provided you can actually pay attention in a balanced way. You definitely don't need silence. But being chased by bear is probably not ideal either.
Brockton Anderson
@samharrisofficial You're telling me the bears weren't a part of it this whole time? Appreciate the response, Sam.
Emily Hodgins
Product Hunt
Hi @samharrisofficial thanks for joining us! In this busy world we live in, how do you recommend people find time for mindfulness? What are you top tips for getting into a positive routine?
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@ems_hodge You just have to prioritize it and do it. Apps make it easy, because you're only committing in increments of 10 minutes. Commit to 10 minutes a day for 30 days and see what happens. If you don't think you have 10 minutes to spare, you should probably do 20 minutes...😄
Andrew Sun
@samharrisofficial I loved your book Waking Up, which inspired me to take up mediation daily. What's your experience been like in teaching mediation? Have you given face to face lessons or have experience in leading retreats?
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@andrew_sun I lead a retreat at Esalen back in 2004, when my first book came out. And it's taken me this long to get back to the topic!
Peter Bernstein
@samharrisofficial I'm really excited to try this because I haven't quite been able to lose the sense of self as you describe when I try meditation by myself. I like your analogy that it's like when you're watching TV or reading a book you lose the sense of self in that you're immersed in the thing you're paying attention to and don't notice the self. I was sincerely wondering though, what advantage does meditation have over something like reading or listening to music or watching TV if those allow you to lose the sense of self as well?
Sam Harris
Waking Up
Maker
@peter_bernstein There is a big difference between losing your sense of self inadvertently (when concentrating on work, or watching a film) and being able to recognize that there is no self in a moment of clear mindfulness. Only the latter is a reliable antidote to psychological suffering.
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