What is Meditation?

To many, the topic of meditation seems very mysterious and foreign.  I have heard many people say ‘I have tried meditating but I can’t seem control my thoughts’.  I want to first say that meditation is not about controlling thoughts or stopping them.  It is also a topic that no one can really define in words because of its subjective nature – the experience that a person goes through can be compared to a fingerprint – very unique and individual.

But there are a few ways to describe what the act of meditation does.  If you can imagine sitting in a dark room looking out of a window.  Then imagine living your whole life looking out that window so much that you forget that you are standing in a room.  When the room gets uncomfortable, you don’t associate it coming from the room but from outside the window – where your attention is glued.  So then you blame every feeling of discomfort on what is outside the window not realizing that it’s coming from where you stand and has little to do with what you think you see.  I liken the act of meditation to taking a flashlight and turning it back into the dark room.

At first you become aware of the mess and the accumulation of matter (thought) that you were not aware of for so long.  How do you think you would react at first?  You’ll want to run the other direction!  Or go back to looking out the window because then you don’t have to own your clutter – at least not in your mind.  More comfortable?  Well if you think about the suffering that results from living unconsciously, doing a little clean up ends up costing much less in terms of personal energy and quality of life.

One type of meditation is called ‘Vipassana’.  Translated, it means to see things as they are.  The practice of Vipassana is to observe the breath as it enters you body – usually at the point of the nostrils.  Sounds simple right?  until your thoughts start chatting away!  Well, as I said before the goal is not to stop thinking but to bring back the focus continuously on something repetitive – like your breath.  There are other types of meditation techniques that focus on repeating a mental mantra so that you have something to keep coming back to if your thoughts try to lure you into a suspense drama.  Over time, you learn to acknowledge your thoughts but come back to your object of focus.  This will eventually release the hold that your thoughts have over your mind and the identification with thoughts will diminish – thus allowing you to experience your true self and become more present.

A book that I highly recommend if you are interested in learning Vipassana is called ‘Mindfulness in Plain English’ by Bhante Gunaratana.  Here is a link:  Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition