Meditation in action

This article introduces a “map” for meditation in action. Print out the pdf and keep it with you until you get a “feel” for the practice.

“Meditation” means to “attend.” It means attention to the whole of life. It should not be a strenuous act; it should not be forced. Your whole life can be one of meditation. Instead of making dramatic resolutions, simply make yourself open to observing yourself and decide to experiment in observing yourself. Once purity of mind is attained, then one is fully prepared for the inner voyage. To achieve this state of purity of mind, one should cultivate constant awareness by being mindful all the time. To purify the buddhi, the faculty of discrimination, is the most important task.

Attention is the key point that leads you to concentration, then to meditation, and then to samadhi. Mindfulness means paying attention. You have to pay attention to the thing you are doing, and you have to learn to train your mind. This is a very preliminary step and you have to learn that first.

In doing practices of mindfulness, internal dialogue, and meditation, including introspection and witnessing, it is extremely useful to have a road-map. Otherwise, the mind can just toss and turn in a confused sort of “dialogue” while one is struggling to be “mindful.”

The concepts listed in the pdf are important working tools for your practice—they are not just background information. As you come to understand these concepts, you will enjoy knowing and using them, as you also come to know and be friends with your own mind.

Photo: Radhika Shah Grouven

You may want to photocopy this sheet and keep it with you in a pocket until you have learned the concepts. Use the principles often each day to observe your thoughts, words, and actions, as well as your gestures and body language. After you have learned them, mentally scan all of the items from time to time during the day as a means of cultivating mindfulness.

Choose one of the 40 items, and for a day (or a week) observe it in all aspects in the external and internal world. Notice how actions, speech, and thoughts are related, and how that one item also affects the others. Pay particular attention to how the four functions of mind are affected. Check off that item, and on the following day (or week), select another item from a different group and then observe that one item.

Download Pdf Mediation in Action