A Sincere Approach to Meditation

While listening to an interview with one of the Dalai Lama's principal English translators, I learned the most stunning thing about the original meaning of the word "Meditation".  Sometimes while "meditating", I often wonder if I might be doing something wrong b/c I don't get nearly as much out of empty mental gazing, as I do from a gentle investigation of whatever it is that arises in my immediate experience.  Of course, I probably wouldn't be capable of the kind of investigation I'm speaking of if I didn't also know how to access the neutral curiosity that gets strengthened by those practices that value this process of "stilling" or "emptying" the mind.

According to this interview, however, the English word "meditation" is being used as a translation of the Sanskrit term (bhavana), and the Tibetan term (gom).  The Sanskrit word bhavana has an alive quality to it that means something like cultivation, like cultivating a field.  While the Tibetan word gom  has the connotation of familiarity, but also suggests a process of familiarity rather than a static state of familiarity.  So, arguably meditation can understood (at least, in part) as a process of discernment that has movement through stages and layers of discovery.  Consequently, meditation is a practice aimed at acquiring knowledge -- maybe the kind of true knowledge that available through sincere contact with direct experience.

The word sincere begs a little translation here too.  Sincere - meaning "without wax", from the Latin words “sin” (without) and “cera” (wax).  Apparently, this phrase "without wax" first became widespread during the height of Roman and Greek sculpture artistry.  When a sculpture had a flaw, artists would often fill cracks or flaws in the work with wax to match the marble, masking the imperfections.  An honest artist would create pieces of work "without wax".  For me, cultivating a practice of sincere contact with direct experience (both inner and outer) means trying to approach the immediate moment without the layers of self-deception, denial, and glossing over that so often cover over the truth that can be found there.

Curiously, a good teacher once said this to me about the practice of meditation:  "Even one sincere breath is a full practice".