The easy alternative may seem harder than standard "meditation" if we are unable to let go.
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| Beginner's mind (De lioncourt/flickr.com) |
(LWC) There is an alternative perspective on approaching "meditation." It is somewhat paradoxical intellectually but makes perfect sense in practice when it is/seems effortless.
It is akin to the jhanic Theravada approach or Zen's "just sitting" (zazen), known by other names in various Buddhist lineages and referred to as "presence" and the "power of now" by Eckhart Tolle.
It leads to concentration/collectedness (samadhi) not insight (satori). It results in serenity (samatha) not enlightenment (kensho). It may lead to an experience of non-duality (advaita) but not liberation as the historical Buddha described it in what only later came to be called vipassana (insight meditation).
Jeff Foster regards meditation not as a "doing," a process, a state ,or a goal to reach, but as an effortless noticing and welcoming of present-time experience. Ultimately, meditation is not something one does but something we already are -- the vast open space of consciousness, which is already intimate with all forms.
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