Meditation is simply a practice of intentionally focusing on, non-reactively accepting, and decoupling self-concepts from the space awareness inhabits. The mind relaxes when we stop injecting our desires, judgments, and egos into the present.

There is no ”right” way to meditate in physical space. Sit cross-legged or in an armchair. Eyes open or closed. Inside or outdoors. Recite mantras, listen to a babbling brook, or revel in silence. Sure, the environmental setting can change your experience of the practice and facilitate finding your flow (especially for beginners), but the differences are minimal for cultivating a still mind.

In the psychic realm, however, there are strong and weak practices. Strong practice feels like the middle ground between confident competence and challenge. You know what you’re doing and acknowledge the space between your current practice and the next ceiling.

Weak practice feels unsatisfactory or utterly baffling. It feels like going through the motions without discernible improvement or total amnesia.

Teachers recommend creating a space in your home dedicated to meditation with a cushion, dark curtains, incense, white noises, and a timer because that setting fully absorbs you. Drowning out the world’s infinite phenomena with a handful of carefully curated sensations sets a strong practice for beginners to experience letting their minds become still. But these are training wheels. They’ll eventually stop supporting your exercise and start interfering with the development of harmony within your mind and mastery of your attention.

Why shackle mindfulness to a meditation nook? Why limit concentration to 15 or 30 minutes a day? Why give up on equanimity the moment it’s challenging?

Meditating off the cushion

Meditation starts in controlled environments, but your practice will grow faster and stronger off the cushion than on it. When you’re ready for another layer of challenge, let go of the certainty and let yourself meditate through the chaos of construction, coffee machines, and ambient conversations.

After all, meditation is simply a practice of intentionally focusing on, non-reactively accepting, and ruthlessly decoupling our self-concepts* from the space awareness inhabits. The mind relaxes when we stop injecting our desires, judgments, and egos into the present.

Enlightenment

Your awareness is one item in an infinite sea of sometimes serene, sometimes chaotic content. Take this one step further and see the contents of your mind to be the same metaphysical substance as the contents of your environment. Imagine there is no difference between your idea of yourself and the colour of your coat. Everything is transient. The only constant is your awareness of it all.

Some are pleased when one thing comes and another goes; others are upset by the same happening. See through the illusion of separateness amongst all phenomena and inhabit the space in which reality unfolds. After accepting uncertainty, peace is the default state in the liminal space connecting your perception of past and future - here and there - You and I.

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