Don't waste your time on meditation

I have a few questions for you today. One, why do you meditate? And two, how on earth can your meditation be at all affective if your mind is in chaos?

Now I have had this conversation with monks and other so-called experts. The monks will tell me all the benefits of it, stemming from some book or practice that is correlated with spiritual growth or enlightenment. The experts will throw all of the neuroscience data at me and get mad. It’s quite okay. Our discussions won’t get far. But I am sure that if the ancients were still alive today, they would know exactly what I am referring to, and not get caught-up in religious, spiritual, or scientific theories.

The writer has practiced various forms of meditation for nearly 30 years. If I could take back every single minute I wasted on those practices, I would. You see, unless you really understand the actual meaning of meditation, what 99% of training and practicing that is going on in the world today is merely a playful activity that won’t do much at all. Here’s why.

So, let’s start with the first question. I wonder why people continue to meditate? Meditation (not the word itself), real meditation, is a beautiful thing. I too, like the 99% until recently realized I completely misunderstood meditation. And like many others, just blindly following a process, a method, whether it be focusing on something, or observing something, getting distracted and then having to force myself to focus back on whatever it was I was first focusing on. For me at least, it hasn’t surmounted to anything much at all. I still have all the emotions I have as a human; it hasn’t helped me understand life much at all; or avoid suffering except for some minutes every day when I used to sit down to “meditate”. After nearly 30 years of practicing someone else's rituals, attending all kinds of training, some milder than others, sat for hours trying it out, I decided to give-up the practice, but wait, not meditation itself. Please allow me to explain.

Again, like the writer’s other posts, if you come to read this with your opinions, beliefs, or practices, much like the scientists and experts I talked to, you will only compare what you have in your mind with what the writer is trying to portray and you will fall into defending yourself when you feel threatened to protect your own beliefs. If that is the case, then we cannot go on any further. You may leave.

If however, you are willing to put aside the current definitions of meditation, all of them even just for a few moments, then you might discover something new or different. I’ll leave it up to you. If you need to choose, I recommend you read on.

I decided to write this article because it was time to question why meditation is such a popular practice these days. A few years ago, I even decided to revisit a Zen temple here in Japan as part of a corporate outing that was supposed to give visiting leaders a chance to experience Japan. During those visits, I was reminded of such harsh “methods” which made me question what is the purpose of meditation and why is such harshness necessary in order to learn it? After realizing that meditation has nothing to do with mind-control, which is essential what is happening out there, I decided to quit the modern-day propaganda of what they call meditation, in discovery of what it really means.

Propaganda. Do you know the meaning of it? One meaning is to spread ideas, information, or rumors for the purpose of helping or injuring a cause, or a person. Why am I referring to modern-day meditation if I may call it, as propaganda? Because, according to this definition, I feel it’s worth understanding if it is causing more harm than good, and why is there so much money invested in it that we think it’s the best thing to solve all of our 21st-centrury problems. If that was the case, all of the world’s problems would have been solved centuries ago! So, let’s talk about it.

What is meditation?

[By the way, this is not an article about how to meditate.]

For the past 50 years, meditation has been popularized in the west by many. It’s roots are deep. The origins of which are possibly as old as thousands of years. Religions use meditation; meditation has made it’s way into companies, schools, and even kindergartens. Dolls have also popularized meditation and if you see the absurdity of this last statement, you will start asking questions about meditation. If we feel the need to promote meditation this way to children by means of a toy, because we need to prepare them in this world to teach them how to be calm, then there is obviously a greater problem to address here, sadly.

Meditation, which is actually a beautiful thing once you’ve discovered what it really is, again not the word itself or all of the connotations around the word, but what it actually is, leads to joy. The kind of joy that does not know any conditions. It’s one of the core reasons I started the “Happy as Hell” podcast in order to understand what joy really is. But why has it become so popular and what does it really offer? Does it get you to “joy” without conditions? Why does it need to “get you” to anything?

Is it a system? Is it really about getting it right by sitting a certain way, or having your eyes half-opened, or focusing on breathing? Why should we practice it at all? So let’s ask at a deeper level to see if we can understand something we have not yet seen.

