Meditation in every day life

Meditation in every day life

Justin Rutty

There are two main aspects of meditation stopping and calming and looking deeply. This is so important there is even an entire chapter dedicated to it in our book. According to our book and the professor meditation is doing anything mindless and meaningful. What does this mean? Mindless: means to be doing something that requires little to no mental focus like going for a walk or doing dishes would qualify.
 Meaningful to me means thinking about everything you are doing trying not to waste any time and energy. For example, talking a walk around campus walking around and focusing on every step you take noticing everything around you.   None of these examples would incorporate such things are writing an essay.

The mindless relates to stopping and calming. I know personally working for hours between school work and extracurricular activities and just general work can cause stress irritability and fatigue. Stopping and doing something mindless like cleaning, going for a walk can help clear my mind and takes away the stress I am feeling. This helps me do more effective work and connects to the all-important themes in Buddhism reducing suffering. Frankly, because being stressed out about work all the time sucks. So once you can relax you feel joy and because it was after a time of suffering it feels even better.

Me working with a knife during a break at camp JNW

Looking deeply more relates to being meaningful.  It is when you take the time to focus on one thing completely and tune out the rest of the world. For me this could be whittling, building models, working on my truck or anything else that requires all of my focus.  I need to focus on these things completely for safety while I am working with my knife or to achieve the perfection I want when putting together a delicate model or weaving a paracord project. Focusing completely on that one thing I’m doing for whatever reason helps me forget about the world around me. This helps reduce suffering by simply letting my problems pass me by.  Kind of like the passive through process mentioned in our book; letting thoughts come and pass.

Not all mediation has to be like this

As you can see from my previous paragraphs, mediation can take many different forms.  It does not have to be sitting on the floor focusing with your legs crossed like many think. While this is still an effective and viable option it doesn’t have to be your only one. Any activity that makes you stop and think deeply and clear your mind can be effective meditation.  

Nhá̂t, Hạnh. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy & Liberation : The Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and Other Basic Buddhist Teachings. New York: Broadway, 1999. Print.