The mere suggestion of meditation is very likely to irritate the ego. Pay close attention to such thoughts as “Oh, no! Not this again,” or “This doesn’t work, I’ve tried it for years,” or “Close the book, please.” You can allow yourself to become totally distracted by such ego-driven jibes, or you can acknowledge the awakened choices being presented by observing the ego’s attempt to skewer you with your own thoughts, and then disregard them by continuing to read.

This article contains a simple instruction in stillness meditation, which strengthens your resolve and spiritual will. It includes a straightforward metaphor that allows you to temporarily and effortlessly disengage from the habitual process of thinking.

Though the ego is already full of ideas about meditation, meditation experiences, and the benefits and possible outcomes of a successful session, you as the “meditator” can often be very unclear about what meditation actually is. This ambiguity and vagueness is a manifestation of individual and collective conditioning permeating this pure practice. What is commonly considered to be meditating is very often the ego shooting at salvation, or using this practice to successfully relieve stress and anxiety, in anticipation of more of the same.

Stillness meditation is to be implemented in the same way by those who have thirty years of practice and by those who have no prior experience. The less experience you have with meditation, the better. Often those who have been meditating for years have solidified an image of what meditation is. If you have such a picture, and it is other than your life as it is, then you are in the ego’s abstract art gallery. Many are gravely misled by the ego into believing they are on the spiritual path and therefore thinking they have no need for this practice, falling prey instead to the cornerstone of conditioning – cynicism. In doing so, they miss the gentle suggestion that to practice meditation is motivated only by compassion for those who are touched by your karma.

Stillness meditation is a metaphor for the awakened life. In this simplest form of practice, because you remain perfectly motionless, you cannot create unnecessary suffering for yourself or others. Being still is revealed as the most uncomplicated, yet most powerful, expression of free will in relationship to the ego – not only in your practice of meditation, but also in your daily life. In stillness meditation, you learn how not to be led about by the ego, since every movement or divergent focus is based on an intention other than stillness.

With this practice, you learn to be still in daily life – to not respond – consciously or out of ignorance, to the ego as it suggests conditioned motives for your responses and actions. In this way, stillness meditation strengthens your resolve to awaken your consciousness. All you have to do is nothing. In this exercise, you will come face-to-face with the forceful might of the impersonal ego in you. The bigger the resistance, the bigger the ego is. The good news is that once you see the side of the barn you simultaneously create the option of walking around it.

The purpose of all forms of meditation is akin to cosmic vanity – intention and body are aligned so that consciousness can focus on itself. By consciously examining your ability to be aware, you will realize just how aware you can become, and each of us can discover our full potential with the help of this practice. The desire to meditate emerges from deep, restful sleep – a luxury afforded by Step 1 and 2. We will look at this in more detail in related chapters later in the book.

Stillness meditation is how you recognize and acknowledge the start of your spiritual path. Recognition is to accept what is: your lot in life, just as it is in its current state. Acknowledgement is to bear the force of the ego as you sit and not be moved by it, literally.

You spirit-filled seekers will find that with just a little self-discipline your attention is liberated through physical stillness, and that only then does the natural state of meditation become completely apparent. In this intention-filled recollection of your origin of joy, you experience your own uniqueness against the vast backdrop of awareness – simultaneously as the observer and the entire context of completion in which you appear. Please try it for yourself and you will see it is true. Be perfectly still.

In stillness meditation, you sit totally motionless with eyes closed or partially closed – as Buddha sat still under the Bodhi tree. You are taking a stance of stillness in relationship to all movement of the mind that includes any focus other than stillness. There is nothing else to do. Every other extraneous instruction is a complication of conditioning.

With a little dedication to this practice, you learn that the constant busyness you are witnessing is not who you are, and that the conditioned mind has no influence over you beyond that which you allow. You are gaining objectivity on the ego. When you realize that you are not just a litany of feelings, thoughts and urges, the natural state of being – meditation – spontaneously emerges. The joy and peace that now constitute your awareness create the context in which the ego and all of its whims appear and then disappear.

