Two Faces of Meditation

October 22, 2023 Meditation No Comments

One face is of the ‘I’ that meditates. The other is of the meditation doing itself. Both are OKAY. Both together are even more OKAY.

This is not only about formal meditation.

Formal meditation – on a cushion, if you like – is part and parcel and also just a tool for more of the same or more than that. A meditative stance can be part of your life as a human being.

A meditative lifestyle is compatible with any cultural environment. Eventually, it’s up to you, although you definitely can make determined efforts to make it available to yourself ― so it comes more as a choice.

Striving to be able to choose is the best and healthiest option.

What is no meditation

Daydreaming is pretty different from meditating. One may sit in the correct formal posture while remembering what happened or thinking about what might or will happen. A daydream is a movie with the ‘I’ as a protagonist.

The difference with meditation is not always clear-cut. A daydream about the here and now may even be seen as meditation. You can try it out. The only difference may be that the second face of meditation is probably further away from this.

The ‘I’ that meditates

In this, you’re consciously aware of what you’re doing. There is a you that experiences the meditation ― for instance, the feeling connected with something much broader than yourself.

If you look at a feeling, you can clearly see that it’s you who is feeling.

Looking at a thought, you can clearly see that it’s you who is thinking. Thoughts are floating by in the sky that is you.

You’re in your head.

Or you’re somewhere else. It doesn’t matter. It’s still you, the ‘I’ that meditates.

The meditation doing itself

This is qualitatively different from just ‘forgetting’ yourself. The latter is about going outside you. Meditation is about going inside you as a total person.

Looking at a feeling or a thought, they’re not inside you but rather you inside them. Thereby, ‘you’ become just one possible object of the happening. ‘You’ stop being the agent. The arrogance of ‘I’ gets lost. So, what happens?

The happening happens.

The meditation happens.

The being happens, in which there is also some meditation going on. How nice!

There is also an ‘I’ involved somewhere, but it doesn’t matter so much.

Somehow, an ‘I’ may still seem to be attached to thoughts, feelings, and motivations, but only as a sideline. They’re all much more happenings than doings.

Or there may just be the happening of the happening itself.

Both together

Possible. Or one may go from one to the other and back ― back and forth, back and forth, playing.

Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

Is it worth it?

I have my best ideas when coming out of something that resembles this in more formal meditation or doing so while writing.

Also, moments of happiness.