Most people who meditate have their own personal view of what it is and what they want out of it. We take postures, we chant mantras, we count beads, and we do all sorts of things to meditate. So what is our purpose in meditating? Do we have a desire to cut through ego, or do we want to be relaxed? Some even believe meditation will cure their ills or diseases. Simply put, we have a personal view of what we want to use it for, and then we seek out the type of meditation that will effect that use. But what exactly is a "personal view?" Is it not how we think a situation or circumstance should be? Is it not a personal belief? For instance, I want to meditate in this fashion because this is what I believe it is and what I want out of it.
None of us actually explore what meditation is because we have masked it behind our personal views or beliefs about the process or purpose of meditation. Most people think meditation is mind control. Therefore, they practice counting breaths or the rise and fall of the stomach, or they focus on an object – a candle, the floor or wall – in order to control or ease the mind (the thoughts that continually go through our heads). Hence, the belief that meditation is mind control. The problem that I see is that a personal view or belief is thought, and so the problem arises that one thought is attempting to control another. Is this meditation? Most people call it meditation, but is it really?
Please do not think I am trying to convince anyone of anything; I am not. But I do suggest that there are questions that should be asked before one begins meditating. What you think about meditation affects your personal views or beliefs concerning meditation.
Thought is an extremely wondrous thing, but it will cloud your meditation. Thought is the mask that clouds a sunny day in the mind. It can take you to places, make you see things, make you feel things that many think or believe are transcendental or extraordinary. Is this meditation or self-hypnosis? Or are the two the same to you? Please do not rely on anyone or any book to answer the questions asked herein, but explore it yourself, in yourself.
So how does one begin to explore this wondrous thing called thought through meditation? Can one thought explore another? If not, then, what is meditation? If so, is it not introspection?
The mask of thought is easily seen. All you have to do is look around yourself and then close your eyes. Do you not see in your head what you saw when you looked around with your eyes open? For many, thought is a deluge, which is sometimes called "the monkey mind"…all sorts of thoughts coming and going. "What I have to do today, what I did yesterday, what I have to do tomorrow, and so on."
How does one get beyond the mask? Do we sit in the lotus or half-lotus position, or some other position? Do we go for a walk to "clear the mind?" Do we perform our rituals? We do all sorts of things to gain that clarity, to move beyond the mask, do we not?
What do you see when you watch birds pecking in the garden? Do you see the birds or do you see the things you should be doing…going to the office, performing home or office functions (like those things that should have been done days ago). Have we not begun to ask questions in our head, our minds? What do we really, actually see?
To begin to question is the beginning of meditation. However, questions can also be masked with thought, so now what? Any question asked which is coloured by thought will inevitably lead to a coloured answer, will it not? Something close but not totally accurate?
How can you and I come up with questions and find their answers without the mask of thought? It seems to me that to begin meditation, we must first see this mask. And to see this mask, we must look...not to others, nor books, be they scientific or otherwise, but look at ourselves. It is here that meditating on life transpires, and the old pecan tree out back rising high into the blue cloudless sky has complete meaning, complete enjoyment.