Meditation is the dedication of distraction-free time to the practice of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is seeing things as they are—without labels, descriptions, judgements or interpretations.
You've likely heard various takes on the approach to—and benefits of—this kind of practice. But you're unlikely to have heard this one: formal meditation, ultimately, is useless.
The only goal worth having in your quest for truth is to “get out of your own way” so that truth can be as it is without your interference.
Thus, anything you try to "do" in meditation is ultimately a distraction. A wholesome distraction, but a distraction all the same.
See, anything you try to "do" in meditation is contrived; made-up; fabricated—and hence is not the irreducible truth in which we’re interested.
So, I'm not going to tell you to change.
I'm just going to keep giving you the simplest instructions for recognizing the stainless clarity that is your true nature.
As you gain familiarity, you’ll recognize it in more and more of your experience until nothing can distract you from it.
This is what we’re here to achieve together, and it's the most important learning you'll ever do—because through this recognition, everything else in life becomes a walk in the park.
The real benefit of mindfulness is not just that you get to feel good when you sit in a particular posture and breathe carefully. This is wholesome, but it's only a shade of what's possible.
The real benefit of mindfulness is to be calm, happy and free in every moment. That means when walking, talking, sitting, standing, eating, pooping, working, fucking, grieving, celebrating, winning, losing, hurting, healing, relaxing, studying...
In other words, it's great to develop skill in meditation and cultivate wholesomeness when you sit and practice. But it's better to continue that development so the wholesomeness never ends. And good news: this is easy. Why? Because that wholesomeness is your default mode.
More good news: with your course set in this direction you can skip the bulk of the formal practice recommended in most wisdom traditions.
I know this might feel like cheating.
You've been trained to try really hard if you want good results.
If getting a promotion is hard then enlightenment must be super hard.
But there's an important flip of perspective that must occur here...