A certain kind of meditation for awakening

Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering

Not all meditation is the same. And if you want to know what you are beyond the sense of self, the body, thoughts, and the mind, then it helps to consider what meditation is, apart from the most popular forms that get all the attention.

The kind of meditation needed to uncover what you are at the deepest level, which is an enquiry into the sense of self (self-enquiry), has nothing to do with singing Ohm or any other mantra, visualization, breathing regulation, or forcing the mind to be quiet. However, I will readily say that there is nothing wrong with these types of meditation; in fact, they are beneficial in many ways, including that they can reduce stress and cortisol levels, promote calmness and concentration, open up channels of awareness, open the mind to new possibilities, promote healing, and offer a sensible escape from life’s problems.

What do we know about meditation?
Meditation as a form of sitting quietly and resting the mind is a popular activity, and most of what our western culture knows about it comes from Eastern traditions, especially from Tibet, China, Japan, and India that became popularized in the west beginning in the 1960s. But meditation is also found in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Baha’i Faith, Shintoism, Hinduism, Islam, and other religions.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines meditation as the act of giving your attention to only one thing. Now perhaps we can begin to see some shades of difference between the common concept of meditation and something else. Meditation can have nothing at all to do with trying to calm the mind and body or trying to find God. So let’s entertain this idea of meditation — self-enquiry — in the context of uncovering what we are beyond the superficial “me” or self.

Meditating on the source of thought
As discussed in so many of my articles, the self is that person you take yourself to be and has been fashioned out of thought that creates a sense of “me” with all its interests, desires, emotions, feelings, identities, and so on. Self-enquiry meditation can be used to pierce the self and to see that it does…