The origin of the word itself is from Sanskrit which is related to “measurement”. So meditate (as a word) has a relationship to understand what is measurement. What I have found is that as long as there is measurement, there seems to be some sort of goal involved. *What are we measuring against or towards? Sounds like we need to compare something. If we have a goal for meditation, then that means I start “here”, and so I need to get “there”. And this is true of what is taught to us in meditation because there seems to be a sense of seeking something whether it be something more, or greater than one can perceive, or have a goal to focus better, or for health reasons, and the list goes on. So can we ask why we need to seek something? What decides there is something to seek and in this case, to measure against? Why are we measuring at all? If we are measuring, we are comparing something aren’t we? From one state of anxiousness perhaps, to get to a state of calmness. Is there such a need for a concept involved with meditation at all. Because, it sounds like we are rather running away from something rather than getting to it. Do you see what I mean? I am anxious, and so I go and do the opposite which we have been conditioned to believe is it is more important to be calm, right? We believe anxiousness is a negative thing, so we should avoid it and it’s bad, and not good for your health, and needs to be fixed or it might lead to something else, and all of that. We are afraid to look at it because of the negative connotations. So we get away from understanding what anxiousness really is and go away and work on being calm. If you see this, we have missed the entire point here and a great opportunity to learn about ourself and anxiousness. So, please allow me to go back to my question of what decides that there is something to seek or to compare?

Somehow we have become accustomed to measuring things all the time. This person is richer (or poorer) than this person. We set goals in order to improve ourselves at work because our current state may not be good enough. We always seem to get into mischief or make some silly mistakes and suddenly we need to apologize or improve. We are measured from the time we first go to the Dr.’s clinic as a baby and we need to grow towards a certain norm or pattern like all other babies otherwise there is something wrong with us. Or perhaps my child can’t speak properly by a certain age like other children can and therefore needs some special therapy. Or that we need to marry by a certain age because most other people are married by that age or have children by a certain age. I wonder why we always comparing in life?

So I find it curious as to why we need to emphasize meditation by practicing it as if it were a ritual when measurement causes us so much suffering, and therefore, is probably contributing to many people’s challenges including stress, anxiety, frustration, despair, division, confusion, etc. all supposedly unconsciously by practicing something over and over again.

If you are at this point, and if your biases or beliefs about meditation suddenly spring up on you to dismiss what I am writing about here, or like me you teach mindfulness meditation (although I no longer do) or have spent like me years meditating for something, then you might get all excited and either quit reading and dismiss this and that is fine. Or you might want to understand yourself and why you do meditate at all? This was the original question. I used to believe that it was a good thing - that it would help people, and perhaps to some degree it has helped me be calmer, or see something “beyond”. But as I have done with all my beliefs, and non-beliefs, that is to inquire without prejudice or bias, or any interference from my conditioned mind, or allow any opportunity for the mind to choose, then you will see and understand what I just said is actually meditation. Please allow me to continue. The writer is not putting your beliefs down or suggesting that what I say needs to be followed at all. Here I have nothing to offer you. There is no getting from “here” to “there, or no process or method to teach. I am simply sharing what we might see when the mind is actually free from itself and this is the beauty in writing this for you.

Are you are willing to ask, is there a way to completely end the idea of any measurement whatsoever? Can it end practically which is in our reality? Can we live without measurement at all? Without comparing anything and without expectations? And can it end psychologically within our own minds which is where all this outer phenomena is being created from?

So meditation is not just to improve focus, or concentration skills, or observation skills, it also means to end all measurement. If we cannot end measurement, we will live in the limited containment of measurement. That is in the system of containment, which is limited, because thought is limited. In other words, we will continue to brand and label short vs tall; pretty vs not pretty; thin vs thick; smart vs not smart; rich vs poor; fear vs love, and fear vs love is a great injustice to the actual thing love is by the way. Because love itself is limitless. Is this what we want to create? This duality? Is this what we are reinforcing all the time by comparing and measuring? Because what I saw when I practiced meditation is how I contributed to this duality indirectly by promoting the idea of measurement through meditation. In meditation, why seek at all? All you will ever find when you seek is whatever is already in your mind which is nothing but confusion. This tends to tell me that meditation contributes to your inner confusion more which subconsciously or unconsciously is contributing to the outer confusion we see. What you see in the world is a reflection of what you see inside you.

So, can we end the idea or concept of measurement and comparison in meditation?

Who is measuring?

