Meditation should be about what you’re experiencing right now. When we get into speculative ontology (the meaning of certain experiences) or metaphysics (again through the lens of phenomenology, the cosmic meaning of certain experiences) we lose the plot specifically on the mat. Meditation doesn’t *mean* anything. When a bird flies by does that *mean* something? If we put on the lens, if a bird flies by it means X, then yes a bird flying past would mean something – but without these set conditions claiming a bird flying by means something is superstition. We perhaps here can take two things from this: 1.) set your own conditions for your life and wellbeing 2.) meditation doesn’t mean anything.

As creatures who are dead-set on making meaning in the world how do we come to terms with a life that doesn’t matter?!

Ah ha! We just made meaning! Philosophical nihilism, chided on by incessant consumerism, is SOO popular right now. This takes for granted the meaning-making faculty and arrives at despair. THIS, friends, is the reason we meditate – to notice this exact occurrence. To notice, ah I’ve just made meaning. But what meditatively untrained philosophers mistake for meaninglessness actual meditators notice the lack of lens-meaning and oh my god notice something INCREDIBLE! Life has meaning without meaning anything. Their Hearts swell up in the beauty of existence. Inherent in our bodies are centers of meaning, love, and truth. We don’t need philosophy or a specific religious dogma to get there. We can use these philosophies to create meaning, a lens, but we can also take these off and find richness in direct experience on the mat. Direct experience not being a philosophy but a way of *doing*. It’s subtle, especially to the untrained meditator but a philosophy built on the experience of subtly is freaking powerful. Because we know we create our own lens. And before we fall into the trap of “just be happy” we, experienced meditators, must point out *that it’s through this meditative training that we have come to these conclusions*. They do not just appear on their own. We’re not reading books and forming opinions we’re experiencing reality directly and *knowing* (gnosis, vipassana-insight – to borrow terms from both sides of the globe sharing this perennial philosophy).