Anonymous User asked: I'm reading your meditation post, and are there any perspectives on meditation that don't reduce things to discrete objects called thoughts? My experience with meditation has been defined more by...energy, than matter? I'm not sure how to phrase it. Imagine the psychological equivalent of holding your breath (not as a conscious action, to be clear), or that part in Hunter x Hunter when Hisoka stops Gon and Killua from entering Heaven's Arena (https://youtu.be/qpmX8SEcUcI). Point is, I've never been able to find anything that even addresses this problem, much less helps me with it.
I would say that, of what I know, it’s Zen that’s supposed to have the perspective closest to not reducing things into discrete thoughts, but then again the whole point of Zen (at least at its founding) was that it prioritized direct experience over learning from texts and traditions, which means you might not find anything saying “this is the problem and how to fix it.” A Zen person might say: just keep sitting, and don’t worry about doing anything specific with your thoughts one way or another. But you should not take my word for it.