Meditation Can Be More Than a Solution

Many things in our daily life function as a solution to a problem. If we are hungry, we eat. If we are tired, we sleep. If we need to go somewhere and our car isn't working, we plan another way.

Of course, the same goes for our mental and emotional problems. But our mental and emotional problems are usually much more complex than just finding an alternative route to work.

Modern meditation is often presented as a solution to our mental and emotional problems. Although there is some merit to this claim, as seen in countless individual meditators and a growing body of scientific studies, meditation can be much more than just a temporary solution to feeling stressed out.

Most meditation techniques provide some method for bringing our attention and awareness into the present moment. This is because it is within the present moment that we can begin to see more clearly and penetrate through the constant stream of thoughts that construct our perceptions and reality.

As we persist, this sense of nowness encapsulated within the present moment gives way to a more profound and trustworthy internal knowing/wisdom that also expands beyond our past, present, and future constructs. This is the space where our personal stories and identities begin to dissolve, fall away and lose their power. Of course, this can be painful, as our stories ground us into a sense of safety. But our clinging to safety can also keep us locked into a false sense of reality that stunts our liberation from suffering.

Although finding more ease and spaciousness in our experience is essential, to reap its fuller benefits, meditation must be helping us (from within that spaciousness) to push the boundaries of our exploration into what perpetuates our suffering.

The Buddha discovered this sitting under the Bodhi tree 2,600 years ago, and so can we. We are no different. But we must persist in our intention to employ our meditation practice to see the minds underlying structures and projections. This takes a lot of love, curiosity, and a willingness to consistently expand beyond the areas of mind and body where we hide and contract.

With consistent practice, we may one day find ourselves living life as one extended awareness meditation, a constant opening into reality as it is. This all starts with a sense of curiosity towards our thoughts, emotions, and how we perceive the world around us.

When we cease constantly searching for a solution to every problem, putting out fire after fire, we begin to relax into awareness and see the solution beyond a problem and solution.