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I do really appreciate tranquil posts about immersing oneself in actual life, like this one. But as a long-term meditator I have a duty to inform everyone that doing something is not meditation.

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I never know what to respond to people when talking about meditation and they mention something like running/playing guitar/reading/etc is their meditation. I don't want to diminish their experience or sound like a contrarian but also know that

> doing something is not meditation.

so usually those conversations end with a "hm yes that's nice too"

There's this very annoying thing where meditation experts try to dumb it down until they're basically describing a state of not thinking about stuff, and then someone else goes "oh cool yeah I don't think about stuff when I run", and the experts immediately go "but not like that!"

I wish that meditation experts would either dumb things down better or not try at all.

Being mindful is sage advice. But equating some repetitive task with meditation is the same as equating riding a bicycle with deep REM sleep.

So prayer beads aren't meditation? Indian traditionalists are out. Walking isn't, so zen is out. Chanting isn't, so.i guess all bhuddism is pretty much not ok. Maybe there is no true meditation.

It is ok to be focused and mindful with different aids. Always has been. There are self focused (mindful) and also self-abnegating traditions, and all count.

No harm to.me if others have a different way. If music, or chants, or gardening, have at it.

I am not saying that it's harmful I just find it hard to explain or relate my experience of sitting meditation, having only "internal aids" (the breath, the body, or thoughts themselves) rather than external aids or activities like running. I also know what the flow state feels like when doing sports, playing music, drawing, etc, but to me that experience is something very different than just sitting. That difference is what I find difficult to convey.

All the things you describe can be meditative after one has experienced a meaningful glimpse. But the only way to initially get such a meaningful glimpse is through seated meditation.

Is meditation so rigidly defined? It would seem to me that a certain kind of activity done with a certain kind of mindset could be deeply meditative. Disclaimer: I am not a meditator.

Yes, classically the Point of meditation is to enter into absorption via gathering-poise [not a common term but one I have begun using as of late as a sense-for-sense translation of samadhi]. Unfabricated reality is not accessible through doing things.

As far as I understand, there are numerous different kinds of meditation, even within just single traditions. Different kinds with different goals and techniques.

I’d be careful about talking about “the point” of meditation.

You can either have a conversation free of contradictions or a conversation about the truth,, can't have it both ways!

But you can meditate while doing something.

Yes.

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