by Stephen Austen

Created on: December 14, 2008   Last Updated: December 30, 2008

What is Meditation?

My own quest to understand the theory and practice of meditation began at the age of 16 and now at 48 years old I find that I am still learning and experiencing ever deeper layers of the meaning of meditation, as it unfolds, lotus like, revealing more of its true essence. Meditation for me therefore is not so much a practice that I do, but is more in the nature of attempting to achieve a state of being or rather a process of becoming. Having written a book on the subject of meditation entitled Meditation for Everyday Living I had opened the first chapter with the question "What is Meditation?" and I still find that so many people today are nonetheless continuing to ask themselves that very question.

It has occurred to me that I could write another meditation book but it would only have one page within its covers. That page would merely read "Enter the Silence." The book would need no other adornment or photographs or text; just that one page of three simple words. No one would buy the book of course, and no publisher would dare print it, yet in those three words would be conveyed the whole meaning of meditation beyond every technique that you have ever learned. Fix the mind on those words carefully and you will have all understanding of the process of meditation, especially when the words themselves lose their meaning and thoughts have ceased.

But first then, how do we get to such a sublime state? Before even entering into a discourse on meditation it is vital that you understand first one fundamental that is often overlooked; there is no meditation per se, without concentration first. Concentration leads to meditation. When the mind is fixed on one point this naturally produces a meditative state. One becomes somewhat entranced, yet with a relaxed focus that enables you to channel mental energy and hold it on one spot.

The mind is by nature, inquisitive, so it really is natural for the thoughts to go from one place to another. Think of the mind as being composed of mental energy or mind-stuff (known as chitta' in the East) which is rather liquid in form and therefore very malleable and able to form itself into anything that it gives its attention to. If water is poured into any vessel it will immediately take the shape of that vessel into which it is poured. Mental matter (for want of an adequate way to describe the nebulous) will mould itself into whatever it enters into. But the obstacle to meditation is that very tendency of the mind to

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