Meditation

In meeting with several teachers and associates today, the topic of Meditation came up.

Recently, Meditation has also been mentioned more often on SocialMedia and in other arenas of dialogue. Of course, this includes the voice of non-meditators, some of whom feel a sense of peer-pressure (if not the pressure of pure smugness and superiority) from the pro-Meditation crowd.

Today’s conversations helped me appreciate the diverse possible approaches to Meditation. Certain systems of Meditation exist with specific instructions and time-tested methods. Some traditions and lineages of Yoga are examples of this, though Modernity has also spurred a large blurring of lines and borders between different traditions.

In any case, if we were to avoid asking the adherents or advocates of a particular system or brand of Meditation, we would find that Meditation itself can be practiced and applied (or at the very least, conceived of) in many ways.

There are Buddhist perspectives that suggest manual labor to be among the best of Meditations.

Many Yoga classes invite us to use Savasana as a Meditation.

TaiChi CHuan is often marketed as a “moving meditation”.

These are all active attempts or efforts at Meditation;

what of the inadvertent or unassuming Meditations?

Riding a bicycle down a smooth road on a sunny day. Fishing a lazy stream in the late afternoon. Lounging, legs-up, on the sofa as gentle breezes whisper in the branches outside the window.

Meditation might be more properly thought of as an Experience.

Any Experience during which we are wholly (or transcendentally, to look at it from the other side of the coin) engaged, fully attuned, whether by way of keen mental-acuity, or that broader body-based proprioceptive perspective, being truly In-The-Moment is the bottom-line of Meditation.

Surely an exception to the Rule might exist, but I believe Everybody pursues Meditation, whether they realize it or not.

A Runner’s High. The first bite of a sumptuous meal. A job well-done.

Meditation, in it’s truest form, is something that happens without our recognition more often than not.

See if you can catch yourself meditating from time to time. The people who claim to not want anything to do with Meditation might find that they already DO meditate, and perhaps more often than many people who have bumper-stickers declaring their Practice.

Meditation as a Practice in and of itself is certainly not Everybody’s cup of tea.

Meditation as a general category of States-of-Being, however, is something inherent to the Human condition. It is simply a part of our Natural Experience.