In the summer of 2018, a few friends who love promoting philosophy and I held a talk at Eslite in Tsim Sha Tsui. During the Q&A, one young man kept pressing with questions, and between them he even drew on the ideas of several philosophers — which is how this friend first caught my attention. To my surprise, after the talk ended he came up to say hello, told us he was setting up a group to promote meditation, and asked whether we would be interested in collaborating. Bold, direct, sincere, and well-read — that was my first impression of him, and it is still my impression of him today.
That friend is Peter, and that group is TreeholeHK — back when it was still called "Confession Hole".
From that first collaboration, two years have somehow already gone by. Lately, chatting with friends, I have discovered that quite a few of them are learning meditation, and many of them know of TreeholeHK. I cannot say for certain whether it was the rise of meditation that introduced everyone to TreeholeHK, or the rise of TreeholeHK that made meditation so popular. I suspect it was a little of both. But I do believe TreeholeHK has made a real contribution to bringing meditation to a wider audience.
If nothing else, Peter read psychology at university, and over the two years we have run courses together I have learned a great deal of psychology from him. Although he did not go down the academic research path, I still feel deeply that his grounding in psychology is solid. And that really matters. In the past, meditation often gave people the wrong impression — that it was simply Buddhist sitting practice and Zen cultivation — so that anyone who was not a Buddhist, or who had no interest in Buddhism, felt there was no need to learn meditation. Peter, however, teaches meditation in a non-religious form (even though he does have a certain knowledge of Buddhist studies!), and, drawing on his training in psychology, he is able to explain the principles and benefits of meditation in a scientific way, so that the general public can understand its value too.
In the book, for example, he uses research from neuroscience to explain the relationship between meditation and the prefrontal cortex of the brain, helping us understand why meditation can strengthen our concentration. Elsewhere he draws on S–ART theory to show us how meditation aids self-transformation, allowing us to manage and change our own personality and behaviour. These are all studies with an academic foundation, not some kind of pseudoscience, yet Peter conveys them slowly, in language everyone can follow, so that we come to understand the principles behind meditation more clearly.
And this brings out another distinctive feature of the book. The traditional psychological approach to understanding and teaching meditation focuses mainly on goals such as relieving stress, improving concentration, and treating or preventing emotional illness. The book of course touches on all of these aims, but Peter's vision is far broader than this. Meditation does more than help relieve stress; it can also help us improve ourselves. Beyond making us more focused, it can make us more free. Peter places meditation within a much larger context, letting us see that, besides benefiting our mental health, it also carries meaning for many more aspects of life. Peter often tells me that meditation ought to be part of the modern person's Mind-Gym — like physical exercise, the more you do it, the more it helps you build a strong mind. But I feel he has gradually succeeded in setting meditation into an even wider ocean: not merely a Mind-Gym, but already a Life-Gym. Just imagine: if meditation really can increase your sense of agency, and give you greater control so that you do not act on every fleeting desire, and even enable you to change yourself in the direction you truly want — has this not already gone beyond the realm of mental health, becoming instead one of the essential capacities in our pursuit of a good life?
I have learned some meditation from Peter myself, and to this day I still feel I have gained a great deal from it. This book has several strengths that make it a truly fine introduction to meditation. First, it is highly systematic. The book is itself a six-week course, with different material to learn each week. As long as you follow it step by step, you can gradually enter the world of meditation. Second, unlike many introductory books on the market, it does not only stress the methods of practice; it also tells you the principles behind them, so that you know both the how and the why. This way of learning serves people like me — those who like to ask why — far better. On top of that, Peter is highly skilled at using stories and metaphors in his explanations, making it very easy for beginners to immerse themselves. Finally, I greatly appreciate that the book offers some very concrete and practical practice suggestions, which are genuinely useful for modern people living in a big city. Many people today, for instance, simply cannot find an hour a day to practise — so what can we do? The book offers concrete advice, such as practising during the commute on public transport on the way home from work. For readers who want to truly learn meditation, suggestions like these are extremely valuable.
I am very glad and honoured to write the foreword to this book of Peter's. Let me take this chance to say both thank you and sorry to Peter. Thank you for inviting me to collaborate with you, thank you for so often taking the initiative to discuss new ideas with me, and thank you for opening up so many new possibilities for me. Of course, I must also apologise for the trouble caused by my poor timekeeping and my disorganisation, and thank you for your constant patience and forbearance. I am sure all these fine qualities of yours are reflected, one by one, in this book of yours — and that readers, too, will sense your warmth, drive, kindness, and considerate care for others in the subjects you care about and the way you explain them.
I love this book, and I am sure that you, the reader now holding it, will love it too. So runs my foreword.
Yim Chun-bong
Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Co-founder of Corrupt the Youth
Early summer, 2020
*The title and headings were composed by the TreeholeHK Hong Kong team to capture the overall meaning.
《Mind Training: A Scientifically Grounded Method for Mastering Your Mind Through Meditation》
Now on sale at major bookshops across Hong Kong
For the e-book, please click here
About the book
The world's leading companies are learning meditation too
A neuroscience-grounded method for training the mind
A six-week meditation course with daily life-sized exercises
A comprehensive boost to concentration, awareness, self-understanding, resilience, emotional control and communication!
＊＊＊
Did you know that humans have many unconscious behaviours?
It is exactly these unnoticed habits that hold you back.
Practise meditation, train the mind, take back control of your own brain,
and raise your six core capacities across the board.
Have you ever experienced any of the following?
＋You know you should work and study hard, yet your hand reaches for your phone of its own accord, beyond your control
＋You have certain life goals you know you will regret abandoning, yet you never take action, and give up the moment you hit a difficulty
＋Your mind is full of fears and worries that quietly block your progress
＋Every day slips by unnoticed and aimless
We are forever decoupling our intentions from our actions, cultivating all manner of bad habits.
To train the mind through meditation is to learn to master the brain, to choose our next action,
and to reclaim the initiative over our own lives.
Meditation, now popular the world over, is not merely a way to relieve stress; with its firmer evidential basis, it serves as a tool for training the mind.
The author combines psychology, neuroscience and philosophy to give meditation a fresh new face, and has further designed a six-week meditation course,
so that you can step by step raise your concentration, awareness, self-understanding, resilience, emotional control and communication;
just a few minutes a day to "work out" the mind, and become a better version of yourself.
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