Reflection and Meaning

A basic meditation exercise is the review of daily activity. The purpose is not to create a superficial catalog; it is to enter more deeply into the events of the day, to unearth their meaning.

One may experience an event, initially, more as a body than as a mind. During the review, with the body in a state of repose, the event is experienced again, but this time with the focus of the mind. While the original experience may have been primarily physical and emotional, the second experience raises the event into the world of meaning, which is the world of mind.

Such an exercise of reflection strengthens the integration of the mind and body and has a positive, vitalizing effect on the body. There is still a duality, since the act of reflection is separated from the original, existential event, but with practice this mental presence and the meaning of events can be realized spontaneously in the midst of life. The mind-body (or mind-brain) alignment can become second nature.

The meaning of an event will always contain hints of direction, movement, purpose and progress (or retrogression). The latter are implicit in the meaning discovered.

It is inappropriate to speak of “the evidence” as if the latter were an arrow pointing to its meaning. Evidence must always be interpreted; and it can be misinterpreted, since interpretation generally follows the established subjective bias of the interpreter. Subjective bias also determines in advance what types of evidence are admissible, and even what directions research will pursue. The “absence of evidence” may simply indicate the roads not taken.

The meaning of any event is the subjective determination of an individual mind. Thus the discovery of meaning has an isolating aspect. A group of people may be together at a party, but as soon as they begin to reflect, they become individuals. They are only “together” as warm bodies.