actions and decisions – the foundation of free choice and of
patient and considered decisions and actions. ‘Meditation’
on the other hand, means giving ourselves time rather than
using or filling time – above all giving ourselves time to come
to rest in a state of free and unfocussed awareness – a ‘pure
awareness’ (chit) unbound to any particular focus of
awareness, perception or activity. In this sense, meditation
is the very opposite of an ultra-focussed or ‘single-pointed’
concentration of awareness. Nor is meditation merely one
more thing to ‘make’ time for in our culture of busyness.
Instead, what ‘meditation’ means in everyday life is a strict
discipline or yoga – the discipline of granting ourselves
intervals of time between each and every everyday task or
activity we engage in – not just as ‘pauses’ or ‘breaks’ for
relaxation, entertainment or ‘rest’ but intervals in which we
allow ourselves to come to rest in an expanded ‘space’ of free
and unfocussed awareness. This expanded time-space restores
our relation to time in its wholeness – transcending the
demands and pressures dominating the present moment
and encompassing both past and future as well as the
immediate present – thus allowing us to reflect on and feel
more deeply into all that has been, is and is yet to come.
Within the spacious expanse of a free and unfocussed
awareness field we cease to be lost in any particular focus
of awareness and activity, or else overburdened by a
multiplicity of foci in the form of different life aims, daily
tasks or work demands. At the same time, since this