Before a
person can achieve his or her potential, basic structures and fundamentals
must first be learned through trial and error and subsequently practiced
until they become instinctive.
Unfortunately, so much emphasis is placed on rigidity, structure, and form
that many people get frustrated in trying to learn a skill. They end up
concentrating too hard on the mechanics.
It is like trying to become an artist be doing paint-by-numbers.
(Doug Marsh)
Meditation
People commonly confuse meditation with guided awareness exercises or
contemplation.
These three things are quite different:
Meditation is the condition of presence whereby you are rooted in the
immediate here and now
Guided awareness is any kind of exercise that
encourages you to be more fully conscious of the moment
Contemplation is a deliberate consideration of past events or situations, and/or the exploration of your thoughts and emotions
Meditation is a state of consciousness. It is not an exercise. You do not do anything.
Thought
Awareness is all about noticing things.
Being conscious of what is happening all around you, in this immediate moment.
It is not possible to be fully conscious of the moment and simultaneously have
thoughts chattering away in your head.
The thoughts are a consequence of memory, the past.
The
emergent moment cannot be commented on as it is happening.
You can only think about something after it has occurred.
Guided awareness
When most people use the word 'meditation', they are talking about guided
awareness.
Guided awareness is a vast field of endeavour in which people seek to bring the
mind back to the here and now.
This can be accomplished through various means:
Being aware of your breath
Chanting
Closing your eyes
Concentrating upon an object e.g. candle, picture, plant, statue
Deliberate/contrived breathing
Exercises: yoga, tai chi etc
Focussing upon a body part e.g. abdomen or feet
Laying on the floor
Prayer
Sitting in a specific posture for a sustained period
Standing in a specific posture for a sustained period
Visualisation
Working your mind slowly through the body and feeling each individual part
There are many other methods but they all share the common goal of bringing the
mind back to the moment, to the body, to the here and now.
None of these methods constitute meditation.
They are all guided awareness methods designed to encourage the eventual
condition of meditation.
Can you understand the difference?
Disconnected
The potential drawback with guided awareness is that it represents a
method and the method can sometimes occlude the purpose.
Sitting with your eyes closed is not meditation. It will never become
meditation.
The act of closing your eyes disconnects you from what is happening around you
and your attention turns inward.
Meditation is the state of consciousness in which you are immersed in the
fullness and immediacy of the moment.
This cannot be the case if you have shut your eyes or performed any other
method.
Partial
Methods are partial in nature.
They help you to take an initial step closer to being present. But that is all.
If your thoughts are racing and you have poor awareness, you cannot simply
switch to being utterly present in the here and now.
Guided awareness methods are a step along the way.
You begin simply and slowly, learning how to feel, to be, to relax, to slow
down.
For most people this is a very necessary beginning.
Propping you up?
Ultimately you must set aside all guided awareness exercises and move past
them.
The danger with exercises and methods is that you may well feel more aware
whilst doing them, but the condition of meditation continues to elude you.
A person may also feel calm and relaxed whilst performing a method and then
return to being distracted and stressed when they are not.
If the method helps you to feel more centred, it will eventual become a crutch,
a prop.
You will rely upon it. And that is not so good.
The emergent moment
Meditation is beyond all exercises and methods. It is about being here.
Not chattering away in our heads.
Being present occurs when you stop
seeking,
looking,
pushing and
struggling.
You are present in the here and now. Totally present, not caught up in
memories, anxieties and thinking.
There are no conscious thoughts in your
mind.
No method, exercise, discipline or practice is required.