To calmly face the mind’s harmless creations in the controlled environment of stillness meditation gives you the power and grace to face them in the fray of daily life so that the ego cannot sway and cheat you blind. In stillness meditation, you rest evenly in a state of ease and alertness, recognizing your natural state of joy by disregarding all experiences. Then when you encounter the ego in daily life, you will see it for what it is and you have the willfulness to just let it be. In the movie Jurassic Park, “Dr. Ian” advises others to stand still so that the carnivores will not see them. Selective silence moves you safely beyond the reach of ego.

As you continue to transcend actions based on the motives of ego and create the outer conditions for transformation, this inner state of meditation unites with your daily experience. When this union is complete, your silent seated practice and all mindfulness routines can be confidently abandoned forever, for the path and the goal are one. Those truly skilled in the art lead lives of joy and peace, and do not become dinner for the dinosaurs.

It is important to remember that meditation is not about the wondrous spiritual experiences that may occur. While these experiences can be extremely helpful in motivating you to meditate, any declaration of having had such an encounter must be supported by subsequent evidence of radical changes in how you relate to life. Lack of such proof demonstrates that you are continuing to live in the gap between potential and actuality, and that what you interpreted as an immersion in the mind of the universe was nothing more than the ego ogling some impotent fireworks.

A genuine meditative experience delivers all the answers by removing all the questions, simultaneously and permanently healing all existential suffering. This can be compared again to a lightning strike on a moonless night, where you see true reality, if only for a few seconds. The moonless night symbolizes the darkness of ignorance and confusion. The short flash represents the insight revealed when your mind is stilled, and you see the reality of your own innate perfection and joy for the first time. This entrenched knowing remains as a permanent condition within the awakened person, and this state of fulfillment and completion is completely unaffected by the prevailing circumstances of his life.

Again, it is good to note that any objections you may encounter to the practice of still and silent meditation are just ego, and though they may indeed seem real, it is best if they are ignored for the sake of your own salvation, and not the salvation of ego.

Paul’s realization: After a profound spiritual experience in meditation, Paul realized that he had no choice but to change his entire life – his work, his relationships, and his addictions. It took about three years to wind down his complicated life as it was then. At the end of those three years, he moved far away from where he had been living. With his newfound free time, he lived a very private life and was able to meditate for four to six hours every day. After several months, during which he felt pretty good about himself and his life, he began to inquire as to the point of all the meditations and seclusion. The answer that came was somewhat of a shock. Despite the fact that his awakening had begun over three years earlier, he was now trying to recreate that specific meditative encounter. He realized that the ego was tying him up with meditation and isolation so that he would not have to accept responsibility for the profound initial unfolding of his full potential. To do this, he would have to admit that he was free and begin to express his awakening as a dynamic engagement with every aspect of the life process.

If you think you are unable or don’t need to meditate, yet at the same time you have a deep sense you are on a spiritual path, you are. Still, how can you be sure that your way does not only lead to the end of suffering for the ego and it current manifestation: physical death?

Meditation Metaphor: The Dark Side of the Moon

You are standing on the dark side of the moon. You can see the planets and stars stretching out forever in front of you, yet at the same time you cannot see your hands, feet, or body, or the ground. Allow each of the planets and stars to represent different groups of thoughts about work, home, money, relationships, religion, dreams, desires, and so on. Let them also represent concepts, superstitions, opinions, judgments, feelings, and emotional states that fill the internal landscape of your mind.

You probably have paid close attention to these individual “planets” your entire life. In your efforts to be happy, feel secure, and avoid pain, you have tried to guide and manipulate their movements and positioning. However, by giving all of your attention to these individual planets and stars, and how their specific movements affect your feelings, you miss the vast context of infinite “space” in which they appear.

You never raise your head or sit still long enough to focus on this boundless and mystical context. This infinite space represents the unlimited possibilities of your own full potential. You are this boundless space, or infinite context, in which all of your planets and stars arise and then fall away. Your awareness of yourself as this limitless context is the foundation for your own enlightenment.

For now, you only see yourself as the limitation of the individual planets and stars. You keep so busy in life trying to manage the movement of these very large rocks – over which you ultimately have no control – that they are all you can see.

You will learn to become aware of this vast spaciousness in your practice of meditation. Those who have awakened to this infinite context as their own true nature sit in great peace, marveling at context and content alike.