Far too often, I think, meditation is perceived, taught, practiced, sold and marketed in ways that obscure and distort it, depriving it and us of its power and functions. I’m considering this in the context of Buddhist meditation practices and a Buddhist understanding what is even meant by the word ‘meditation’, but I think much of what follows may be more widely applicable beyond a specifically Buddhist context.

1. a. Calm at the Expense of Knowing

Too often, meditation is understood and practiced as primarily a calming or concentrating technique, divorced from knowing-awareness-of and understanding. The key phrase there is ‘divorced from’. Calm and concentration are, I think we can say, good in themselves. Calm and concentration also complement and support awareness and understanding, and all the aspects of the path (a bit more on that below). Yet they aren’t the sole goal of meditation, nor are they really the ultimate or primary goal. Moreover, only certain meditation methods, or certain ways of practicing meditation methods, or certain aspects of meditation methods, are aimed specifically at calm and concentration.

1. b. Feeling Good at the Expense of Accepting All Feelings

Along with this comes a notion that meditation is about producing good-feeling states. There are certain ways in which this is true, and important. But meditation is at least as much about encountering all sorts of states, including painful and agitated states, with knowing-awareness, understanding, and acceptance. And meditation is about developing the ability and the disposition to be able to do this. This goal is less about becoming able to control one’s experiences, and more about becoming able to accept one’s experiences without “unskillful” reactions, or at least without being controlled by such reactions. The goal is about developing, over time, ever deeper and clearer understanding and awareness of motivations and consequences, and learning to embody this understanding in how one behaves outwardly and “dwells” inwardly.

2. Implicitly Removed from Instead of Explicitly Integrated with The Eightfold Path

Too often, meditation is understood and practiced as something isolated from the full path. I’m referring, as you may realize, to the rubric of the Noble Eightfold Path, which brings many key aspects of life under the headings of skillful understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. When meditation is treated as a calming/concentrating practice, it falls under the “path-factor” of concentration. When as awareness and insight, it falls under mindfulness. In the case of loving-kindness meditation practice, it may be best understood it as falling under both intention and concentration.

However,

1. Very often, I think, meditation is not even presented as a component of the full path. And without that, it loses its meaning, its nature, and its function.

2. As discussed already, meditation is too often treated merely as a calming or concentrative practice, concentration itself being only one of the eight path factors.

3. Even if meditation is treated as developing concentration, mindfulness, and intention, these are still only three of eight factors.

Meditation needs to be understood and practiced in integration with all eight headings, which is to say, as integral components of the full eightfold path. Otherwise it will fail to benefit us as it should, and it will be undermined by inattention to other path factors, such as skillful speech for example. In contrast, when integrated, there can be powerful synergy among the path factors.

(See this post about Right Livelihood for further discussion of some of the path factors and how they integrate synergistically: Right Livelihood: Is It More Than Not Harming?)

3. Set Apart From Instead of Integrated with One’s Full Life

Too often, meditation is understood and practiced as something set aside and apart from the rest of one’s life. This results in part, I think, from the things discussed above, although I believe there are other reasons too.

In any case, we are not just supposed to just meditate at certain times, and then go about the rest of life as separate thing. Formal meditation practice is supposed to be cultivating abilities. Abilities of calm and concentration, of mindful awareness, of “wholesome” intentions, and many others besides.

The point is to develop these capacities for when we’re not formally meditating, i.e. for their constructive empowering effects in the rest of our life. All the parts of our life, including when we’re not engaged in formal meditation.

Furthermore, we aren’t supposed to cultivate mindful awareness, for example, only when engaged in formal meditation, but all the time.

4. Magically Fixing Instead of Building Capacities

Too often, meditation is understood and practiced as something that will magically “fix” the rest of one’s life, rather than give one the capacity to accept and deal skillfully with — and without necessarily first “fixing” — the rest of one’s life.

This builds further on the previous point. Meditation affects, or ought to be affecting, how we treat ourselves and others, the quality of relationships, how well we can emotionally “regulate” and, for that matter, behaviorally regulate.

Mindfulness meditation in particular develops becoming aware of our own feelings, actions, thoughts, and so on. Not just aware, but critically and clearly aware, reflectively aware such that we can examine our thoughts, actions et cetera without self-deception or obscuring prejudice. Further, mindfulness meditation works to build ever-growing awareness of ones motivations, and growing awareness of the effects of our thoughts and actions.

Taking another example, meditations such as loving-kindness meditation, which specifically develop right intentions, particularly affect and develop how we are disposed to respond emotionally to oneself, and to others.

In closing / See also

We should approach meditation with all this in mind, and with the goal of developing the various path-factors in all areas of our lives. At least, if we do this, we will get the greatest and best results. If you already think of, speak of, and practice meditation in these ways, please consider this post a message of thanks and of encouragement to continue.

See my Books / Resources page for some excellent books concerning meditation and the Eightfold Path.

For a complementary perspective on the idea and practice of philosophy, please consider reading any of these posts:

Philosophy as an Art of Living

Marcus Aurelius: What Is a Philosopher?

Recovering the Original Meaning of Philosophy

---

SeekerFive creates expressive photographic artwork.

Instagram @intentional_camera_magic.

Etsy at elementalexpressive.etsy.com.