What is the concrete goal of a meditating session?

Question

I started practicing meditation (I am a beginner), and I struggle to understand what the exact goal of the session is. In case it helps: my current goal is mainly to remove some stress/anxiety (I am not doing it for spiritual purpose but mainly for the practical implications it can have on well-being).

In the beginner books I am reading, it is explained two things:

1. You should focus on your body's sensation
2. Whenever a thought arrives, you should acknowledge it, but let it go away to focus again on your body.

What I struggle with is that I don't differenciate what is the goal from the tools/tricks we can use to reach it.

In particular: is focusing on your body's sensation the actual goal? Or is it a trick used to get to the goal?

For instance, it could be that the goal is not to focus on the body's sensation, but rather to not let a thought occupy the mind. In this case, focusing on the body's sensation is a trick we use so that we avoid a thought to occupy the mind (because we focus on what we feel).

Overall: what is the actual concrete goal of the session.

If it exists, I would appreciate an answer based on scientific studies (if they exist) that explain how exactly the session should be done so that it provides the best benefits.

Answer 1

The goal of a meditation session is to taste stillness. Think of the mind as a pool of water that's constantly agitated: stirred up by the wind (thoughts and experiences), swirling with mud (emotions and sensations)… The long-term goal is to let the ripples and eddies subside and the mud settle out, so the mind is like still, clear water. In the short-term we just want to taste that state, so that we can know it and return to it.

Meditation is a practice, and what you're practicing is that state of stillness. The tools and tricks that teachers give to beginners are meant to bring attention and focus to the agitations of the mind, because most beginners aren't even aware that their minds are agitated. As you bring attention and focus inward, you'll begin to notice these small moments between when one sensation ends and another begins, or between when one thought fades away and another arises; small moments when nothing is happening. That's the taste you're looking for. Of course, the first few (or not so few) times you taste it your mind will immediately jump in and say "Aha!", causing you to lose it, but that's ok. It will grow over time. Even if you're just practicing for well-being, that taste is what you're after, because it is the state of well-being.

Sorry my answer isn't more scientific.

Answer 2

I guess there are various types of meditations and thus various kinds of goals associated. I will only focus on Buddhist meditation and the associated objective (as per my understanding).

To me, meditation is about the mind’s intent. Why doesn’t the mind stay or do as we wish? We might think that there is nothing complicated about knowing our own intentions. Afterall, what's so difficult about knowing our own mind? The truth is the mind had been habituated since time forgotten into obfuscating, hiding and deceiving itself about its true intentions (desires, aversions and delusions).

The mind is like a layered cake. It usually reveals only the intentions of the outermost layer. We frequently see it as the intent to gallop with the world, chasing after whims and fancies at the slightest provocation. It takes a lot of patience, focus and letting go of existing preoccupations to quieten the mind till it is willing to reveal its inner intentions.

Have you ever encountered a meditation session where you consciously let go of a particular thought to focus on your meditation object, only to find the thought keep coming back in one disguise or another despite repeated/deliberate dismissals? If we instead “stare intently” in our mind at this thought and tried to understand its allure or attraction, occasionally, something strange happened. We get to peek into the motivation that makes the mind pick up the same theme or fabricate the same mental formations time and again. Once, we see the true allure, usually we’ll immediately see how the mind creates a story around this attraction. We’ll see the fakeness of the whole exercise and its accompanying drawbacks and problems. Then just as quick, the mind suddenly let go of this incessant preoccupation.

The question is how intense must we “stare intently” before the mind is finally willing to let go, once and for all? I think this is where the importance of concentration comes into play. If concentration is weak, the resulting insight penetration will be weak and the peace and wisdom that arises will also be transient and fleeting and the same theme will be revisited sooner or later.

The practice for a beginner is difficult because it requires juggling a whole bunch of things. Trying to deepen concentration, letting go of immediate preoccupations, plying open incessant repetitive thoughts to penetrate the true intent and allure behind them in order to weaken their grip. At the same time, eliciting sufficient inner peace in order to encourage the mind to want to stay with itself here in the present moment.

I usually start by making the mind intent on a meditation object (usually the breath for me or in your case, perhaps, bodily sensation) to help give rise to a sense of physical comfort and ease. As the physical comfort spreads, the mind naturally quietens down further. The more we genuinely try to stay with the meditation object here and now, the more we are rewarded with stillness, ease and a wonderful peace. This deepening of concentration also helps to increase the awareness and sensitivity of the mind to its own intentions. This process continues till the need for the meditation object is relinquished as described in stage six of the book Happiness Through Meditation by Ajahn Brahm.

