We Don’t Have To Be Great Meditators

We don’t have to be great meditators, sitting cross-legged for hours and hours.

We just ‘get it’ when meditation reveals that we are empty cognisance which carries on throughout daily life. We are mindful of what we do and say so as not to disrupt harmony, and reduce the effects of karma – previous actions that caused suffering.

The essence of non-dual meditation is not a marathon endurance test, but a shift in recognition. Empty cognisance points to the ultimate nature of mind of pure consciousness; it is completely empty of concepts, yet awake and aware.

Instead of isolating this state to hours spent on a cushion, the most powerful approach is short moments, many times. Throughout the day, we take a few seconds to entirely drop whatever we are doing, mentally. We learn to pause for a moment to recognise that we’ve been caught and held.

Use a prompt: going through a doorway, glancing out of a window, looking up at the sky … these are all moments of gap.

We are not trying to clear our mind; there is simply recognition of the open knowing space that is already present, beneath the noise.

Rather than trying to stop our thoughts, we are merely aware. Awareness is more important than the thing we’re doing, because the awareness keeps us focused and concentrated … and safe. 🙂 Even one conscious breath can serve as a complete check on reality. It acts as a bridge to pull us out of mental time travel and back into the vividness of the present moment.

We don’t need to exit our daily life to find stillness. By letting go of the expectation of perfect or lengthy meditation sessions, the pressure lifts. Meditation stops being one of the chores on our to-do list and instead becomes the quiet, spacious ground we walk on all day long.

NB: there was no mention of rituals. 🙂