A discourse on the essence of meditation and how it is practiced in the West

It is somewhat reminiscent of the ideologies of the founding fathers of this country in my opinion.  We started off with some serious Enlightenment-era thinking and created a country based on inalienable human rights.  Two hundred years later, corruption and graft have tainted that image and many long for the ideals of an America which we all believe in.  In meditation, the early adopters really took off and ran with the teachings- getting tremendous benefits and finding peace and enlightenment in many ways.  Of course, many lost their way and got into drugs and delusion but the gold standard was there to grasp.

Now, looking back from the vantage point of 2010, it seems that we lost much of that momentum in the 1980′s and we have gotten more confused and materialistic in our nature.  We have lost what the essence of those teachings were about and have trivialized meditation to another “technique” in the battery of self help tools we have acquired over the years.

“Maybe I’ll meditate or how about a massage?  Oooh, Jane knows of this great hot spring place in the desert- we can get our nails done, relax, drink smoothies and just hang out!  That’ll be PERFECT!- I’ll call the girls and we’ll make a day of it…”

Does this dialogue sound familiar?  It happens every day.  Even people who have taken the discipline a bit more seriously have relegated the term to a simple (or rather complex) technique.  They either count their breath, see white light, chant some guy’s name, sit cross legged, stand on one leg, dress like a mummy, or some combination of the above.  Maybe their wear a turban or dress like a china man so they can fit in.

None of this is meditation.  True, there are numerous techniques out there that are quite helpful and can be a tremendous resource to people.  You can concentrate on your breath to eliminate pain perception, calm the mind, fight insomnia, lower blood pressure, and much much more.  My intention is not to take anything away from these techniques.  They are quite useful and I often teach them to patients who are in need.  As far as dressing up to play a “spiritual” character goes, well, that’s part of our animal mind- needing to belong and fit in with the pack.  An example would be Doug Smith, the Presbyterian accountant who is bored to death with his life and just divorced his wife and changes his name to “Jin Shu Shen”, the neo-spiritual pseudo-Buddhist guy who dresses like he’s from Bangkok but acts like he’s Chinese.  This is all animal brain stuff- needing to belong and needing to fit in, and needing to feel comfort with a group of like-minded people.  That’s all fine as well but let’s see it for what it is.  Tending to our primitive neuro-anatomy is an important way of transcending it and evolving our consciousness.  Ignoring it and pretending not to be human is a sure-fire way to fail and fall to the Ego.

So what then is meditation?

Meditation is the awareness of where we are at and what we are doing in the present moment.  There is nothing to DO- simply observe.  The really tough paradox for the Western mind when it comes to meditation is that there is nothing to do- period.  We don’t DO meditation.  We sit and we observe the nature of Reality as referenced from our own consciousness.  The more we get out of the way and the more we learn to not react to the sensations/thoughts that arise, the clearer we get and the more aware we become of our essential nature.  We learn by shutting up and observing.

How does one do that?  Simple!  Actually, it is simple in theory but painstakingly hard because of the bad habits we’ve developed.  What we do is nothing.  The ONLY action that is even marginally OK in this type of self analysis is posing a single question to oneself: “What am I doing right now?”.  Whatever it is- STOP IT and return back to observing the mind.  Keep asking that question and you’ll find how incredibly busy you are ALL OF THE TIME.  In fact, we are perpetually either grasping onto thoughts/feelings we want more of or running from thoughts/feelings that make us uncomfortable.  We spend all of our energy in this vicious mental cycle of aversions and cravings- leaking our Vitality daily.  No wonder we are so tired!

True meditation is self analysis and watching of the mind.  Everything else is technique.  Again, there is nothing wrong with that.  Techniques are great tools to sharpen the mind & senses but to actually WAKE UP, we need to delve into the depths of Who we are and that analysis can only come from you.  Delving deep within, all the answers await.