I believe this virtuous cycle of using intention (with a meditation object) to deepen concentration to induce deeper insight that results in deeper peace and stillness that in turn deepens concentration is a part of the noble eightfold path of right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right intention (resolve) and right view. The ultimate goal is naturally liberation such that no further work needs to be done.

The above would seems a lot so personally, I will just focus on deepening concentration correctly and reaping the reward of ease, comfort, stillness and peace in each meditation session.

Answer 3

For a beginner, I'm going to stress one thing right off the bat. Don't come to meditation with a goal in mind. If you do that, you are already starting down the wrong path. Meditation, within the context of Buddhist practice, has almost limitless applications most of which will be of no use to you at this point. Investigating any of them now would be like a 9th grader picking up a calculus textbook. Yeah, he might have some passing notion as to what the text is talking about, but he just doesn't have enough math under his belt to make any use of what he's reading. You'll get there if you persist, but now is not the time. Even for stress reduction purposes, why the frick are you going to go taking up another thing you need to master?? Screw goals. It's just going to frustrate you even more.

For now, just sit. I mean that. Don't think I'm being all zen. I'm not. What I'm going to explain isn't shinkataza practice, though it is a preliminary to it (and all forms of Buddhist meditation). When I say just sit, I want you to do three things:

1. Sit everyday. Start with 15 minutes. Add a minute every week until you are doing an unbroken stretch of 60 minutes. If you take away no other advice, let it be this first point. Consistency is most important. Yes, 60 minutes sounds like a lot now. If you get serious about this, it will become the best 60 minutes of your day.

2. When you sit, don't move a muscle other than your diaphragm (more on that in a second). This is very, very hard but also very, very important. Remember that you have muscles in your eyes. Most people forget about these. Keep even your eyes still. Don't focus them anywhere. Just lightly close your eyes and keep them relaxed.

3. Breath naturally. Don't force the breath out or try to control it in any way. Buddhism isn't pranayama. Keep your chest and abdomen relaxed. If I were to give you one cue here it would be to wait for your next breath. Always wait on the breath. Wait for your inhalation to trigger. Wait for the inhalation to run its course. Wait for your exhalation to trigger. Wait for that to finish. This may sound silly, but try it. It's going to be hard. You will get bored and stop waiting with your mind going off in some other direction. Just remember (you know, that sati thing), when your mind is off somewhere else, it belongs at the breath station waiting on the next train.

Don't worry about counting breaths, focusing your attention anywhere, or doing any other sort of mental gymnastics. Just sit still everyday and wait on your breathing.

If you attempt to implement this program, you are going to find that you are going to need to make some changes in both your personal life and how you're sitting on the cushion. If you don't make them, you have no hope of completing this program. I'm not going to tell you what those changes are. While meditation absolutely has psychological and scientifically verifiable benefits, the changes you make by virtue of your discoveries - the ones that only come when you consistently put your ass on the cushion - are where the real therapeutic dose comes from. When they are your discoveries and not just some shit you read from some jackass zen priest on the internet, they will become lasting, intractable parts of your personality.

Answer 4

The long term goal of meditation is the goal of Buddhism, which is to see into the nature of yourself and phenomena, and thereby remove certain kinds of ignorance that keep us tied to suffering, also known as Enlightenment. But in the short term, a single session can leave you with a calmness that lasts the rest of the day. It also strengthens the mind.

The two main types are samatha or "concentration leading to absorption", and vipassana or "mindfulness leading to insight". There are many variations and secondary techniques, but it generally boils down to mindfulness and concentration. Those are the seventh and eighth aspects of the Eightfold Path, and two of the seven factors of Awakening.

If it's for stress you'd probably want samatha, which is the Pali word for tranquility. The Buddha said the stilling of awareness (as on a meditation object), is the antidote for the hindrance of restlessness and anxiety (Samyutta Nikaya 46.51).

Ajahn Brahm says "stillness" is a better translation than "concentration". The classic metaphor is water, you can't stop the ripples by interfering with them, that just makes more ripples. Some call it "effortless meditation". The idea is that allowing mental activity to settle down can happen by letting go of all striving, getting out of your own way, so the mind may come to rest by itself. Relaxing the mind can actually be done to an extent much like you would a muscle, it's almost physical.

