Meditation: Am I Doing It Yet? Part 1 — “who defines meditation?”

“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”

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This is a full repost not a reblog of my Feb 15, 2011 blog post.

Many of the links have been updated. If any aren’t operational please let me know in the comments 😊

Parts 2 & 3 of this short series which continued my thoughts on meditation back then, have been kept in their 2011 positions.

The reason I’ve decided on a full repost is to bring it to the fore, as some of these questions then came up to me again during the early days of recovery from my 2nd surgery. Working to deal with various pains and how to manage meds prescribed to me made me search these early posts back out. I found them still – maybe more so now – useful to me, so I wanted to share them with you. 💕

Thanks so much! – Adan 🙏

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Part 1

isn’t that what most of us wonder? are we even meditating? or just fooling ourselves? shouldn’t i be levitating or at least seeing colors?  😉

my position is, all of us meditate and have meditated, and not even known it

last week, i posted a short poem, “cross country,” i wrote about 17 years ago

it’s really about any type of running or jogging – it’s really about one of those moments one finds oneself in sometimes – being in the flow or groove – it’s really about words connecting to images connecting to feelings connecting… to inexpressibles

it’s really about meditation – a way of being present

a zone

and now it’s all being blurred in a blog! 😉

so first, let’s define, or at least create a working definition of meditation – i won’t claim it’s the last or best or only word, just what works for me, right now [1]

when i was a child, i’d overhear the priest and others in church speaking of meditation, and it was obvious this was grown-folk stuff, so that was the end of it; though i did, in passing, imagine it involved some of that great smelling incense that began and ended each mass

my idea of meditation has changed, several times, since then, and i’ve begun to suspect my current “adult informed” idea of meditation, may end up as much a brain-smile memory as that from my childhood

the younger teen years didn’t fare much better in imagining meditation in action than my earlier imaginings

hormone-flexed thoughts gave rise to vistas of carpet-riding swamis gliding ever upward, through soft puffy clouds, girding my teen-hero-resolve as i rose  😉

and 20-something just elaborated everything into a non-hangover nirvana, a somehow-resting-point winner’s-purgatory, as i awaited entry into the still-not-quite -fully-visualized heaven that all the spiritual gurus ancient saints and perfect pets surely gloried in…

it was near this time, the early 70’s, my early 20’s, that the press of authoritarian mantras, sutras, and obediences finally took their toll, and i left attempting attaining meditative nirvana, and left for jogging and raising kids, left to educate myself –

– never realizing, til recently, i’d actually, finally, slipped into a type of serial meditation, a series of being-presents…

i hadn’t even begun to realize that my teen-decade of construction work each summer, rhythmically working a hatchet into wood with nails, day after day, for summers, for years, breathing mornings noons and evenings into patterns of twists and cuts and slams of my hammer-like-hatchet, had already entered me, led me, into a blending movement of the moment

i’d even less, suspected my heart-felt-fusings of breath and trumpet and papered notes, dotting my school band years, were equally meshing a mind and heart and body, mine

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in other words, i’d never realized, or been told, or suggested to, that i was already practicing meditation…was already, being present…

so, to return to point, or more so, make it, the definition of meditation, for me, must, include the capacity to fit many modes of movement and many mines of mindfulness – it must include what i now know it includes: everyday life…

so why wasn’t i transported my-trumpets-blazing into heaven?

i was practically a walking meditation bottle, free for the sipping, always dipping into modes and moments of obvious present-ness, when alone…

the crux, the bottomline, it seems, is, becoming self-conscious, and remaining present…anytime….

cont’d:

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footnotes

[1] there’s lots of great sites regarding meditation; a good google search is a great way to see what’s out there

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Related articles

meditation: “am i doing it yet?” part 1 – who defines meditation?

meditation: “am i doing it yet?” part 2 – definitions mechanisms comparisons

meditation: “am i doing it yet?” part 3 – yes! maybe, sometimes 😉

Four Obstacles to Meditation and How to Overcome Them (psychologytoday.com)

The Yoga Bowl, a Short Story

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My Amazon Gift Search & Products

Meditation

– Images are Links –

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Please Note:
Updated Sept 08, 2019
Original Post February 15, 2011

INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS

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