THE PARADOXICAL PRACTICE OF NON-MEDITATION
by Michael Neill

"Love is, in fact, our most natural state. There isn't anything we really
have to 'do' to access love in our lives other than slow down and become
present enough to feel and experience it." - Richard Carlson

On my radio show this past week, one of my callers was struggling to quiet
her restless mind. I asked her this metaphoric question:

*If you had some cloudy, sediment-rich water and wanted to make it clear,
what would you do?

Her answer was that she would boil it, which made me laugh because that's
exactly what so many of us have learned to do in an attempt to gain
clarity out of our own, noisy minds. We stir them up by continually
thinking about our problems, trying to figure out "what's really going on"
with us, or if we are spiritually inclined, meditating in the hopes of
finding our way to the source of all our experience.

While any one of these techniques may eventually result in insights,
clarity and peace of mind, I have come to see that the reason they work is
less to do with the techniques themselves than it is to do with the nature
of the mind.

Let's go back to our murky water analogy. Since the essential nature of
water is clear, the simplest way to get back to clarity, no matter how
cloudy the water may appear, is to leave the water alone and allow the
sediment to settle.

The same is true of the mind. Your mind is not the source of thought - it
is the space in which thoughts arise and fade away (if we let them). It is
the ocean, not the waves.

While meditation is traditionally taught as a way of 'waking up' from the
illusions of thought, what I have found most useful in seeing through to
the heart of my own story and the stories of my clients is closer to what
Tibetan Buddhists call 'undistracted non-meditation' - 'undistracted'
because you deliberately slow down and minimize distractions;
'non-meditation' because you are not concentrating on anything in
particular.

I was first introduced to this idea by my spiritual coach, mentor and
friend Peter Fenner. Here's how he describes it in his wonderful book,
"Radiant Mind - Awakening Unconditioned Awareness":

"When contemplation goes beyond the need for any effort or structure, it
becomes what Tibetans call "natural contemplation." Natural contemplation
is the
experience of finding ourselves in a clear and serene state of mind,
without needing any discipline or practice. That is why it's also called
the meditation that's not meditation-or non-meditation. We have no need
for meditation because we're complete in every sense of the word.

In the state of natural contemplation, we touch everything that arises in
our experience without any resistance, we no longer reject or grasp at
particular thoughts and feelings, and we spontaneously share our serenity
and clarity with others in a simple and uncontrived manner. At this point,
meditation has become the context for our existence, rather than a
particular activity we do at certain times of the day. It's the experience
of resting in unconditioned awareness, while being present to, and engaged
with, the dynamic flux of our conditioned experience."

While this is a natural state, and therefore available to any one of us in
any moment, some people find that concept far too simple to take
seriously. So for those of you who really enjoy having a practice or
technique for grounding, here is the paradoxical "practice" of
non-meditation:

1. Sit for 20 minutes.
2. Don't get up.
3. Don't talk, write or engage in any other obvious external distractions.
4. Let your mind go wherever it wants.

There is no way to get this wrong - as long as you remain sitting (you can
move about in your seat if you like), you're engaged in the practice.

Have fun, learn heaps, and happy exploring!

©2008 Michael Neill



Andrew, QuaSyLaTic
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