The other main way with samatha is to simply watch the meditation object and ignore everything else. If you want some real calmness, I'd watch the breath at a small point, like where the upper lip meets the septum, rather than awareness of a larger area, where your attention keeps moving around. I would just keep attention at that small point or sensation, and don't stop to look over at and acknowledge random thoughts at all, because that interrupts it. I wouldn't even think in terms of ignoring thoughts, because that itself is a thought, just stay with the object, and the rest should take care of itself. If it goes well it should take about 15 or 20 minutes for the mind to start settling down.

Ajahn Chah warned that practicing with desire (for results) is basically a catch 22, so that the more you want calmness, the more you chase it away. It's the Second Noble Truth, that craving is suffering. Worrying what if there's a "better" method out there and you're "wasting" your time, is a good example. The "best" practice is the one you actually do, at this moment.

...is focusing on your body's sensation the actual goal? Or is it a trick used to get to the goal?

Watching body sensations is not just for its own sake, it's like an anchor for the mind, so that you don't slip into daydreaming, autopilot mode and unmindfulness. It's also a way to investigate the nature of reality, to see how things arise and cease endlessly. Impermanence is one of the main things they say you'll have a deep Realization of through vipassana.

Answer 5

The dual goal is to focus on the body's sensations and to not let a thought occupy the mind.

The primary goal is to not let a thought occupy the mind. Refer to MN 19 & MN 20.

However, when/if the goal to not let a thought occupy the mind is continuously accomplished, the mind will naturally automatically focus on the body's breathing & sensations because, when there are no thoughts in the mind, the body's breathing & sensations naturally become the coarsest or most prominent sense object of the mind's consciousness. Refer to MN 118.

What is called 'the body's sensations' is merely mental stress ('fermentations') stored in the body. When the mind naturally focuses on the body's sensations, these body sensations will calm & dissolve, thus dissolving &/or eliminating stress. Refer to SN 54.8.

So if a monk should wish: 'May neither my body be fatigued nor my eyes, and may my mind, through lack of clinging, be released from [mental] fermentations,' then he should attend carefully to this same concentration through mindfulness of in-&-out breathing.

SN 54.8

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The above said, the deliberate action of focusing on the body's breathing & sensations can stop thoughts occupying the mind. It can work in both directions/ways. For a beginner with the goal of removing some stress/anxiety, deliberately focusing on the body's breathing & sensation is generally sufficient.

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However, for a spiritual purpose, the mind should focus on not letting a thought occupy the mind. The reason for this is because as the Path & tranquility develop, the deliberate intention to focus on the body becomes another thought that must be abandoned for the sake of further progress.

Answer 6

When one has always been accustomed to ignoring thoughts and feelings, one is deluded about reality. Most people, unfortunately, live in this state of delusion because they simply never have paid attention to their own moment by moment mind and body arisings.

With just concentration meditation alone, the goal is often the temporary taming of stress and bad habits, but the goal of concentration meditation is often to attain focus in order to practice penetrative mindfulness towards vipassana insight that gradually tames one's bad habits and ultimately leads to Nirvana. That might sound "spiritual" but I feel that's only because we are lacking information or we are going on too much information. I don't know what is so mysterious about taming one's habits and beliefs.

The immediate goal in Satipatthana mindfulness practice is establishing Right Awareness to gradually tame one's habits and beliefs through gaining subtle insights into the nature of things, not that the insight itself is a goal. Just practicing is the goal and if one should accidentally happen upon an insight, then great but there is not really any benificial way to aim oneself towards insights other than just setting up one's practice and doing the practicing.

Practicing this way, one is paying attention to one's own moment-by-moment body and mind, in a non-conceptual and non-reactive way. With insight mediation, it's not a trick to occupy the mind, it's just looking at reality and when one looks at reality, it occupies the mind to temporarily tame it at least somewhat. The mind and body processes are seen by everyone in basically the same way by whoever practices this way. So, one can get a sense of the non-separation between everyone.

The short-term goal of insight meditation is just to practice the meditation correctly without worrying about the long-term goal. By focusing on the present moment mind and body reality in a non-conceptual and non-reactive way, the long-term goal is the ending of stress and suffering gradually until one's defilements are all the way tamed permanently (Nirvana).

This practice can be approached with a scientific mindset with one's mind and body as the laboratory. The Abhidhamma, a Buddhist text, is based on the observations of ancient meditators who objectively studied their own minds and bodies. They documented the universal mental processes that occur in everyone. It's very scientific.

https://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/abhidhamma.pdf