It might sound strange, but when we have a closer look it might be obvious that real meditation could be called ‘Non-Meditation’, because the word ‘Meditation’ often comes with a lot of baggage; the same with the word ‘Mindfulness’ nowadays.
Often, people are practicing in the hope to make something out of it, which is just another fabrication, rather than letting the wisdom emerge out of a moment-to-moment embodiment.
Throw out the word meditation or mindfulness and just come home! Gain insight, without striving for insight and let us live our way into an embodied wisdom.
Easy to say?
Well, the mind is often too clouded or too self-identified with a certain position, that we can’t see the liberation & the freedom is right here, in this moment, without the need to wait for the next inbreath or outbreath.
However, thinking is not an enemy of our practice! Thinking is not the enemy of awareness or mindfulness! Instead it’s a miraculous form of intelligence and we see it operating, whenever we take our seat for practice. There is no need to make a problem or a battle out of it. We don’t need to struggle with the thoughts or emotions, because they are just part of the field of awareness.
Instead, what we are really doing when we drop into awareness, is putting out the ‘Welcome Mat’ for it all, as Jon Kabat- Zinn says: to put out the ‘Welcome Mat’ for the good, the bad and the ugly — This is the practice!
Life is challenging as we all experience it in these days and putting out the ‘Welcome Mat’ for life as it appears, and not the script we so wanted to happen, is challenging too. But perhaps we have a chance to fall more often into our own authenticity, when we don’t strive for a certain outcome?