First off, what is meditation as you understand it?

The practice of focusing in the present.

Witnessing with clarity in continual interactions.

A quiet, peaceful and inward process.

All true. What is the purpose of meditation?

A variety of purposes. Sometimes I just do it to get myself back on a relatively even “keel.”

To calm and centre you.

Improving the minds processes.

Why would one want to meditate? Is it just an extra preparatory step?

Relieve stress.

Get clearer in perception.

Do you know what the most impractical human habit is? Trying to do stuff. We get so caught up in the idea that we need to actively do stuff, that we can make things happen by trying, by thinking really hard. Is this not so?

Yes, it can make me repetitive.

The strange thing is our thoughts are never actually about what we are doing. They are about doing what we think we are doing. We don’t really think about the doing itself, do we? Normal thinking is very meta. How well do people pay attention to how they hold a hammer for instance? They’re only thinking about the hammering task are they not?

It’s all about the nail.

Do you ever notice what your hands are really doing while you prepare a meal? Or just busy thinking “make dinner … make dinner …” like some sort of strange command line?

When I do things I tend to get engrossed in the details of the task. You likely get engrossed in your thinking ritual. Do you actually notice details? Like the condition of whatever tool or material you are using? I mean in detail. Do you know in detail the smell of rotting food or do you just react “oh gross!”, and throw it out?

I just react, but smell isn’t my strongest sense. I look at things visually in detail though. There are nuances to food decay. Some changes of state in food aren’t even decay, but are mistaken for it resulting in food waste. So this is perhaps one of the first creative uses of meditation, exploring right identification of sensory experience.

There is much about any given activity that constantly goes unnoticed. They say it’s the brains natural instinct to minimize details, to save energy supposedly. Maybe that’s so, but it’s possible to engage in any experience more fully, and a lot of energy is freed up if you suspend thinking about doing the thing you are doing, or thinking about what comes next after your current activity, which is also very common.

People think they’re detail oriented but there is a whole other level to it if you spend, say, thirty minutes noticing one thing in detail.

I was at a Tibetan ceremony and got to watching the teacher’s hands. They kind of went into slow motion. This is on purpose. A big part of their ceremony is intrapersonal, perhaps the bigger portion of its genuine substance.

Well, I know in music slow pieces are actually more skillful than fast ones because of the focus it takes to perfect the timing.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~