> You are surrounded by people

The idea of corporate worship is that the assembly is united in their purpose, there is an order observed, and the people develop discipline from this orderly worship. Also, people are not machines and that's disgusting that you draw this analogy.

People may distract, even in that situation. Many have their minds elsewhere, some don't want to be there, someone may even be actively disruptive. But corporate worship is not usually contemplative meditation.

I have been in worship sessions where silence is strictly enforced, and there is no master guiding an order of prayer. This adoration is always in a group setting. Hey, I've even used my device sometimes to look up Bible verses. It's not sterile.

But if someone is sitting at home, alone, the best practice is to shut out unnecessary distractions to the extent that it is possible. And your phone obeys its corporate master. A mobile device is not under the control of the user holding it.

My smartphone does exactly what I tell it to do during my meditation time. You keep arguing a strawman using religious language.

I'm not religious but I find the commercial and unnatural connotations of the electronic device to be a barrier - meditation often focuses on primitive physical sensations, whereas digital devices seem to work in contradiction to physicality.

Meditation is a very personal experience and strangely many people are telling eachother how it "should" be done. As if their way, which works for them personally, is the only way.

I find the direct involvement of a digital device to be somewhat unnerving and distracting. I use my Apple iPhone with my paid app about 50% of the time.

Sounds like you’re on of the few that has managed it. I have yet to see anyone else who has - spam calls, texts, random notifications from whatever app someone forgot to include in the focus config, etc. seem more the norm.

Frankly, why not just leave it out of the room? Oh, except for the app I guess.