From time to time, I get out of the habit of practicing meditation/contemplation. And it becomes important to re-engage with these practices that help me sink deeper into myself and reconnect with contemplative thought. These meditative practices are what I need to live a serious, creative life, which I was born to do. From time to time, people also ask me to help support them in their own meditative practices. Basically, the questions center around how to start, what to do, and what is supposed to happen when you do it. Most of us understand contemplation/meditation will be helpful, but we are unclear about what we are supposed to be achieving through it. I would like to outline here some purposes, or we might say outcomes, of meditation/contemplation. In subsequent posts, we will then outline practical steps to achieve these ends. Some purposes of meditation/contemplation (the two terms are used interchangeably):

Becoming present and connected. Meditation is really about becoming open and resonant with the rhythm of the universe. There is something going on below and beneath what we see and that which occupies most of our time and attention. Meditation is sinking deeper beneath the surface and connecting with what is really going on. It is like getting to know a person. There is what you perceive at first. And then there is the deep well of human experience occurring inside them. The more you take time to settle into an experience of a person or thing, the greater the degree of intimacy you will be able to have with them or it.

Finding direction. Without a consistent practice of meditation, it is easy to feel blown about by the waves of the ocean – moved by and subject to everything happening to you and around you. Meditation is sinking deeper beneath the waves and having a quieter and more grounded experience. The waves will still crash and sway on the surface and you will still experience the current creating them, but your experience of possessing yourself and what is will become more solid and substantive. Not that you will “know” or be able to explain everything, but your experience of yourself and reality will start to make sense on a larger scale. You will have a better understanding why you are here and even the general trajectory of the universe.

Finding your inner voice. Along with deepening your understanding of where you and the universe are headed, you will also be able to more fully connect with your own inner voice – “what you really think.” Through meditation, you can learn to sift through other’s voices, and your own impulses and feelings, to find what you really think and mean to do about something. This will also give way to being able to articulate your inner experience in a clear way.

Emptying yourself out. If you practice meditation, you will feel more like yourself, and you will also feel less like a person. This is because you will have spent time examining and discovering what is inside you, so you will not be so consistently focused on your own demands and desires. This is how you can eventually provide space (“hospitality”) for others. If you are constantly teeming with your own words, thoughts and intentions, there is no space for anyone or anything else. Meditation helps you empty yourself and this brings us back to the first goal above – becoming open and connected.

In coming posts, we will lay out some practical ways to become more meditative. I am, by no stretch, an expert in meditation. There are many who have spent far more time studying and practicing meditation. In fact, that is the only way to become more expert: practice. Meditation is learned and developed over years of regular practice. Just like getting to know someone, we learn and grow intimacy through the regular practice of sitting down and spending time. When you have done it for thousands of hours, your sense of understanding how to do it and its purposes increases.