The point of meditation is to recognize thoughts when they arrive. To remind yourself that thoughts are just beliefs and stories. And to remind yourself that you are not your thoughts.
Because your thoughts are not what is happening right now. What is happening right now is real. The things you think about are not real. They are not what is unfolding right in front of you.
Your true essence isn’t the river and all the stories that flow along in the river. Your true essence is the one who watches the river. That’s you, on the riverbank. Maxing and relaxing while all your drama washes on by.
The core practice of meditation is recognizing thoughts, and remembering that you are the one who watches those thoughts.
We typically learn to meditate by sitting on a cushion in a quiet room. There might be calming music, or a voice that guides your attention here or there. Maybe some incense. A gong.
Yet sitting on a cushion, or a chair, or even on your sit bones isn’t necessary to meditate. Sitting still anywhere, for any length of time, is not a prerequisite for reaching a meditative state.
The cushion just forces your body to stop moving. This removes a whole bunch of project management for your brain, leaving your attention free to notice the one part of you that continues to move regardless of what your body is doing: your mind.
The cushion allows you to better focus your attention on the object of the game: to be the witness. Most meditation teachers use the breath to help keep our attention pinned in here, and not out there.
The breath brings us back to the present.
The cushion gives you a dedicated place to practice. It is a valuable place for beginners. And of course, despite their mastery of presence at all times, seasoned yogis will still prefer to sit quietly, because it just makes conditions more conducive to emptying.
But sitting on a cushion isn’t required.
Your entire day—every event, every exchange, every decision—offers an opportunity to meditate. Because the game of meditation is to recognize thoughts.
And the game never changes. Nor does the object of the game: to be present.
The discipline of meditation is to let the thoughts float past so that they don’t capture your attention. Because your attention needs to be in this moment, with whatever is happening in real time, in front of your face. Now is the only moment that is real, alive, shapeable, liveable.
When you are living in the now, that is mindfulness. That is living meditation.
You can meditate while you’re loading the dishwasher. You can meditate in a conversation with your son. You can meditate on your hike in the forest.
You can meditate while you’re driving.
All it means is that you’ve committed your focus to whatever is unfolding in the Now.
If you’ve established a meditation practice that involves sitting quietly, keep that up. Sitting on the cushion is an excellent addition to your in situ meditation. The formal practice will only strengthen your power of presence. But just know that you’re offered thousands of other opportunities to meditate throughout your day.
When you discipline your bodymind to remain in a state of presence no matter what’s going on, you’ll find that the shifts you’re after—more calm, more humour, more wisdom—will accrue quickly.
Cushion not required.
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