Meditation is easy & here is why
Meditation is probably one of the least well understood practices in all of spirituality.
Most people find meditation to be a kind of slow painful torture:
„I’m so bad at meditating it just feels impossible for me“, and from their definition of what meditation is, I would actually agree.
If somebody believes that meditation means silencing your mind, then it is indeed quite impossible.
What is meditation?
You can’t stop your mind from thinking by sheer willpower, just as you can’t stop your heart from beating by sheer willpower. You are not the one doing it, so you are not the one who can stop doing it either.
But let’s replace the word meditation with the word observing.
Suddenly it no longer sounds too difficult, right?
Observing is the most natural and effortless action we can do. So I would say that the extent to which someone thinks meditation is difficult is the extent to which someone simply misunderstands what it is.
From my personal point of view, the simplest definition of meditation is:
Let your awareness simply observe everything that is going on.
So the practice of meditation is to simply remain in a state of observation.
The role of awareness
The awareness which observes everything that is happening, is a fundamental part of you.
You can never not be aware.
To that idea I often hear people say:”That’s not true, in deep sleep I’m not aware”, and that’s actually a very important point.
Just ask yourself the following question: Who could hear the alarm clock in the morning, if there was no consciousness during sleep?
When the body and mind shut down for the night and there is no dream that the mind can be aware of, we seem to just fall asleep and wake up at the same moment.
We can’t tell exactly when we fell asleep, because the mind simply detached its attention from each object one by one until there was nothing left in the mind.
When I say objects, I mean not only objects in space, but also thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, etc.
When the mind slowly detaches its attention from these objects as we fall asleep, the sense of time disappears with them, because one can perceive time only in relation to objects or space.
In deep sleep, you don’t cease to exist, you just don’t experience anything.
When there are no objects to perceive, there seems to be no time that passes between the last object and the next.
So, you may not always know that you are observing, but you are.
HOW TO STAY MINDFUL?
In order to remain continuously in the role of the observer, it is important not to get caught up in what is being observed. The more skillful you become in this practice of observing the mind without getting involved in the content, the more open, clear and calm the mind becomes.
This is the simplest, yet most powerful form of meditation, and you don’t have to sit in the lotus position to do it. As soon as you realize that you’re getting involved in thoughts, feelings or actions, just take a step back and remember that you are the observer.
Try to always remember that you’re just the witness. The more you remember that you are awareness, the more you will see that you don’t get lost in experiences.
We only suffer because we are consumed by an experience, and if you stay present knowing that you are awareness, you never get lost.
Meditation is actually just awareness watching what is going on.
In that state, we are detached, unattached, and free.
WHAT Happens when you MEDITATe?
So meditation is a practice on the one hand and a state of being on the other.
We can use the practice of meditation as a path into the state of being.
We should try to be in the state of meditation as much as possible. In other words, try to always remember that you are only the observer.
The practice of formal meditation such as sitting meditation can be seen as preparation or training for challenging situations in real life.
Imagine watching your attention being drawn to a thought, and you don’t get carried away by it, you just observe it.
You can use this skill in stressful situations in daily life, when you get bad news or when something valuable is taken away from you. This is the result of meditation.
No matter what thoughts or feelings arise, you will not be torn from your center of peace, whether life brings you joy or pain.
Your peace is not taken away from you.
I have realized through my own direct experience that my observing self is unchanging and free. All we have to do is free ourselves by remembering that we are only consciousness.
This is the highest form of meditation. You are consciousness and to realize this is freedom.
HOW IT CAN TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE?
Over time, with each day you practice meditation, your mind becomes a little calmer than it was yesterday.
You overcome more and more the conviction that you are your thoughts, or that you are the thinker of your thoughts.
It is the nature of awareness that it is free from what it observes. So when you recognize yourself as awareness, nothing clings to you as it did in the past.
Nothing pulls or pushes you, and you just start escaping any trap that the mind sets for you.
You become very interested and engaged in life, like someone watching an exciting movie.
Even in the worst parts of the movie, you can feel the emotions, but you don’t suffer from them.
In a way, you appreciate them as part of the overall experience that the film creates for you and as what it teaches you. Meditation helps us to recognize ourselves as viewers of the film and not as the actor playing in it. So when the actor suffers, we don’t suffer with him, but we can look at the film from a deeper perspective. The place where freedom resides.
So it’s not that you have to silence your mind in order to then realize its true nature.
It’s the other way around: first realize your true nature and then your mind will become silent.