Question: How do you define meditation?

Andrew Cohen: Well, meditation is the- is when we- is the-- Well, when we actually experience meditation, when we’re not trying to do it, it’s the awakening to consciousness itself so specific- so the very simple definition is that most of the time our awareness is focused upon particular objects that arise in consciousness whether they may be thoughts, objects, other people and our ideas about them. So 99% of the- 99.9999 or almost all the time our attention is focused on objects that arise in consciousness. So the experience of meditation is when our awareness is released from identification with any object and begins to focus on consciousness itself. So when awareness focuses on its own ground, which is consciousness, that’s what meditation is.

Recorded on: 04/28/2008