What Does it Mean to Awaken? (Part 2 of 4)

Part 2: What is Meditation?

The separation between the mind that's experiencing a state and the state that you're experiencing is fundamentally meditation. Meditation practices are tools that you use to get between you and your habitual run-on mind.

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"Fundamentally, meditation means the ability to witness what's going on in consciousness while it's going on in consciousness." "If you don't see that the state you're in right now -- while you're in a state of anger or in a fight -- is more important than the outcome of the fight, you'll always be fighting. [...] If you put the state you're in right now first, you're meditating, which doesn't mean you have to say to yourself 'I'm not angry.' You step back from the state you're in to look at what it's like to be in that state." "Meditation is the process of learning how to observe the state you're in -- physically, emotionally and mentally -- without getting all bent out of shape about it." "Meditation practices are basically levers or wedges to get in between you and your state to pry the mind and the state apart from each other. If I can pry myself free from that state a little then I'm in a position to look at its nature .... and learn something useful ... and realize that it doesn't really matter what state arises." "The separation between the mind that's experiencing a state and the state that you're experiencing is fundamentally meditation. Meditation practices are tools that you use to get between you and your habitual run-on mind."

http://www.planetdharma.com/