Life generally seems to have so much meaningless clutter that there is no time for exploring its meaning. Or even beginning to think about it.
This lockdown has, in many ways, provided a very fertile environment for contemplative thought. We can’t really go anywhere and so many of the things we thought we couldn’t do without, we are now doing without. Every excuse then to turn off the TV and the phone and indulge in some meditative experiments.
Unless you are in the blissful position of having little in the way of physical and mental distractions - no stressful journey to work, no bickering office politics, no noisy neighbours or demanding family - then you’ll be battling the problem of how to fit in any time for quiet contemplation.
You can’t go to a group session at the moment of course, however simple it would be to stick to social distancing while sitting on the floor. But there are lots of offerings online. Try googling or looking on YouTube - there’s everything from the plainly whacky to the blissfully simple and instructive. The idea of meditation has always carried different connotations for different people. Kaftans and sixties hippies, Beatle followers, weird chanting, incense sticks and so on. It’s all still there but there’s a growing layer of personal development thought and mind-management theory perfect for the self-help book generation.
Over the years I have tried a fair selection of elements of meditation. I’ve been led deep into my own breathing in a chapel in Warwick, I’ve joined proper monastery monks beneath the giant Buddha in Hong Kong, I’ve escaped the lunchtime shoppers for an hour at a Leicester centre and spent an evening for this blog wondering how long I can sit still through abject pain at a retreat near Stratford. Different levels and approaches but all with one aim in mind - to focus the thoughts by shutting out the outside world and its distractions. In the end, like everything from fitness to food, you just take the parts that work for you and stick to that. A self-help writer would turn that into a whole book on putting the ME into MEditation, but I shall resist.
For me the concept of thinking about not thinking is an early stumbling block. Many meditation session leaders have invited me to empty my mind completely. As a literal phrase it’s always struck me as daft. Daft and unachievable. What I DO need however, is to (at least temporarily) stop the galloping nonsense which seems to monopolise my thoughts every waking moment.
The thing is I am not seeking glittering truths or life-changing pathways, not even anything particularly profound. I just want a way of stepping away from the madness of everyday stress and concerns, and the chance to press reset on my equilibrium. A lot of people arrive at this through techniques associated more with mental health which have come to be grouped under the term Mindfulness. Colouring books, contemplating flowers, listening to one specific sound only - all with the aim of being in the moment, and therefore NOT embroiled in all the non-existent moments we imagine ourselves to be contending with.
Oddly enough I find I’ve been doing this for years thanks to a calming technique I learned when transcendental meditation was the buzzword of its time. It’s easy and utterly without danger.
My tip for a meditative experiment would be to get comfy (no sitting on the floor for me!) and know you have at least fifteen minutes. Put on a quiet piece of music lasting that time so you’ll know when you’ve finished. Close your eyes and just be aware of gradually slowing your breathing down. Imagine walking on a very familiar route (I still choose the walk to school I haven’t actually trodden for over 40 years). Imagine yourself setting out on that walk with no need to hurry. Picture the route from your perspective as a walker in very small stages, pausing as you go to remind yourself of the detail around you. Turning a corner in a street might make you think what you would see on the other side of the road, a garden you always pass, a sign on the wall. It’s surprising how placing yourself somewhere begins to lead to even more detailed memories of the buildings, roads, landmarks and so on that you pass. Don’t be frightened to stop along the way and look around you. As you go you might, right in the back of your mind, become aware of how this one simple occupation has pushed the boiling mass of confusion we normally carry in our heads, right out of the way. If filling your mind with calm thoughts sends the racing nonsense out of sight for a while, then Job Done.
And that’s it really. No deep understanding of life’s meaning, no corruscating vision of the Almighty, no spiritual enlightenment. Just a few moments away from the madness. And we can all use that.
