Meditation Spectrum

Most people think of meditation as focusing 100% on one thing (usually your breathing). At other times you drift off and are focusing 0% on the One Thing. And when you start meditating your meditation session might go something like this:

34 seconds 100% focus...
4 minutes 0% focus...
22 seconds 100% focus...
2 minutes 0% focus... etc. etc.

And they envisage that if they keep the meditation up and really work at it, eventually they'll be able to change the sessions to look something like this:

2 minutes 100% focus...
30 seconds 0% focus...
3 minutes 100% focus... etc. etc.

And they imagine that a meditation master's meditation session looks like this:

1 hour 100% focus...

BullPoo!!!

This ALL or NOTHING mentality has nothing to do with real life - it's all a construction of the human brain.

Real meditation starts off with you being, say, 2% aware of your focus point, while simultaneously 98% unaware. Simultaneous, get it.

And the more you practise, the more the underlying "aware" proportion grows. So, like, you might get up to 40% aware and 60% unaware. Co-habitating. So that even while those pesky thoughts of the deadlines sitting on your desk tug away at your mind, underneath there is this persistent pool of conscious awareness.

It makes sense if you take the time to think about it. I mean, fck man, if anybody could totally, 100% focus on something, and 0% totally non-focus on everything else - their heart would stop beating before you could say "failed fine-motor control".

And the reason we meditate is so that the positive benefits spread and permeate to our everyday life. What kind of benefit is it gonna be to focus 100% on, say, the sound in your ears, when, say, you're driving down the highway at 120k per hour? BUT: carry on about your everyday stuff with this underlying reservoir of focused, grounded, C A L M, even while you're arguing with your dickhead boss - is good, good stuff.

And today is fckn Monday, which, according to my little grey poll in the right bar => is overwhelmingly the worst day of the week for a BiPolar soul.