Chapter 6

The last meditation mistake I want to discuss isn’t so much an error in how we’re practicing, but a confusion in how we’re approaching the whole endeavor of meditation.

When we think about meditation practice, almost invariably, we think about it as a process that occurs over a period of time. We envision a future goal that we imagine meditation will help to bring about, and then we take up a practice which we imagine will gradually move us closer to that goal.

We’ve heard that if we meditate for 20 or 30 minutes a day, a number of good things might happen for us. Our stress levels might come down. We might become more focused and attentive. We might become happier or experience more joy. We might be able to focus better and be more present and attentive. We’re doing our practice now in the hope that these good things will come from it in the future.

Others of us take up meditation in pursuit of enlightenment or spiritual awakening. We start doing these practices now in the hope that sometime in the future we’ll have an experience of spiritual illumination. We’ll become enlightened. So, in this case, we’re practicing as preparation for awakening, or to add momentum to our potential for awakening.

It’s as though, every time we practice, we imagine we’re putting a little gas in the tank of the engine of awakening. And we assume that if we just do enough of it long enough, then maybe that extraordinary, mysterious event will happen and hopefully happen in a way that is able to be sustained, not just in a flash, but in a way that’s enduring.

At first glance, this goal orientation seems to make sense. After all, this is how we’ve been taught to relate to any goal we might pursue. And it’s how we’ve accomplished probably everything else we’ve achieved in our life.

But when it comes to meditation and spiritual awakening, this future orientation is actually a major hindrance on the path. As long as it’s in place, it will likely prevent us from discovering the true magic of meditation and the mystery of awakened consciousness.

“Any belief that we could do something now to prepare us for a future awakening will always be an obstacle to the immediate realization of enlightenment here and now.”

Spiritual traditions ancient and modern have always asserted that spiritual awakening is about the discovery of a sacred dimension of reality and a sacred dimension of ourselves that already exists right now, complete and whole.

And, anyone who has even a glimpse of awakening realizes that it is only about discovering the sacredness and wholeness of this moment right now, and that any investment in a future moment of enlightenment is missing the entire point.

The simple, paradigm-shattering truth of enlightenment is that it can only ever be discovered right now in this moment. Any belief that we could do something now to prepare us for a future awakening will always be an obstacle to the immediate realization of enlightenment here and now.

Indeed, some spiritual teachers have gone so far as to discourage any form of spiritual practice, asserting that the very idea of “practice” is a postponement of our enlightenment, a denial of the fact that our true self is already enlightened.

And while I don’t agree that spiritual practice itself should be left behind, I do agree that meditating as a means to get to a future goal of enlightenment will never achieve its intended result. In order to unlock the power of meditation, it is imperative that we find a way to practice that brings the goal fully into the present moment.

The paradigm shift I’m pointing to is so significant that, for most of us, it will seem impossibly paradoxical. But there is a way to do it. It’s what I call “the practice of direct awakening.” And it is to this whole new way of looking at meditation practice that we will now turn our attention.

Chapter 6

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