Great Nature Path
Chinese Medicine Therapy - Cultivation of the Mind - Meditate
What is Meditation?
Especially what it isn't
When the six senses are no longer grasping, one arrives at the door of meditation. The six senses are the senses of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and thinking. They all grasp for that which equates their function. Eyes grasp for things to see, ears grasp for things to listen to, the nose for scents, etc. However, many do not know what the mind grasps to. The mind grasps to thoughts. Hence, the mind, or thinking is your sixth sense. That too is a big influence on every other sense, and vice versa. Once the senses are no longer grasping, the cultivator is said to be at the door of meditation.
Meditation is when there is no more active, out-flow of attention, and no more active in-flow of attention. No conscious, nor subconscious, thinking, feeling, smelling, tasting, touching, or seeing. We call those things discriminating thinking. Discriminating thinking means associating and attaching to distinctions made by our senses, and such activity causes the senses to become occupied, narratives to be formed, personalities and characteristics that are attached to, to become an identity. When the senses are occupied, they are busy influencing the other senses, the nervous system and energy of the body, to influence how the “you” will experience the world. Thus, “residing” in a state of clarity will not “occur”.
It is important to understand that meditation is not the breathwork, mantra recitation, visualization, standing, sitting, lying and moving (walking) in postures while looking as though one fits the stereotypical image of a Buddha, Daoist Sage. Nor is it the guided help, or the feeling you feel when you take a deep breath and calm. It also isn’t the states, or experiences, you had while practicing a mudra, or from doing self reflection. Meditation also is not the act of focusing your attention and breath when you get sad, or angry, nor is it focusing intently on what you want to attract to yourself for a better life.
By sitting with your eyes closed, and in a comfortable position, you are simply preparing yourself for relaxation and border on going to sleep. In that state you can experience tons of different states as well. This, still, is not meditation.
To be clear, totally clear on what meditation is, remember this, when you cannot tell whether there is a sky above, nor Earth below, you are meditating. If you are wondering how long it has been, or about the numbness in your legs, pain in your back, or how great the feeling of your energy is, then you are not meditating. Same goes for anything else you experience during your practice. Let’s not forget that the practice of “guided meditation'' is also not meditation, but hypnosis at best.
When you are practicing mudra, mantra, movement and concentration visualization, breathwork, posturework, focusing “energy” on crystals, or imagining a better life, that is actually cultivation methods, and not meditation. Those things can lead one to eventually develop what is needed to meditate, however, without a technique that is geared towards meditating, one will most likely not even come close to it.
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What leads one to meditate is single-minded concentration. This kind of strength is called unmoving, and without it, the senses will have a field day with you, the cultivator, and this is why there are cultivation methods, practices, which aid in developing the skill of meditating. Hence, you have the True Stillness Method.
