Some thoughts on the point of meditation

A friend recently questioned if there was any difference between meditation, and simply just being an introverted person, theorizing that folks who meditated, or – perhaps – at least found meditation easy to do, were actually just naturally introverted.

Meditation has nothing to do with being introverted, or extroverted.

To get to the heart of this work we call meditation: the pillars of dedicated meditation practice aren’t mindfulness and awareness. Rather, they are not-knowing, impermanence, and emptiness. Mediation is not necessarily about going inside. Meditation is first about the discipline of sitting with your thoughts as they are, so that eventually you realize the emptiness of your own thoughts. Through such practice, over time, one ultimately realizes the impermanence, emptiness, and not-knowing in all things, including oneself. Note, even once realized, living not-knowing and impermanence is a life-long practice. The Buddha himself still sat four hours each day until his death; it’s a practice.

Meditation is ultimately about being with reality *as it is* (i.e., being fully in reality, without my ideas of how life, or myself, or others, should be). Introverts and extroverts equally suffer from minds that never cease their judgements and chatter, and equally must practice.

Because the more you meditate (i.e., practice sitting and watching your impermanent thoughts, anchored by your breath), the more you realize you don’t know why, much less how, you are the way you are.

As you do practice more and more, you naturally become more comfortable with yourself, and more fully yourself, whether that you be extroverted, introverted, sweet, bitchy, whatever, or all of the above (and, most likely it is all of the above).

And, you become progressively more at peace with yourself, as you are. Right now.

Then, with more time, you naturally begin to find peace with others *as they are.*

Then, eventually, you find peace with the whole world as it is…

It is at that point, fully in peace, and in complete understanding of the impermanence and emptiness of the world, and yourself, that (as the Tao Te Ching says), right action arises by itself.

This is the point of meditation.