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what is meditation

The word meditation seems to be everywhere these days, and it will be a reoccurring topic on this blog. But many people are confused about what it actually is. And then there’s the word mindfulness. These two words are often used in the same sentence and the distinction between the two is easily lost.

People might think that meditation is just relaxing with your eyes closed—sitting down to clear the mind. Or they might think it is about creating a pleasant state of mind. But these are not quite right. Setting aside time to relax and breathe deeply will no doubt benefit you, but there are deeper life improvements that flow from a correct understanding of what meditation is.

“An untrained mind—even a perfectly normal one—can be an extraordinarily unhappy place.”

Sam harris waking up

Meditation is a practice, and so you do get better at it over time. But this is difficult without the right mental framework. This framing is how we understand and interpret our meditation experiences—it is the instruction manual. It is the context through which you can develop and train your mind. Without it, meditation is elusive at best, and at worst, a potentially terrifying endeavor.

Vipassana Meditation

Part of the confusion with meditation is that there are many traditions, each with their own form of contemplative practice. For the purposes of this article—and what is in my experience the most direct path to well-being—we will be discussing a type of practice known as vipassana.

Vipassana comes from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism, but it need not be religious. It is one of the easier methods to practice from a secular perspective. The word itself means “insight”, and it’s in the same ballpark as the modern-day word mindfulness. More deeply, it means insight into the true nature of subjective reality.

The instruction manual is simple, but success can be elusive. Essentially, the goal is to anchor your mind’s attention to an object of meditation. This is something to keep focused on—most often the sensation of breathing—so that you are not lost in thought. If this sounds easy, I can assure you that you have not properly tried it.

This is because the default state of the human mind is being lost in thought—being distracted. In fact, this is called the default-mode network in neuroscience. It is thinking without noticing that you’re thinking. An untrained mind is constantly wandering like this, either lost with external distractions or with internal thoughts.

And the default-mode network has a bias towards negativity—towards being anxious about the past and future. This makes it an impediment to well-being. But scientific studies show that training in meditation and mindfulness reduces activity in the default-mode network. Other studies show that the practice, known medically as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), can also alleviate anxiety and depression.

But there is a distinction between meditation and mindfulness, and it is an important part of success. It will help prevent you from merely sitting there with your eyes closed lost in thought. So let’s get some definitions on the table.

  • Meditation: According to French author and Tibetan monk Dr. Matthieu Ricard, this word comes from Tibetan and means “familiarization”. It is a process of becoming familiar with your mind. Joseph Goldstein, a leading Buddhist teacher, states the goal like this:
    • “If you want to understand your mind, simply sit down and observe it.”
  • Mindfulness: This word refers to a state of mind—a quality of mind—that one arrives at through the vipassana tradition. When translated from the ancient languages Sanskrit and Pali, it means “remembering”, “awareness”, or “knowing”. So in one sense, it is remembering the object of our practice (like the breath), and in another sense, it means we know what’s happening in our minds. This is a non-judgemental awareness of the present moment.

Mindfulness and Meta-awareness

So meditation is the method, and the goal is to regularly achieve the state of mindfulness. We begin by stabilizing our attention to the breath because our untrained mind is too accustomed to wandering. You should know ahead of time that you will constantly fail at this—you may only make it a few breaths at a time before getting lost in thought. The point of the practice is to notice when this happens, after which you can bring your attention back to the breath.

It’s also worth noting that this is not a measure of how strong your focus is—the practice is not about willing yourself to stay with the breath. It’s about finding equanimity with your busy mind. Unless you are a meditation prodigy, you are not going to stop the constant flow of thoughts—you are instead going to stop getting lost in them as much. And in my experience, trying to force yourself makes it worse.

“Some people, for example, think that if they get a death grip on their breath their attention won’t wander. In fact, it will wander more. The Buddha said ‘rest your attention lightly, like a butterfly resting on a flower’.”

Sharon Salzberg

With consistent practice, your attention will slowly stabilize. As this happens, you can leave the breathe and graduate to having an open awareness of all things arising in consciousness—sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Susan Greenland, the author of the book Mindful Games, describes this distinction as the spotlight of attention versus the floodlight of attention.

“The spotlight of attention is a clear, stable, narrow beam that lights up a single object. The floodlight of attention is a wide, receptive beam that lights up a broad field of changing experience.“

Susan Greenland

In scientific terms, this open awareness—the floodlight of attention—is known as meta-awareness. It means that we are aware of what our minds are doing in the present moment. It is essentially a form of metacognition, which will be an important and reoccurring mental framework on this blog.

To have this mindfulness means that our attention is fully in the present moment. We notice thoughts the moment that they arise—the moment they appear in the space of consciousness—so that we don’t get lost on the trains of association. But again, you should know ahead of time that you will fail at this. The point is to simply notice and begin again.

Why Practice Meditation?

People rightly wonder why they should bother with meditation, and it’s understandable that sitting with your eyes closed can seem like a waste of time. And just to be clear, you will not necessarily become happier, and you won’t get rid of the suffering in life, which is inevitable. You also won’t really change the contents of your mind that much.

But you can change your relationship to those contents—change how you experience that suffering. You can find equanimity with your thoughts, good and bad, and become less reactive towards them. In this sense, meditation is more about increasing your long-term measure of well-being.

And thoughts are not just things we privately suffer with. Without mindfulness, we often act out our thoughts. We spread negativity and cause suffering in others. Imagine how much better the world would be if everyone could become less reactive—if everyone could relate more wisely to their difficult thoughts and emotions.

Meditation is a type of self-improvement, and it’s a central motivation for starting Exploring Kodawari. It’s the idea that perhaps the mission in life is to approach the development of the self with kodawari. This is the circumambulation of self-development, and it’s not a selfish thing. You can’t help others in the world if your mind is a chaotic mess.

Meditation will help you to begin the process of cleaning up your mind. As the metaphor goes, you must put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.

Suggested Meditation Resources