What is meditation? Why do it?

For my part, defining meditation is pretty simple. To meditate is to bring awareness to rest on experience. For many, it helps to start by taking an action to still the body. For others, this is not initially possible or available as an idea, so they will start with meditation in movement, such as yoga posture practice, tai chi or walking meditation. As an option, some people add some additional action at some times, to actively develop or even undo a particular element of being or experience. Examples of this would be repeating a mantra or concentrating on an object in order to develop concentration, and praying a rosary or saying phrases silently in order to develop a certain quality of mind.

There are so many reasons why different people undertake some kind of meditation practice, so it’s difficult to answer this question so succinctly. Let’s start by saying that all reasons are perfect. They are perfect because they signal an intention to be with what’s happening in a different way, a very effective way, in my experience. They are also perfect because all reasons somehow signal that faith is present, faith that change is possible and that effort can be directed to begin to effect change.

What sort of changes are people imagining might come out of meditation? Some changes might feel very practical, such as developing concentration for use in performance or bringing some attention to a behavior one may wish to break through, like anger. Some desired changes might feel more overarching, such as greater peace of mind in life generally. For many, a meditation practice accompanies a spiritual leaning. Maybe it’s felt that meditation will bring us closer to relationship with the divine, or a personal experience of divinity.

In our gathering in satsang, meditation is seen as a means for revealing what is true. This truth business, works at multiple levels. At first, what becomes available as a newly seen truth may be something like “I didn’t realize how stiff my hips are” or “it turns out I’m pretty competitive, which I see by how I find myself comparing my meditation experience to how that guys’ sounded.” These truths can be accompanied by additional thoughts, judging ourselves, making resolves to change this or that behavior, etc. So our learning here begins to inform our life and inspire change right away. Mission accomplished, in a way! For some, this can be the fulfillment of intention. This is very beneficial for such a person, and for all of us who know and interact with them, and therefore for the whole world by real association.

And if we are drawn to continue a meditation practice, truths will continue to present themselves. It seems very important to mention here that these truths may not match up very well with the original agenda. For instance, we may have undertaken meditation as a way to develop peace of mind. And after a short while, we may see that what is present here is a whole lotta NOT peace of mind. Maybe instead there are lots of judgment thoughts or anger thoughts or random-constant-movement mind or boredom mind or etc. It may appear daunting, if not impossible, to turn this around into anything resembling peace.

This is a very important juncture, and it brings us back to the original what and why of meditation. The practice is to bring awareness to experience, not to the experience we want to have or wish we were having or believe the blissful-looking gal is having or the one we had yesterday, but to this experience right here and now. So now we are invited to see beyond some original desire for acquiring a certain state or skill, to recall the original measure of faith and to allow this process to unveil what it will. Can we see this truth as it arises and even re-arises? Or do we stop when what is revealed becomes too uncomfortable or undesirable, or seems to be outside of the realm of the original intention? These are questions to keep in your back pocket as you proceed, with hopes that you’ll remember to take them out and review them when they’re most needed.

In many spiritual traditions of the world, the great transcendent truths are said to be available through resting in silence and inquiring deeply into what is revealed thereby, revealed both in the formal practice of silent sitting as well as in your normal walking-around world. In this inquiry, you are invited to consider the possibility of a permanent way of living where awareness reveals itself to be your only true nature. Other traditions might refer to this as enlightenment or total awakening.

It might be useful to forget those words and maintain attention on how awareness is felt and understood directly when the invitation to look comes to you. With careful examination, it becomes clear that there is a ground of presence out of which all experience arises, that awakeness is that presence, and that all that you are is that presence. It can be felt as carrying varying flavors such as peace, joy, ordinary have-a-nice-dayness, abiding stillness and compassionate heartfulness, all these being lived out in the midst of the same perfectly ordinary every-day ups and downs we may have once thought our lives to exclusively consist of. The quality of meditation first seen as a product of the act of meditating, now begins to ebb and flow in and out of our walking around time as well as our sitting time. With some clarity around this, the act of meditation begins to become moot, even as the meditator continues to “meditate.” Meditation as an action or concept will eventually drop away and meditation as a natural way of life remains.

Awakeness, pure awareness, presence (or whatever word best captures this direct, clear experience of living for you) is seen as the basis both for the stillness and emptiness of silent sitting as well as the boundless expression of life appearing before the senses in the world.

Often when we close our gatherings together, we say the word “Namaste” as a closing farewell to each other. In this, you are in effect saying to your friends:

The complete, utter, selfless awakeness that I know I am sees the same awakeness in you; how tremendously sweet to meet my self like this!

Enjoy watching this unfold within your experience! Enjoy meditation, both the pointed action of it and the ultimate dropping away of it!