Who Meditates?

The body is a label for a complex array of sensations and experiences. The mind is synonumous to thoughts, although some ancient teachers see the mind to be a substratum of an all encompassing Mind at Large. Nevertheless my mind and my thoughts are not two.

Then, who actually meditates?

To answer that we have to first establish, what is meditation? Nearly all meditation techniques require you to concentrate on something; the breath, a candle, a thought, a deity etc.

 Patanjali delineates meditation from concentration. He teaches a system of three limbs; dharana or concentration, dhyana or mental absorption and samadhi or complete self absorption. This he calls samyama. 

Zen teaches concentrating on your breath to let thinking subside.

Most religions ask you to concentrate on God or Divine.

So to answer the question we must now look at concentration, which mostly requires focusing your attention on the chosen object. Which means ignoring all other objects and bringing your attention to one point. 

Thinking or thoughts need not be involved in focusing your attention on one point. You can stare into the sky, enjoy the taste of chocolate or listen to Mozart without thinking. These are all excellent concentration exercises. Similarly focusing on your breath is not thinking about the breath but bringing one pointed attention to the sensation created by passage of air through the nostrils. Vipassana teaches that also.

But who is bringing this one pointed attention to the breath?

Can't be the body which is just a label, or the mind which is just thought, incapable of doing this.

Could it be that it is the unknown, unknowable emptiness teachers point to?

Could it be just that simple?

Why not?


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