Who? Over time, it seems we record lots of experience in our life, lots of knowledge, lots of verbal ideas and non-verbal ideas about ourselves and images we have about who we think we are. We have a name, a hair color, a gender, certain features, things we like and don’t like, beliefs, dogmas, political preferences, etc. We are ravaged by education which prepares us for organized society in which we are none other than pre-manufactured-individuals that will support some country’s business plan and all the business surrounding that. And we live like this, keep creating these images of ourselves over time until one day it all ends whether you wait for the physical ending, or awaken to the psychological ending which can be right now but this requires you to understand the illusion of time which we have talked about in a previous blog.

So what we ask people to do is meditate based on some process which needs to be copied and pasted in your mind, rinse and repeat and therefore is part of the image we just spoke about in your mind. Now, who is creating the image? Is the image separate from the image creator? Because if you are the image, for which is the ego, then it’s the ego that is conditioning your meditation. The process is in your mind, which is built into an image, that image of what you need to do and how to do things. If you are doing that “how-to” part, and you’re taking action on the how-to part which is in your image that is actually acting from your ego, then the ego is conditioning your meditation as well. If you separated the image itself from the creator of that image, you won’t see this. You need to admit that you are the image creator and therefore all that the image contains. If you are practicing some method, then it’s the image which is practicing - you. Is this the purpose of meditation? We create an image, which is non-other than an illusion, because we might have an image of what it looks like to be calm. Then, we go chasing that image through meditation which is a practice working from the image created. You see you have an image of what it’s like to be calm which has come from your own mind, planted there from some knowledge you obtain in the past. And then you go looking for that image through meditation, through a process which is embedded in your mind. It’s like throwing a coin onto the floor in front of you and for fun, you switch the light off and then you go searching for where it could be. And then the mind finds it and says I’ve found it, and some point or it sets aside 20 minutes a day to practice until it can find it. Do you see the point here?

What can we do to experience joy without the conditions? Can we through meditation at all? Because as long as we are setting expectations, goals, or measuring something, then there are conditions aren’t there? If I meditate for 20 mins per day, I will feel calmer. That’s why I meditate. A condition. I wonder if there is a way you meditate without any form of comparison or any system which is stored as part of the image? If you can, you will see something else for yourself. You will see something indescribable, pure clarity. . The silence that you create opens a light to your heart which has always been shining - just covered by the image your mind creates over time and keeps recreating itself. I apologize for planting another image so let just say that you shine and the quality of your mind is crystal clear with that light. For this to be uncovered, for you to see something without any form of comparison, and form of interference, noise from your mind, you don’t need any system, any idea, any methodology. You need not pay anyone or take an expensive course to learn this so save your money!

In this state, there is no need for words or for interference from the mind. When you look at a flower, you don’t see the benefit in automatically calling it a “flower”, or if you don’t know it, you don’t look it up in google. You simply observe the flower completely with silence, with clarity, without any interference from words of what actually is. In other words, meditation is emptying the mind of any activity any operation from the self. This means meditation has no conditions, cannot be achieved by any method and cannot be accomplished when you are trying to "control" with the mind.

Meditation is something you appreciate with your heart and you relish in its beauty. In other words, you give it total attention. This total attention is only possible when there is complete silence. And when there is complete silence, it’s like listening to butterfly that is completely still. Have you ever walked in nature during the night, when everything is asleep -all the trees, birds, wildlife, are asleep, and there is an utter silence? You can here the trees whisper amongst themselves because they finally at peace, in joy. In total silence, there is peace and there is love.

If I had a PhD. or I was a scientist or a monk or perhaps even a politician, you might actually listen to what I am saying here and take action. But because I declare that I am simply a person without any authority, nor do I wish any followers, will you still actually take the time to understand it all, to see the beauty in it all? Do you see how much you miss when you operate and navigate your life from an image? An image of authority which for many means trust? An image that others have actually created for you and you simply believe? Are you happy being a copy-paste human being, or would you rather listen to the music of one’s own heartbeat because that is the essence of what I am sharing with you today.

Now having said that, what will you now do? Will you force silence upon yourself which operates from the image you have created, using someone’s technique to which the writer is not silence at all. Or, understand that silence comes when there is freedom from all the information from that image. Like tuning into a radio station and getting the dial just right when all the interference has stopped - there is complete clarity. And, in this silence, you will also notice the end of any more questions.

Love and light,

Gab “C” Ciminelli