This is not only about formal meditation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Formal meditation \u2013 on a cushion, if you like \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A meditative lifestyle is compatible with any cultural environment. Eventually, it\u2019s up to you, although you definitely can make determined efforts to make it available to yourself \u2015 so it comes more as a choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Striving to be able to choose is the best and healthiest option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is no meditation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2018I\u2019 as a protagonist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u2018I\u2019 that meditates<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this, you\u2019re consciously aware of what you\u2019re doing. There is a you that experiences the meditation \u2015 for instance, the feeling connected with something much broader than yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you look at a feeling, you can clearly see that it\u2019s you who is feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at a thought, you can clearly see that it\u2019s you who is thinking. Thoughts are floating by in the sky that is you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re in your head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or you\u2019re somewhere else. It doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s still you, the \u2018I\u2019 that meditates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The meditation doing itself<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is qualitatively different from just \u2018forgetting\u2019 yourself. The latter is about going outside you. Meditation is about going inside you as a total person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at a feeling or a thought, they\u2019re not inside you but rather you inside them. Thereby, \u2018you\u2019 become just one possible object of the happening. \u2018You\u2019 stop being the agent. The arrogance of \u2018I\u2019 gets lost. So, what happens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The happening happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The meditation happens.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The being happens, in which there is also some meditation going on. How nice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also an \u2018I\u2019 involved somewhere, but it doesn\u2019t matter so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somehow, an \u2018I\u2019 may still seem to be attached to thoughts, feelings, and motivations, but only as a sideline. They\u2019re all much more happenings than doings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or there may just be the happening of the happening itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both together<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Possible. Or one may go from one to the other and back \u2015 back and forth, back and forth, playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it worth it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I have my best ideas when coming out of something that resembles this in more formal meditation or doing so while writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, moments of happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n