Don't Meditate. Just learn to sit still!

Quite often, people get overwhelmed by meditation because they don't know where it begins and where it ends. I'm writing this article to simplify meditation for such people, or at least one aspect of it. There are several different styles of meditation, and what you'd typically "do" or "not do" depends on the technique or practice style. In this article, I want to simplify things for you. Don't meditate, just learn to sit still and you will automatically become meditative. In retrospect, this can be traced to a Meditation Technique called "Do Nothing" which is one of my favourite techniques — it's called the "Technique of No Technique". What I'm about to describe is a variant of "Do Nothing" or in a highly simplistic sense, is "Do Nothing" itself.

In today's world, not doing anything is looked down upon. We're supposed to be busy and occupied. We're supposed to be doing something all the time. Unfortunately, this makes us like hamsters on treadmill, constantly jumping from one thing to another, with no resting point. I'm not advocating being lazy or not doing anything at all. All I'm saying is learn to detach and disengage your senses from the constant blast of information that they're getting. Give them time to reset so that they can serve you better and more effectively. For this, you need to know what stillness is. What is that zone where it's just void and you're just cruising through space-time.

The moment you shut off all distractions and inputs and sit, without doing anything, you will realise how chaotic your internal world is. All sorts of thoughts and ideas come up. Restlessness might peak and several physical and mental urges might surface. You might feel like browsing social media, watching a movie, reading something, and just feel a compulsive need to "do something". The beauty of all this is that, you can learn to just "be" and not do anything. Just soak in this amazing experience called life, and cherish each breath. Just be where you are, here and now, and you can taste true peace, happiness and tranquility. This is easier said than done though.

Just close your eyes, and pay attention to each breath. Watch the inhalation and exhalation. Feel all those tiny little sensations of relaxation and breathe into them. If you don't want to do this and find resistance, it's okay, just sit in a comfortable posture, and close your eyes, and let everything come up and pass. Simply be a witness. You don't need to engage with any of your mental contents or physical sensations. You can simply let them surface, do their thing, and pass away all while you're just sitting in peace. This practice is so powerful, that within minutes of "just sitting" you will start feeling a sense of deep peace and calm. Sometimes, the peace and calm takes time because there's so much disturbance and turmoil within you, that it takes time to clear up the debris.

Consider a glass of water. Now pour some mud into the glass and stir it. Can you clearly separate the water from the mud? No, right? Now let it just settle. The mud collects at the bottom and the clear water rests on the top. The mind is similar. We're constantly adding mud (information) and stirring it (engaging with the information). As a result, we miss seeing the true nature of ourselves and our mind (clear water) because we're not giving it a chance to settle down. When you silence your mind, it begins to empty. An empty mind can be filled with new information and data and it works in your favour.

There's plenty of scientific evidence to show you why Meditation is great for your mental health. Consistent meditation improves your baseline levels of happiness and awareness. You begin understanding yourself better. Your relations with people improve. You can focus better at work. Difficult situations stop bothering you, and you rediscover life with a new found enthusiasm. However, to start receiving these benefits you need to know what stillness is. You need to explore what it means to completely "idle out" and experience the emptiness of all sensory experience. For most people, this never comes to their experience, and that's sad. I hope to change that in future.

So if you don't want to meditate. Don't.

Just sit still, in silence, and taste what true peace is. You deserve it.

— Aditya Patange ✨

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