Meditation Essentials: Basis of Meditation

The purpose of meditation is to bring about change and to address our fundamental problems.Show more

Real meditation is based on facts, and focused on facts. Meditation is not really useful if it is just about beliefs and theories.

When we observe humanity and look at this world, we see a lot of problems, a lot of suffering, and much that seems impossible to understand or change. The amount of suffering that we see in humanity, that we see in the world, is truly overwhelming. Real meditation provides a way to work on changing that.

For our spirituality to be really effective, it has to be based on practical facts and focused on dealing with suffering.

We need to be dealing with fundamental problems that we face, not only as individuals, but as a society. If our spiritual practice cannot solve some of these problems or at least understand them, then our spiritual practice is useless.

Genuine spirituality effectively transforms the individual, who can then help others.

We need to understand how to use our spirituality for the benefit of not only ourselves, but other people. That is the basis that we start from in this tradition.

It starts with observation of facts. Not beliefs, not theories.

Facts
Real meditation and real spirituality begin with facts.

This first requirement is very difficult for some people. All of us have cherished beliefs, ideas, and theories, and we want life and spirituality to be certain ways. We all have religious or spiritual ideas, and ideas of who we are as a person, or how our culture is, or society. We have a whole huge collection of beliefs. But, in spite of our theories, beliefs, and ideas, we suffer.

If we really want to deal with our suffering, if we really want to change it, the first thing that we have to be willing to do is set aside beliefs, ideas, and notions that we have about ourselves and the world. We have to set aside everything that we cannot prove. Instead, we must resolve ourselves to deal only in facts: observable facts, repeatable facts.

If you think about this, and analyze this, you will realize that this forms a very powerful basis for your spiritual life. If you believe something and you cannot prove it, you could spend a lifetime believing in something that was not real. That is a waste of an entire lifetime. Wouldn't it be better to take the approach that all the great teachers gave, which is to pursue only what you can prove though your own experience? All the great traditions have that in their scriptures and teachings, but people set that aside. People prefer to just “believe,” because it is easier, comforting, and requires no effort. Everyone wants to adopt a theory, belief, or way of behaving for their redemption, their salvation from suffering. But: they cannot prove that their beliefs will liberate them.

We prefer to deal in facts. (And yes, there are spiritual facts that you can prove through your own experience, but like any science, you must go step by step, scientifically, and set theories and beliefs aside).

So observation of facts is where we must begin if we want to develop an effective spiritual life and an effective meditation practice.

This is the first important basis of effective meditation practice: focus on the facts.

Consciousness
The second important basis is consciousness. We need to know what the consciousness is in ourselves, and how to use it from moment to moment.

To observe the facts means that we need to perceive them clearly. Consciousness is the basis of perception. If we cannot be in a position to observe a fact, than we cannot become conscious of it. This is a critical and important basis of any spiritual pursuit.

Consciousness is also the basis of genuine understanding. Once we perceive something, we can then begin to understand it. By understanding we mean comprehension, that type of understanding that is based on facts, repeatable, and absolutely without doubt. For example, when you experience being cut by a knife, you have observed and understood that the knife can cut you. That is a comprehension, an understanding, that you will never forget because you are fully conscious of it. Similarly, that level of knowledge can be acquired about life, nature, spirituality, the mind, the world, God, etc. if we use the consciousness in the right way.