Beyond Mindfulness

I'd like to talk to those of you out there who are meditators, practicing anywhere from six months to a few years or longer, mostly following a mindfulness or secular meditation practice, and wondering what might come next.

I often meet people in this stage who reach out to get help with their practice, explore different options, and seek guidance. First, let me say: congratulations! If you're watching or listening and you're at a place where you're excited about meditation—having gone through the ups and downs and seeing the benefits emotionally, mentally, in how you work with others and yourself—and now looking to go deeper, that's truly wonderful.

I want to share something I used to believe but no longer fully accept: that what you're currently doing—perhaps a basic mindfulness of breath practice—is not enough. I once thought we always need to go deeper, but my perspective has changed. It really depends on the individual, their goals, and why they're meditating in the first place.

For some of you, your current practice might be perfectly fine. Sometimes adding complexity can actually detract from the simplicity you've been cultivating. Whether we're practicing towards what Buddhism calls Awakening or Liberation, or simply trying to understand our stress and feel more grounded, we're fundamentally working with the mind, body, and emotions.

For those of you who have been practicing for a while and are interested in exploring what might be out there, I want to emphasize the importance of finding a path. When we simply cherry-pick different meditation techniques, we might gain some experiences and learn about ourselves, but we lack an overarching view of our destination and purpose.

A well-established, time-tested path can offer a platform for depth. It provides not just techniques for understanding our minds, but a view of what we're trying to obtain or understand. In different Buddhist traditions, we study the view of Awakening—of freeing ourselves from dissatisfaction or suffering. This view helps us not only understand where we want to go but also uncover our blind spots and the areas keeping us stuck or constricted.

I'm not advocating for any single path. This is a wonderful time to explore different traditions—for me, it was Hindu and eventually Buddhist lineages. I found my home in Tibetan or Himalayan Buddhism, and after 25 years, it continues to deepen because there's always more to learn about ourselves.

From the Himalayan Buddhist Traditions, we make the view explicit through what are called the four seals of Dharma: impermanence, dukkha (dissatisfaction), non-dual wisdom, and Nirvana or Awakening. These are not just views to understand but things we uncover through practice.

Take impermanence, for example. It's not just a belief but a way of noticing the changing nature of thoughts, emotions, self-perception, and phenomena around us. Teachers and teachings provide signposts, helping us find direction in our practice.

Ultimately, the Buddhist path—and indeed, many spiritual paths—involve working with our experience of dissatisfaction. It's about acknowledging that pain is unavoidable but doesn't have to be negative. By turning towards our experience with awareness and mindfulness, we can learn about its origins and work to remedy its causes.

The goal isn't to achieve some superhuman, godlike state of enlightenment, but to recognize that our basic state might already be what we're seeking. As one of my teachers said, the path of Awakening isn't about attaining something new, but about removing what obscures our natural state.

My meditation might not always be exciting—often, I'm just sitting with my challenges. But the scope of what I'm exploring, the view of Awakening, remains deeply interesting and expansive.

My recommendation is to find a path that resonates with you, one that provides a deeper context for your practice. Many people get stuck meditating without a clear purpose beyond stress relief. While that's valuable, there's so much more to explore in our human experience—wisdom and compassion waiting to be uncovered.