Goal of Meditation
Mostly said: meditation has no goal. What is meant: no conceptual one. Then why meditate? The goal is non-conceptual ethics.
(This is not an easy text.)
Spiraling inwards
Morality: the relief of suffering. [see: ‘Morality Is the Relief of Suffering’]
Which is related to why people do what they do, their motivation.
Which is related to what they find pleasurable.
Which is related to how they see themselves.
Which is…
Eventually, at any stage, it’s always again about ‘beyond the conceptual’.
Meditation is about ‘beyond the conceptual’.
And always again, the goal is ‘doing good’: for oneself, for others.
Is this surprising?
The short definition of ‘goal’ is ‘something to do’. So, there is a doing involved. Otherwise it’s already there. No goal. (Note that ‘continuing to be’ is also a goal.)
While doing, one can do either ‘good or bad’. Which to choose?
People always chose for ‘good’, again: by definition. It’s implied in ‘choosing’. Even if some choice seems very bad, still that choice is made because in the end, the chooser thinks it’s better. He might choose something good for himself while being bad for others, or vice versa. Still, the reason is ‘for good’.
How does one arrive at ‘good’?
Well, because one ‘knows’… But really? Then how does one ‘know’? Where does that come from?
For sure: not from conscious processing. Although we all live our life as if this is the way.
Clearly it’s not.
Meditation is an in-depth awareness of what eventually orients us to what appears as ‘good’. Within this awareness, also what forms itself ‘from inside out’ towards a possibly ‘better’ way: more congruent within the whole that is present inside us, that is us.
However, don’t trust anything ‘deep’ just like that!
It also depends on quality. Meditation is a way to relax yourself into who you deeply are. This gives you more chances to be deeply authentic. No guarantee on ‘goodness’ but more chances for you to see what ‘goodness’ may mean to you.
And that’s already a good thing. At least you get the choice.
Looking at it the other way:
much ‘badness’ comes from tensions within, trough not being authentic.
It serves then to (try to) diminish the frustration for not being who one truly is, one way or another not ‘living a full life of true meaningfulness.’
Friendliness brings authenticity.
(Warm, open, respectful) meditation brings friendliness.
Thus, meditation may diminish the need for ‘badness’. Thus, it may diminish suffering
to the meditator
and to all living and sentient beings.
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