Below are a few qualities that describes a mature meditation practice. I must add the disclaimer that ultimately even these qualities are incomplete in describing meditation — no concept or quality can define meditation. However, they do seem to serve as a useful guidepost for tuning in, depending on the perspective we are at.
1) 24/7 — meditation is a 24/7 process, not something done a few minutes or hours here and there. If it’s not 24/7, it’s not real meditation. That means, we meditate while eating, while socializing, and while sleeping. Very few of us, if any, are ever in a total meditative state, but anything less, or expecting anything less of our practice, is not true meditation.
2) non-dogmatic — meditation is not restricted, bound, or directly associated with any specific content, spiritual teaching, teacher, book, or ritual.
3) principles keep evolving — The practice and definition of meditation itself continuously matures. Almost all current practices ask that the student matures, while the practice itself remains stagnant. That is I feel backwards, as it pedestalizes the teaching over the student. No — the student is as she is. Any difficulties in the meditation require an adjustment of the definition and process of meditation itself, not a forced change in the student.
4) open to all — While having time, money, or resources to dedicate towards this practice might be at an advantage, and those with serious life traumas or difficulties might be at a disadvantage, or might not. Nonetheless, meditation is for everyone, any background, any condition, any philosophy, any education.
5) reality unscathed — Reality as it is is left unscathed by the process. In other words, the process has minimal and, in ideal circumstances, no overhead. The purpose of meditation, ironically, is to realize reality as it is. The paradox is that as this occurs, new possibilities and manifestations can open up.
6) turning, turning of concepts — Meditative insights are grounded in continuous paradoxical shift. What that means is each and every concept, ideal, or belief we have gets turned, and turned, and turned again. That’s the nature of this process. Any concept, ideal, or belief that remains fixed is seen through. While it is impossible to maintain a coherent communication without some level of fixation, it must be acknowledged that such fixation is simply a matter of practicality, not ultimate Truth.
7) turning, turning of feelings — Not only are all concepts continuously turning, but all our inner feelings — every single one — constantly turns as well. All of pleasures, delights, pains, sorrows, and joys simply appear to transform from one into another…and back again. Nothing ever seems to stay fixed. There are many words for this, such as vibration, change, anicca, impermanence, etc, but I like ‘turning’ the best these days. A key meditative insight is to realize what each feeling turns into and what that that subsequently turns back into.
8) transcendence is the point — The ultimate purpose of meditation is transcendence. Nothing more and nothing less. Many meditate for various reasons, including relaxation, a calm mind, a focused mind, an aware mind, and better health. However, all of these phenomena themselves are ephemeral (see my previous point). While we might pass through all these experiences, they aren’t the ultimate point of meditation, and sooner or later, these ideals will vanish.
9) transcendence includes — Transcendence is realizing the intimate absolute non-separation between ourselves (as subject) and an experience or object, to the point one is no longer bound or confused by an apparent separation. Most of us however misunderstand transcendence as somehow involving a denial or bypass of our inner experience. That I find is the furthest from the truth. That said, the ‘experience’ I mention above doesn’t necessarily mean having visibly done anything, but rather us having seen through the experience of the sensation or feeling or vision or concept itself.
10) leads towards an appreciation of perspectives — Meditation should ultimately bring an honoring of the various perspectives in our world if it is to be of value to humanity, including and starting with our own. Many ancient practices tied to a single spiritual path end up further restricting, rather than making room for, alternate perspectives of life, maturation, and spirit. While at certain stages this separation is essential, at later stages, this is detrimental.
11) leads towards human singularity — Meditation should bring with it an opening to the eventual transcendence of humanity as a collective itself — the singularity point. Meditation opens our mind to possibilities of transcendence not just of ourselves, but the collective knowledge, wisdom, experiences and technology in our world.
12) single moment duration — The process of meditation, the insights from meditation, and the solace from meditation — all last all but a single moment. That’s it. The next moment could be completely different, who knows. That is why I had mentioned 24/7 above — a constant meditative state is actually nothing more than a string of meditative moments. There’s no continuity between these states except the continuous process of transcendence.
13) slow — This is a tricky quality, because it is seems concrete (and meditation transcends all concrete definitions). Yet, while it’s true that a meditative state is possible regardless of whether we are processing events slowly or quickly, there is something about processing events slowly that ensures that we are, in fact, tuned into the meditative state rather than bypassing it. When we process events quickly, we often bypass or bludgeon through many of our inner processes, often leading to a future collapsed reaction. Thus, slow tends to be reflective of a meditative state.
Hope you enjoy this list.