Meditation as a Non-Remedy

It’s not at all unusual to first come around to practice because none of the usual methods for dealing with life seem to work on a long-term basis; relationships have their ups and downs, jobs come and go, money comes in and money goes out, shoes go out of style. Self-help books offer ways to fix what appears to be broken but never really do the trick. Dabbling in various spiritual traditions without committing to any of them is like trying to mix different diets: the results are limited at best. Philosophies offer a lot of good ideas but ideas are what get us into trouble in the first place: it’s our ideas and concepts that obscure our experience of reality and lead to a lot of suffering for ourselves and other people.

One of the most challenging things for people to grasp intellectually is the assertion that all of us are already whole and complete just as we are, right now.

 What would it mean to reframe the way in which we relate to our meditation practice?

Instead of seeing meditation as a daily fix for our broken selves, we can correct our view and see it as it really is: a pure and simple expression of our true nature. Sitting practice is the personification of our inherent sanity, not a means to it. When we sit upright and just follow our breath, or just walk, or just chant, or just do whatever we are doing without indulging the endless stream of thoughts that course through our brains, then and only then are we being awake.

 It’s just as natural as witnessing a mountain standing tall and express its mountain-ness. There’s nothing special or exotic about it.

Comments

[Renata]

Recently, I have started approaching meditation as just that- a method of seeing myself as I really am, not as a way to 'fix' my 'poor, unenlightened self'. Thanks so much for this post. It really helps bring things even more into perspective.