What is Meditation?

What is Meditation?

Excerpts from Joyful Mind: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Meditation. Produced and compiled by Susan Piver. Copyright 2002 by Susan Piver for Padma Projects.

Meditation is the noble act of making friends with yourself. Breath by breath, moment by moment, we begin to learn who we really are. At first, this prospect may be interesting, shocking, appalling, mysterious, or boring. Eventually, the chop of discursive mind softens, and we find natural attunement with ourselves. We breathe in and out. We notice the play of light and dark. Sensations rise and fall in the body and in the mind. Slowly, our thoughts begin to settle, and we find that we are actually living in a very open and spacious world. We see that meditation need not be an unusual ascetic practice or even a particularly spiritual one. It is quite ordinary, yet somehow changes everything. We have just taken our seat, right in the middle of our lives.

Meditation is often associated with Buddhism, and the practices contained in Joyful Mind stem from Buddhist tradition. The Buddha, or “Awakened One,” discovered a fundamental truth about being alive: There is no need to be anything other than who we are already. In fact, the core teaching of the Buddha is the importance of discovering who we really are. Meditation is a way of making this discovery.

Through meditation practice, we befriend our fear, craziness, desire, shame, and dullness: those things that keep us from waking up to our natural state. It is in fact our birthright to be truly alive, awake, and courageous.

The Buddha didn’t make up meditation; it has been practiced in one form or another for many thousands of years. Therefore, it’s not necessary to even think about becoming a Buddhist in order to practice meditation, just as it’s not required to become a Christian to practice charity. These things are simply our natural heritage, the ground of being human.

Over the thousands of years that human beings have practiced meditation, certain specific forms have arisen that are particularly uplifting, helpful, and inspiring. Some of these are presented in Joyful Mind.

An unprecedented number of people are now interested in learning meditation. These practices and the philosophy behind them have irrevocably made their way West. Principles associated with meditation such as mindfulness, equanimity, and compassion are being embraced by executives as productivity tools, filmmakers as good storylines and advertisers as ways to sell products. Our interest in these practices is at an all-time high — and so is the opportunity for confusion. Therefore, it’s important to turn to authentic teachers for guidance.

We may be thinking that meditation would probably be a good thing for us, but aren’t sure how to begin or what to begin with. We may be asking questions like, “How many kinds of meditation are there and which one is best for me?” “Will I have to sit on the floor or in an otherwise uncomfortable position?” “Do I have to do a formal practice, or can I just make something up?” “How will I know if I’m doing it right?” In the pages that follow, some of the most respected and beloved teachers in the world answer these questions and offer us instruction. We are invited to do more than simply read about various styles of meditation; we’re actually given the opportunity to try them out. At some point, one practice may “speak” to us more than the others. In this case, a list of resources and referrals have been provided, including places to visit to discover more about a certain teaching or teacher.

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