Post 12: What is Meditation?

What is Meditation?

How do you do it? Am I doing it “right”? Do I need to be “spiritual” or be guided by someone, something? If you’re like me there has been a lot of confusion surrounding meditation. I’ve tried many ways, “succeeded” but mostly “failed”. And I guess that’s the point. What I’ve concluded, there is no one way or no right or wrong method. It’s like saying there’s only one way to think a thought...it’s the journey within discovering for yourself...

So, here’s my take on what I think meditation is...

It is firstly sitting in an upright and comfortable position. Aware of your body.

It is being aware of sensation, your sensory perception. How you perceive your present reality, so being in the now.

This is the feelings in your body, the taste in your mouth, the sounds in your environment, how the chair feels on your body, what you see in shapes and form, even when eyes are closed. All sensations bring you into the present moment, the awareness of them.

You tune into this and just allow it to happen naturally.

It is awareness of thought arising and acknowledging this thought so you are not trying to distract yourself from thought or not trying to think. You allow thought to arise naturally just like thinking happens the way a heart beats and lungs breathe. You don’t dwell on the thoughts, just allow it then let it go.

Arise then let go, thoughts arise then let go. Then what happens naturally is you start to come back to breathe, back to your sensations in your body, perceptual sensations,  connection to self. 

As such, you gain a deeper awareness of your thoughts, your beingness, and therefore you become the witness, the observer, the I am of self. This is the state of nothingness, because you are pure consciousness, pure awareness. You come back to soul, to the observer, to who you truly are.

Meditation brings you back into your natural state of beingness. It is awareness of this. Meditation has no time frame, it is timeless. It is merely acknowledgement of your true infinite nature. 

Rob Ipsen