Meditation itself is not freedom. There is no guarantee that meditation practice will lead to awakening. On the contrary, for many seekers the practice of meditation can become a blind spot on the journey toward a deeper dimension of inner beingness. It sometimes can become a hindrance to the more profound openness required for true awakening.
The most sublime or transcendent states of sheer silence can be reached in meditation, and still nothing will change in everyday life because there is a subtle hankering after these states. And, like all states, these come and go. This is not freedom.
Another common blind spot happens when there’s an identification with being a “meditator.” A subtle arrogance can then arise from two common misconceptions: the belief in the concept of progress as a spiritual seeker, and the belief that doing something can make awakening happen.
In true awakening, silence reveals itself without a doubt as the true nature of unbounded mind and heart. Most often, if meditation has been a practice, once this awakening happens the practice simply falls away. It is an unnecessary prop.
Sometimes awakening can happen even when there has been no experience of meditation practice at all. The danger here is that this awakening isn’t easily stabilized and, when any energetic contractions are encountered, the light of this awakened consciousness can get dimmer. In this case, the “practice of silence” can serve to deepen and re-stabilize the realization of emptiness.
But when the “practice” of anything is seen to be a pointless, mind-created structure, the real meaning of meditation can reveal itself.
Meditation is ultimately neither a technique nor a method. It is, in fact, a state of being. It’s the moment-to-moment awareness of what is. It’s as simple as that. Meditation doesn’t require a special environment or a specific posture. It’s not located in space or time. It is this moment pointing you back home over and over again. It’s the timelessness of the present and it doesn’t require you to go anywhere or do anything.
True meditation is waking up out of the nightmare of thought-generated reality and entering the kingdom of heaven.
If you are always willing to devote yourself to this moment, you will discover the peace that is always here.
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Thank you, Amoda. This writing gives a clear and needed consideration on meditation. Your presence and work are deeply appreciated. ~david
An excellent post about meditation, as I prepare for a solo meditation retreat on an island in the Atlantic ocean.