A meditation on meditation
I’m realizing that it’s not all about sitting down in meditation.
You sit down and you focus on your breath and you watch your thoughts pass through your consciousness without judging them. Eventually, the rate of thinking slows down and the time between each thought increases as the periods of silence in your mind grow longer and you only have to pay the barest attention to the subtle physical sensations of being alive, like your breath and the various feelings throughout your physical body.
Meditating is healing for me. I use meditation the same way that I would take a prescription drug to remedy a specific illness. I think too much and I worry, so I mediate to alleviate these symptoms.
At some point, I thought of meditation as being the primary way to practice spirituality. There’s the image of the spiritual person who is sitting in a temple with their legs crossed and their eyes closed.
But I am realizing all the various ways to practice spirituality in every waking moment of life, and it’s not just about the peace and tranquility and calmness that comes from seated meditation.
There is the practice of love in relationships with others. There are the practices of yoga and dance in the movements of the body. There is emotion as we fail and succeed, hope and despair.
I just think there’s something about this life. Yes, there is suffering. And yes, suffering seems to come from desire. And yes, sitting down in meditation and lessening our desires seems to lead to less suffering. This is a way, but is it the only way?
I’ve been reading Ram Dass’s book, Grist for the Mill. He talks about how you have to get to a certain point of despair before you’re really ready for your spiritual journey.
I think some people get to this point of despair and then they figure the best option is to lessen their desire and sit down in meditation and just ride out the rest of life that way. On the other hand, there are people who experience great success in this life and they prefer to live their lives with their eyes wide open even if that does mean experiencing suffering sometimes.
If we choose to live this life with our eyes open, is suffering inevitable? On the other hand, is meditation the only way to achieve enlightenment? Is it possible to achieve enlightenment with our eyes wide open, walking around, going about our normal lives?
Also, how much should we value enlightenment? I think it depends on the alternative options. Think of the ecstasy of art and the beauty of love. These are good alternatives. If you have enough beauty and love and joy in your life, what is your motivation to leave all that?
It is more difficult to meditate with our eyes wide open. It is more difficult to stay unattached when we are constantly faced with things to which our natural dispositions incline us to become attached. How much more powerful it is then to stay mindful and meditative in the bustling, eyes-wide-open, desirous world.