One of the frequently asked questions about meditation is whether one needs a goal or can we just sit and meditate. In my experience and how I was trained by my guru, having a goal in meditation is essential, just as it is with other activities we engage in life. However, I have observed that most meditation practices and teachers do not emphasize the importance of setting goals. Therefore most people meditate without having a clear, specified goal.
Meditating without a clear goal can be directionless and unfocused, leaving you unsure of what to do during the practice. Often, people who do not associate goals with meditation believe that meditation is about just being, and there is no need for a goal. I disagree with this view, as having a goal helps you focus your mind and work towards achieving it.
Meditation should have a systematic, step-by-step process to achieve a clearly defined goal.
My guru taught me that having a goal in meditation is critical. In our daily lives, most things we do have a goal, and there is a process to achieve that goal. Oftentimes we are not even conscious of these goals and have not even articulated it clearly to ourselves.
Take having a shower, for example. The goal is to clean ourselves. The process to get to this goal is for most people, I assume, similar to this: We turn on the shower. We make sure the water is the right temperature. We take our clothes off, we go in, we get wet. We put soap on, we wash the soap off. We turn off the shower. We dry ourselves and put our clothes on. That’s the process and goal most people have for taking a shower. We would never mix up the process of taking a shower, as it would hinder us from achieving our goal. There’s a clear, systematic step-by-step process to get to a well-defined goal even in taking a shower.
Similarly, meditation should have a systematic, step-by-step process to achieve a clearly defined goal. Just as we take a systematic approach to accomplish mundane tasks like driving a car, cooking, putting on shoes, and brushing our teeth, we should apply the same approach to meditation if we want to make progress.
It should be the same way with meditation as well. Well, it should be if you want to make progress with your meditation. Having a process and a goal allows you to use meditation to achieve what you want meditation to help you achieve.
