What is Meditation?
One day when I was first learning meditation, I stood on the porch of my father’s home overlooking Oregon’s looping McKenzie River, and watched as old Sol faded over the green mountains to the west. Born and raised in Los Angeles, as a child the city posed a vast, hardened prison from which there seemed no escape. Back then my only moments of release came while gazing across the face of the Pacific Ocean, where man and his works ended, and Nature and Hers began—toward the freedom of open horizon.
Likewise, here was the grand McKenzie River, carving its course with no mind whatsoever for people, time, or obstacles of any kind. Like the sea, set a mountain in front of this river and it would chew it into a valley. I appreciate that spirit! At the time I didn’t realize what enchanted my eye so, but now I know what it was.
It was not the beauty of the land, the sweep of the river, the sunset. It was the freedom of the moment. For just one instant I lost myself to life's flow, and glimpsed a peace unlike anything I had experienced before.
You have probably had moments like these too, when you have “lost” yourself, and perhaps felt touched by some mysterious force that seemed to connect with your own life. These moments are like glimpses through a window ordinarily hidden. Yet they remind us that there is far more to life than what we can see, touch, and hear.
It is notoriously difficult to define meditation, because at its highest peaks it is a transcendental experience which dwarfs words. Imagine trying to describe the color of a raging sunset to a blind person, or the sound of a symphony to the deaf.
That said, meditation can be thought of as the deliberate practice of allowing the here and now to be fully engage your attention. You release your thoughts about the past and future, thereby becoming mindful of the present moment, and also becoming quiet in both body and mind. So, in a sense, meditation isn’t really an act at all. It is a kind of “not doing.” During meditation the practitioner gains a sense of just “being,” as opposed to the “doing and thinking” nature which comprises ordinary human existence.
Simple as it sounds, this is not to imply that meditation is an insignificant practice. On the contrary, meditative experiences can indeed be powerful, and blissful beyond imagining. In fact the highest meditative states conjure mystical revelations of breathtaking depth, and joy and release beyond compare.
There are many meditation types. Each teaches very specific meditation steps to help practitioners reach these higher states, but merely reading about them will not teach you what meditation is. In order to learn, you have put away your books, thoughts, and expectations, forget everything you ever heard about the practice, and try it for yourself. Practicing is the only way to learn what meditation really means.
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