What Is Meditation?

The simplest definition that can be given for what meditation actual is would be to say that it is the art of awareness. I call it an art because it involves the application of technique towards a specific end, but yet at the same time it is too subjective an end point and too subjective an experience to be called a science.

To say that it is the art of awareness can be applied quite broadly. For example in common language a person might meditate on a problem at work or something. This does not mean that they sit in the lotus position and chant until the solution comes to them, it simply means that they think about it, turning it over and over in their head. It is usually used when there is no obvious method for deriving an answer and one has to search for a novel method. In other words they hold their awareness on that subject, looking at it from every angle and allowing the mind as much freedom as possible, whilst still maintaining a focus on the correct topic. So it is not quite the art of thinking, which might encompass thinking your way through a math problem, but it is the art of the proper mastery of awareness. This common usage is perfectly correct.

But of course when people talk about meditation what they are generally talking about is the eastern methods which are used in spiritual traditions such as Buddhism and Yoga. The first thing which you must realize in order to understand the answer to the question of what this type of meditation is, is that in these eastern traditions there is no clear distinction made between the psychological and the spiritual, as we might do today with our modern way of thinking about things. Whilst we might make a clear distinction between our experience and external reality, this was not really a part of the thinking of the people who developed these systems.

There are of course many different types of meditation, so beyond saying that it is the art of awareness any further answers to the question 'what is meditation' would really depend on what type you are talking about. Probably the most common, and the one that you may have been thinking about prior to coming here, are the emptiness meditations that come primarily from the Buddhist traditions. In these one would seek a pure awareness, an empty and clear mind devoid of the usual objects of awareness, in order to percieve the ground or source of existence, or to attain enlightenment. In this sense meditation presents a set of techniques which allow the practitioner, after many years of diligent study and practice, to reveal through their effort the spiritual truths of the universe. In this sense one might describe these systems as methods for attaining spiritual revelation.

But it is still true that this spiritual revelation comes through the mastery of awareness rather than from divine grace. And it is also true that the state in which enlightenment is attained is through attaining a perfectly clear mind, and to be aware of things without any preconceptions or assumptions, without any filters on our perceptions. This state is clearly the most conducive to understanding, so one does not need any spiritual beliefs about revelation to see that meditation can be used to help develop our understanding of the world in which we live.

 It is called Meditation Techniques For Beginners and you can follow the link for more information and to buy the first edition as an ebook from lulu. I'm still working on a second edition which will be published in print and will contain some extra chapters on more advanced techniques.