What is meditation?

People often think they know what meditation is e.g. sitting peacefully contemplating something nice like the sea or mountains or one’s breathing. That’s fine, but it isn’t the meditation which we call ‘Buddha-dharma’ (i.e. Buddha’s Teaching or Way). Buddha Way Meditation is sustained and focussed awareness in a way that brings about inner peace and insight into the nature of life. It gradually brings about a change of attitude and a change of understanding. Here is an outline (which does not substitute for sustained practical learning at MBW sessions and classes):

Mindfulness

We learn to develop our detached awareness of what is actually going on (here and now) around us and inside us, without passing judgement. This is the opposite of being mindless, in which the mind is dragged here and there by whatever happens to interest it or preoccupy it. Mindfulness is ongoing, direct experiential attention.

The Anchor: Concentration

You focus your mind with ‘here and now’ attention on a single fixed object, such as a candle flame or the sensation of your own breathing. Every time the mind wanders or is distracted you gently bring it back to the object. At first it isn’t easy, but it gets easier with practice and instruction. With effort the mind gradually does what you want it to, and it becomes calmer and clearer. With a lot of practice you can without fear let go of your holding on to your self-image and all its pride and belongings. It is that habit of holding on tightly that is the root cause of worry and fear. Concentration acts as our anchor for Insight.

The Buoy: Insight

As you try to anchor your mind, you will find that it wanders off like a bobbing buoy after various things which arise (arisings) such as thoughts, feelings, memories, sounds. Usually, these just drag us around here and there, and we don’t look into their nature. If we do look we shall see that they are impermanent, full of tension and that in the last analysis they are not ‘me’. In order to have insight into the nature of these arisings, which are the source of all our difficulties and misunderstanding of life, we need to train ourselves to note them and look into them. The anchor is needed to keep the buoy from dragging the mind away.