Meditation Is Not

(“Original Mind”, 2017, original encaustic mixed media) Meditation Is Not Meditation can be many things, But it’s really not what you think. Yet for forty five years I’ve been doing it In one form or another And for much of that I was trying To achieve something or arrive somewhere, Which was clearly something I thought. Now, older, if not wiser, Certainly less energetic or motivated, I find it’s obviously not what I expect it to be. And in the freshness of the moment, Where striving and method have dropped away, What is left is nothing If not fresh. Fresh doesn’t necessarily mean cool or desirable It most definitely doesn’t mean exciting Or even interesting. It’s something else entirely Something more ordinary and yet also elusive. I thought for a long time the goal Was to become familiar with this Open state or space of mind An inner sense and sensation Of awareness and peace. Now I see that even “becoming familiar” Misses the mark And that neither awareness nor space Can ever be a goal When both are the given of every moment. What comes and goes is joy and pain. These are the thing we get hung up on Desiring to have one and reject the other. They are the qualities of living, And the obstacles to meditation. Meditation is not what you think, It may seem like it’s what breaks through And surprises us When we least expect it. But it’s actually what we’re left with When even that falls away. (3/4/25)