Meditating Without Purpose

We come to meditation with the idea that we're going to get something out of it. Perhaps if we meditate hard enough on making money, we'll get a new job. If we meditate enough on a person we like, perhaps they'll fall in love with us.

Meditating in this way is doomed to failure.

Consider for a moment what meditation really is: Just paying attention. That's it.

All we do when we meditate is sit, focus on a certain point (our breathing, music, our emotions) and when our thoughts come up, acknowledge them and return to our focus. When we do this for a significant period of time, we can reach new levels of calm, and new heights of perception.

But if we're meditating with a goal, we're not really meditating. We're attached to our thoughts, rather than what is happening in the present moment. 

There's nothing special about meditation. The more we see meditation as something special, the more we become separate from what it really is: just paying attention.

This attitude towards meditating isn't very popular in today's world. Simply put, it's not good for the economy. If we realize that meditation is nothing outside of right now, we're not going to buy a book on how to use meditation to create wealth.

But what if we could get what we wanted just through meditation? Let's say we're unhappy in our lives because we want more money. So we meditate for riches, and suddenly we're doing much better. Will we now be satisfied with our lives? I don't think so. If rich people were satisfied with what they had, companies dealing in antidepressants, cocaine and plastic surgery would go out of business!

When we desire something outside of ourselves, we think "If only...".

"If only I had a better job"

"If only I had a nice boyfriend'

"If only I had more money"

The problem with our lives isn't that we don't have these things that we want, it's that we don't recognize that these things, if we got them, wouldn't satisfy us. Getting more money, or a new partner, or a new job, creates more problems and more if-only's.

But we don't need to get depressed about this. We can just realize that everything we need is right here, right now. If we can see that there's nothing wrong with this present moment, that we're not really missing out on anything, and fully enjoy right now, we're on the path to real happiness.