Despite the growing popularity of mindfulness in recent years, many people still think of meditation as esoteric. It's not for them. Others have an idea that meditation sounds vaguely helpful, but there's no obvious way to fit it into their lives.
In order to encourage those with a spark of interest in meditation to seek and create pathways to a practice that serves them, I'd like to offer a perspective on what it's essentially about.
Meditation is learning to engage deeply with life, enabling you to respond to your experience with more understanding and care. We recognize that we have misperceptions, so we consciously practice to see more clearly. It's like going to get your much-needed prescription glasses. This is what you do when you know your vision is distorted or hazy.
We suffer from many kinds of misperceptions. We tend to hone in on what we think is wrong or dangerous about a situation way more than we revel in what is beautiful and supportive. We tend to see ourselves as separate, isolated individuals rather than as interdependent and intrinsically tied to countless conditions. We forget that we are ever-changing, subject to shifting mental and physical states, including illness and death. We tend to believe so many untrue and harmful thoughts like “I'm really not very good at anything,” or “Colby is just a moron.” We so readily inflate our worries, forsaking the chance at intimacy with the preciousness of the moment, ourselves, and those around us.
Thich Nhat Hanh sometimes describes meditation as taking the time to look deeply. This act of investigating our perceptions doesn't happen on its own any more than our vision spontaneously shifts from 20/40 to 20/20. In order to be motivated to do something about our vision, we have to recognize that it's impaired and trust that it's possible to improve the situation. For us to be motivated to meditate, we must honestly acknowledge our confusion and trust that shining the light of awareness and compassion on our experience will help.
Just as we wouldn't go out to the garage to make our own glasses, we would be mistaken to think that we can become skilled meditators completely on our own. We are fortunate to live in a time when there are teachers, classes, practice centers, books, guided meditation recordings, online lectures, communities, and friends widely available.
Let this be a time of recognizing the suffering in ourselves and throughout the world. Let this be a time when we are inspired to look deeply, to understand clearly, and to grow in wisdom so we know how to help.