I read a definition of meditation a few years ago. “To see our original nature and not become confused”. I’ve always loved that quote.
In our Hapkido training, and meditation practice, Master Chang often says that we should, ‘surrender our ego’. So we could say that our Hapkido training and meditation practice is about letting go of our ego and being present.
Actually, we spend a lot of our time not being present. We worry about the meeting that we just came out of, what we need to do later, what we should have said, what we actually think…. All these thoughts buzzing around in our heads aren’t actually real; in the same way that the ‘A to Z of London’ is a map, a picture of London, it isn’t actually London. This ego, this picture of ourselves that we create, is based upon our past experience and our future projection – but the past and future are just ideas – memory is a thought that changes depending on our present state. The only real thing is the present. So, to surrender one’s ego means to become totally present.
Sitting meditation is one way that we create the special conditions needed in order to realize that… it is the journey to this awakening, but also the destination and an expression of that state. We’re not trying to get anywhere, we are just being.
‘Ki has no beginning, it has no end, it is just being’. The concept of time is something we intellectualized, it resides in our ego.
As we sit in meditation our mind pulls us to the past and future… it’s frustrating. But that’s the point. We resist being in the present, we hold on to our egos. If our resistances weren’t being frustrated we probably wouldn’t suspect that they were there.
So when your mind drags you in all directions, don’t give up. See it as information, you are showing yourself that you are holding on too much. We must let go of the illusions.