Meditation Goal

One of the goals of most meditation practices is to alert your state of consciousness in a specific way.

At first this seems nearly impossible. Your mind changes all right, but when you sit down and try to clear your mind, dozens of stray thoughts arise to plague the peace you are seeking. You can't seem to get to the desired state of peace.

It may be helpful to redefine what we mean by altered state of consciousness.
Perhaps the definition is too narrow.

Yes, we meditate in order to achieve a mote peaceful, restful state of mind.

The problem may be that we have defined this state without understanding what has to happen to get there. We may also have labeled other states of consciousness as being bad because they are not peaceful or restful.


We experience altered states of mind from moment to moment. Everything other than what we are thinking, feeling, or hoping for at this very moment is an altered state. Most medications cause an altered state. Coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, and chocolate all can alter our consciousness. Warm clothing, cool air, a bath, perfume—you name it—all create altered states.

If everything is an altered state of consciousness, then it shouldn't be too hard to achieve one.
Just be open to anything and everything.


Now that we understand how easy it is to alter our state of consciousness, we can move toward an answer to the actual question: How do I learn to achieve a more relaxed, more peaceful state of mind? How do I dig around in all those possible altered states to find the ones that make me feel better, or lower my blood pressure, or enhance my compassion for others?

You have entered the realm of sitting meditation, and as you sit, you begin to see what kinds of thoughts and feelings come to you. You begin to understand the altered states of mind that are typical in your life. This is because the thoughts that arise when you meditate are the same familiar thoughts, or kinds of thoughts, that you have all the time.

Perhaps you tend to make a list of the things you "ought" to be doing instead of meditating. Maybe your thoughts go to feelings about things that happened yesterday, last week, or twenty years ago. You may think about your parents, children, spouse, or friends. Work issues may come up again and again. Any problem you are trying to resolve may enter your mind in a variety of forms. If these things or things like them occur when you meditate, you can congratulate yourself for being completely normal. Welcome to the world of altered states!

Meditation is not actually about getting those thoughts to go away. After all, you have the kinds of thoughts you need each day in order to get your work done, prepare meals, or engage in social activities. You will want to be able to continue having those thoughts on an as-needed basis.

What you want from meditation is to develop the skill of relaxing your mind so that you have greater control over how and when certain thoughts arise.