The Why Question

People often ask me, “What is meditation?” Or they ask the next question, “How do you meditate?” I think these are questions from a modern science focused mind.  These questions are the what and the how of things, but I believe the important question is the one that might actually lead to the practice of mediation.  That question is, “Why meditate?”  Why is it at all?  This is the more spiritual question.  We are all drowning in information from the what and how questions.  We are starving for wisdom, and a wisdom that might lead to transformation through practice.  Meditation at depth is not something that can be grasped with the intellect.  Our spiritual innards remain essentially mysterious.  It is a place of wonder, as in awe.  The Power that does not need to be known by the mind resides there.  It is Love.   What is needed is a patient gaze in which you do not impose yourself in the seeing.  You are receptive.  You allow things to be.  You are attentive, welcoming and disciplined to stay with it.  It is a stance of wonder.  Here in this stance you do not strive to be anyone else.  Just be.  Resist the tendency to put yourself at the center of anything.  Let go of control.  Like a fruit, let yourself ripen into all you are meant to be.