What Is Meditation?
¿Qué es la meditación?
A student expresses feeling lost about what meditation actually is, and the teacher reflects on the limits of language in describing it, eventually sharing what has been most useful in practice.
What Is Meditation?
A student expresses feeling lost about what meditation actually is, and the teacher reflects on the limits of language in describing it, eventually sharing what has been most useful in practice.
I feel like I'm just hanging there, completely clueless. The not-knowing is so big. I'd love to hear what you have to say about: what the heck are we even talking about?
I would have to say I don't know either, in that sense. I think the closest thing to it is something I mentioned in the meditation, which is silence. Only silence can describe it truthfully.
I could say so many things and talk about all kinds of meditations. Books and books of content could be offered, and everything will seem pretty poor, because it's really experiential. That's why the most real way to answer the question "What is meditation?" is to meditate: a guided meditation, a community sitting to explore meditation, a practice to discover it.
But I could say it's about something that can reveal what the mind is, so that we can discern mind from reality.
The limits of definition
What would you say is not meditation?
I have to say everything is meditation. I know that's a limited answer, but it becomes a semantic game. You start defining meditation, and it could be a practice where you're sitting, standing, dancing, doing breathing exercises, whatever you're calling a meditation practice, and that's meditation.
So maybe a more pointed question would be: what has been useful for you in your meditation practice?