Read time 2 minutes. Active Meditation is a stand alone article in our series regarding mindfulness and meditation.
Today we take up the value of active meditation. Since all forms of meditation invite presence into our lives, we will also return to this theme in the next few lessons. Presence, after all, is at the heart of practice.
What is active meditation?
Active meditation lies in the middle ground between structured practice and daily life. Just as traditional meditation comes in countless forms, so does active meditation. Yoga and tai chi are familiar examples, but they are not our focus here.
Instead, we look at meditations we can carry into ordinary life. Pausing to focus on the breath is active meditation. Becoming aware of the body’s energy is another. Even the inner glance I’ve written about before—the art of letting go—is another practical application. These practices don’t require a cushion, posture, or ritual. They arise within the flow of daily activity.
The role of active meditation
Zen naturally intersects with life. We glimpse it in poetry, art, even in ordinary phrases like, “I need more balance.” Everyday practice makes this intersection deliberate. Any activity—painting, cooking, walking, working—can become meditation when the priority shifts from outcome to presence.
The challenge lies in letting go of our obsession with goals. When drawing, we may think, I’ll never be Picasso, or set rigid demands: I’ll practice two hours a day until I improve. But what if improvement is not the point?
As David Hinton writes: “When a calligrapher first touches inked brush to silk, it is that originary moment where Presence emerges from Absence.” The stroke itself is the awakening, not the finished image.
Inviting presence into daily life
This sort of daily mindfulness trains us to value process over product. The painting matters less than the act of painting. The task at work matters less than the presence brought to it. And ultimately, the final “product” of our lives matters less than the way we live each moment now.
This is the invitation of life as practice: not meaning, not achievement, but the freedom of absolute presence.
Explore more:
As we are discovering in these lessons, there are all sorts of varieties of mindfulness and meditation practices. This article regarding relational mindfulness is just one of many such methods which can be found at The Greater Good Science Center.
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