THE ESSENCE OF MEDITATION

There are so many different methods and techniques of meditation. Which is best?

Well, a good answer is that question is, whichever works for you. However, let's explore the subject of meditation a bit further.

As for me, I like what that great iconoclast and saboteur of conventional wisdom J. Krishnamurti, pictured below, had to say about the matter. He warned against using any sort of method or technique, for all such things are simply conditioning, thought and the past. In my posts on this blog I have often recounted the following famous Zen story. A disciple says to the master, ‘I have been four months with you, and you have still given me no method or technique.’ The master says, ‘A method? What on earth would you want a method for?’ The disciple says, ‘To attain inner freedom.’ The master roars with laughter, and then says, ‘You need great skill indeed to set yourself free by means of the trap called a method.’

Krishnamurti spoke and wrote much on the subject of meditation even though he never taught any particular system or type of meditation other than the awareness of both the world and the whole movement of oneself. True meditation, he would say, is a choiceless awareness applied it to one’s whole day, indeed one’s whole life. In a similar vein Alan Watts wrote that meditation is ‘the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment’. 

Whatever life may be, it is all here now, and all we have to do is to learn to perceive it here and now. We need to see each thing as it really is – as a new moment.

Meditation is being aware of every thought and feeling, just watching and moving with them, without judgment, but only with choiceless awareness. It occurs when the mind understands its own movement as thought and feeling with complete attention, for meditation demands an extraordinarily alert mind, a state of mind which looks at everything with complete, but bare, attention, a state of mind that is entirely free and unconditioned.

Krishnamurti saw meditation as a lifelong inquiry into what it means to be truly present and aware. Meditation occurs when you live in the action of the present moment, as opposed to the so-called present moment itself, for the moment you say the present moment you are in the past, you are involved in memory, and thus not living in the present moment. One can only be said to live in the present when the mind is free from all ideas of ‘self’. When you have the idea of ‘self’ (that is, mental images of ‘I’ and ‘me’) you are living either in the past or in the imagined or expected future. 

In a state of choiceless awareness and ever-presence, the observer and the observed are one. Any sense of duality disappears. The one life that manifests itself in all things, as all things, is experienced in all its fullness.

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BE WILLING TO BE A BEGINNER EVERY SINGLE MORNING

We all need to cultivate a ‘beginner’s mind’.

One of the best books ever written on meditation from a Buddhist perspective is Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by the Japanese Sōtō Zen monk, rōshi and teacher Shunryu Suzuki, pictured below.

Having a ‘beginner’s mind’ means seeing all things as if for the first time. In truth we are always seeing things for the very first time because everything is in a constant state of flux, but we seldom think of it that way. Even the familiar and the everyday—those things around us that we habitually see—they never remain the same.

When we see things with a beginner’s mind, we see each thing in all its directness and immediacy and freshness. Everything is new and wonderful, and you are part of the ongoing unfoldment of life itself from one moment to the next. In that regard, I am reminded of something the great German mystic Meister Eckhart once said, namely, 'Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.'

There are many schools of Buddhism, but there is this golden thread running through all of Buddhism, namely, that each one of us can be—and in a very real sense already is—a Buddha. Now, I am not talking about the historical Buddha as such. I am talking about a potentiality within each one of us that is always trying to burst its way into full expression in and as us. In the New Testament Saint Paul writes of ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col 1:27) which, as I see it, is more-or-less the same idea. This is what Shunryu Suzuki has to say about the matter:

'To do something, to live in each moment, means to be the temporal activity of Buddha. To sit in this way [Zazen] is to be Buddha himself, to be as the historical Buddha was. The same thing applies to everything we do. Everything is Buddha’s activity. So whatever you do, or even if you keep from doing something, Buddha is that activity. …'

Suzuki refers to this way of living as ‘being Buddha.’ He writes, ‘Without trying to be Buddha you are Buddha. This is how we attain enlightenment. To attain enlightenment is to be always with Buddha.’ Suzuki quotes the historical Buddha’s statement, ‘See Buddha nature in various beings, and in every one of us.’ In that regard, a number of Buddhist scriptures state that the historical Buddha said that we are all buddhas, a buddha being a person who is enlightened, that is, awake. This is reminiscent of what Jesus himself affirmed, namely, 'Is it not written in your law, I said ye are gods' (Jn 10:34; cf Ps 82:6). Sadly, all too often we fail to see the world around us—as well as ourselves—as they really are.

Start seeing everything afresh with a beginner’s mind.

 

MINDFULNESS MAY ASSIST IN THE TREATMENT OF MIGRAINE

A recent study, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine, of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has found that MBSR can assist in the treatment of migraine.

Migraine is a neurological condition that can cause multiple symptoms. It is frequently characterized by intense, debilitating headaches. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, difficulty speaking, numbness or tingling, and sensitivity to light and sound. The condition of migraine often runs in families and can affect all ages.

Photo credit: MedicineNet. All rights reserved.

MBSR is an eight-week program that offers secular, intensive mindfulness training to assist people with stress, anxiety, depression and pain. Thereafter, participants are encouraged to practise mindfulness on a daily basis. For what it's worth, here is my definition--description might be a better word--of mindfulness:

Mindfulness is the watchful, receptive and purposeful presence of bare attention to, and choiceless awareness of, the content of the action—both internal and external—of the present moment ... from one moment to the next.

 

The outcomes of this recent study indicate that while MBSR does not appear to reduce the frequency of migraines, pain perception and other secondary outcomes including quality of life did improve.

Migraine is the second leading cause of disability around the world. Unfortunately, about two-thirds of migraine sufferers discontinue migraine medications for various reasons. In recent years there has been a growing interest in non-pharmacological approaches to the treatment of the condition.

 

‘For a condition with recurrent, lifelong unexpected attacks,’ the study authors wrote, ‘improving a patient’s pain perception and ability to function despite migraine has significant implications for overall long-term emotional and social health.’

Reference

Wells R E, O’Connell N, Pierce C R, et al. ‘Effectiveness of mindfulness meditation vs headache education for adults with migraine: A randomized clinical trial.’ JAMA Intern Med. Published online Dec 14, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7090