An Insight About True Meditation

[r0ckyreed]

I have been very lethargic and lazy today and was contemplating what meditation is. I came to the realization that meditation is not a doing but a being.

Let me explain: In life, we are always doing something, and I started to notice myself meditating as another doing in that I would be "doing" meditation or performing a meditation technique just like I would another task or activity.

But here is the truth: Meditation is NOT a task or activity. There is no such thing as a meditation technique or even meditation itself. As soon as you make a technique out of meditation, you turn it into a doing.

True meditation is just being, just being aware and satisfied with just existence itself. Anything else you add onto that is a "doing" and is a distraction.

You don't even have to sit to meditate because that is a doing. Whatever you are doing right now, just allow and accept everything as it is. Don't try to change anything about your experience. Just be.

The thing is that you are always doing something. Let meditation just be just like your breath before you notice it. Just be aware of existence and just accept it. True meditation is being satisfied with not doing anything at all and just letting everything become a happening rather than a doing. Your breath happens, your thinking happens, and then your meditation happens. If you are focusing on your breath or doing anything else, you are technically doing a technique than true meditation. Why can't you just do absolutely nothing and just be satisfied with being?

A client told me that she can meditate, but it is another task that she does. And when she has nothing to do, she gets really bored. But it is that moment you are not doing anything, that is the meditation. The only thing you are "doing" is noticing, letting it be, letting it go, and being satisfied throughout the experience. And notice that the act of noticing, letting it be, letting it go, and being satisfied are not doings but are happenings. Try that out. That is true meditation and to even call it "meditation" is a trap. To saying "I am meditating" then becomes a doing, and is therefore, not meditation. True meditation is when people ask, "What are you doing?" And you reply, "Nothing at all! I am simply being."

 

One more thing I want to point out is that while meditation is helpful in your life, it shouldn't be all you do in your life. Notice that survival is against being. You have to do something if you really want to live, so in a way, just being is a way of facing death and being in touch with the present moment. 

But if all you are just being all the time, you will die, and you won't be fully satisfied as a human being. No amount of meditation will satisfy you. Did you get that? Let me repeat it again, NO AMOUNT OF MEDITATION WILL SATISFY YOU. A 10 minute or 10 hour "practice" may give you a little bit of satisfaction, but you will reach a point where your mind just has to do something. In fact, it is not healthy for you to be sitting in zazen 24/7. Life requires you to do other things besides shutting off your mind and just being.

When I asked ChatGPT the purpose of meditation, it listed the themes to be centered around enhanced well-being, improved mindfulness, and spiritual development. On the other hand, when I asked ChatGPT about the purpose of contemplation, it listed themes around gaining insight/understanding, problem-solving, and introspection. Notice that no amount of shutting off the mind will give you insights because insight requires that you allow your mind to open, and to open, your mind needs to be able to be used, to think, and to connect dots. You cannot connect any dots in your mind if it is silent. Can you please notice this!!? You Buddhist Bats!! You cannot be deeply curious about life if you are silencing all forms of thought, including your curiosity. You cannot solve problems if you shut off your mind!! Solving problems requires that you use your mind. Some of you may object saying that meditation and having a silent mind allows you to have insights into problem-solving. Yes, but that is only AFTER you allow yourself to think again and use your mind. You get a ping of insight and that is mental content. And technically, you still can't solve problems with no mind. Contemplation is important to deeply think things through and to self-reflect. Just being aware of your self and your thoughts isn't enough. You have to engage with them and follow your curiosity.

I hope this helps. So basically, meditation is a helpful "practice." You want to engage with just being satisfied with being. But don't mistake that for shutting off your mind and being a mindless Buddhist Bat. You want to engage your mind and be like a Leonardo Da Vinci or a Sherlock Holmes, Einstein, etc. Those are the greatest minds because they have used them but have also not used them. You cannot have a great mind if you are always shutting it off. That is really not a life worth living. The unexamined life is not worth living and so is the thoughtless life. Meditation is bullshit. Meditation doesn't exist. There is just being and doing. Allow yourself to be and then allow yourself to do. Engage in being deeply (meditation) and then engage in doing consciously and curiously (contemplation).

Edited March 25 by r0ckyreed