Blogging about meditation is somewhat paradoxical. By definition, blogging involves writing a log and putting it on the web. But with meditation, there are no words! So this blog is constantly playing catch up with what it is actually like to meditate! The truth is, there ARE no words!
While posting on this blog, Ive been talking about my experiences since I started meditating. Ive been talking about the places Ive meditated, how to meditate, the benefits of meditation and other side issues. Today it occurred to me, I still haven’t described what the meditation itself is actually like.
On a bad day – when maybe I don’t quite get it right – meditation is 20 minutes of quiet time. I now find myself living in New York, a crazily busy neighborhood, so 20 minutes quiet time is never a bad thing! But on a good day? Well, thats the part that is hard to describe, because there are no words, no thoughts and just a few feelings.
Those feelings are peace, contentment and awareness. Peace and contentment are pretty self-explanatory. Even someone who has never been able to meditate can understand those feelings. But it is the purity of the feelings that make the effort worthwhile.
The part that is a little harder to put into words is the awareness. At the time, you aren’t really thinking about it. After coming out of meditation, you try not to analyze it in case you ruin the moment. Retrospectively, I’d say the awareness is the aspect of meditation that lingers for minutes, hours or sometimes days.
Ive found perspective, the ability to understand myself more honestly, and have found inspiration after I have meditated. But when Im actually meditating, Im not thinking about any of those things. In fact, Im not thinking about anything at all. I cant speak for anyone else, but Ive always found that very hard to do. If you’ve read this far into this blog post and can honestly say that you haven’t had at least one distracting thought, then you are very different from what I am – and I take my hat off to you!
More likely, you are just like I am. While reading a post like this, I would have had thoughts like this:
Who does this bozo think he is?
Its ok for him – he has more time than I have!
Isn’t meditation some weird hippy thing?
I don’t need to meditate?!
What the hell is meditation anyway?
Even if I wanted to, I can’t meditate.
If you thought any of those things, checked your notification, glanced up at the TV, or any other random thoughts, then don’t worry – thats normal. Everybody has those distractions and thoughts. But having a healthy brain which produces thoughts can be tiring, especially in a world where we are connected to so many sources of information.
Thats exactly why I started a blog about meditation – in the hope that I could share with others that there is a place we can go that is free, and easy, and peaceful. A place where there are no words and no thoughts. No notifications and no distractions. Im still learning about this, and ironically, publishing words on a blog, helps me to understand this beautiful place where there are no words – either spoken or thought.
