Abstract Meditation
A Guide to Meditative Abstraction
“[The Upanishads] retain the popular religious imagery, and prescribe the purification of the mind, the renunciation of the world, the practice of rigid and insensible postures of the body, and prolonged meditative abstraction to reach the unity of characterless thought, as the several stages towards the recognition of the one and only Self, and ecstatic vision of, and re-union with it. This is the safe starting-point from which to follow the logical movement.” — The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, by Archibald Edward Gough
What is meditation? How does one meditate? These are the questions I seek to provide definitive answers to. This guide is different from other sources in that it seeks the simplest and most abstract definition of meditation. In other words, I am suggesting the description of a model and algorithms for meditation.
As I say with abstraction, if its not working, you’re not doing it correctly. So meditation should be abstracted into a subroutine — ‘a set of instructions designed to perform a frequently used operation within a program’ — so one can just ‘set it and forget it’, rather than be confused with endless flavours of being.
I wrote in Introduction to Abstraction that the etymology of ‘to abstract’ is ‘to draw away’ (to withdraw, take away) which has evolved into its modern meaning of ideation and simplification, as well as to reduce, extract, and minimize. I urge the reader to harken back to these origins of abstraction; to retreat, to introspect, to practice solitude and equanimity, in order to find meditation in its simplest and purist form. When one meditates, they are abstracting the self.
Meditation is also a major theme of the film The Abs•Tract: Core Philosophy, which is itself a meditation on abstraction, as I have written about here.
To practice ideal meditation, abstraction must be conceived in both mental and physical terms, but not always at the same time. The mental-physical connection is described in detail in Mindhack: Strengthen Your MetaPhysique, where “visualization also increases proprioceptive (spatial awareness) abilities through the cognitive mapping of the body schema.” This self-awareness is necessary in order to achieve perfect posture, which is a prerequisite for structural efficiency and stillness.
An abstract mental image of the body is itself an exercise in abstraction that enhances meditation practice. The linked post is filled with more details and diagrams as well to help aid the visualization process. But to be clear, visualization is only a type of meditation, but not meditation as such, as some forms insist on no visualization (such as Vipassana). The goal here is to define a fundamental abstract template for meditation, then other types can be layered on it. This basic definition rests on proper form.
I also describe ‘abstracton’ as a physical technique itself — to ‘tract’ the ‘abs’ while lengthening the spine (axial extension). This is the preparation for relaxation. You don’t really want to contract the abs while breathing, but its a useful heuristic to get into position. Once the spine is properly stacked and balanced, one can focus on observing the breath and navigate the nuance of the mind and body within.
Furthermore, through the subtle abduction of the limbs and counter-rotation of the joints, more space is created in the inner cavities of the body for the breath to enter. To illustrate: with palms facing towards you tilt your thumbs away from you while also lifting the elbows. The best way to open up the body posture is to take a deep breath (a yawn even), and exhale only by contracting the navel towards the spine. Now you are ready to begin…
In abstract meditation, there can be no guru, no brand, no thought; only being. It is action through inaction. This is why it is so counter-intuitive, mysterious, and difficult. Yet all of it is innate, meaning it is untapped skill within all of us.
What is Meditation?
As usual, I like to start with dictionary definitions. To meditate means to ‘think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation.’ The root meaning of the word is measure (meditari) and the branch term is contemplated (meditat). I always prefer these original terms as they give us a very different abstractions to work with.
The idea of self-measurement through contemplation implies a systematic process, and that’s what we are getting at. The full concept of meditation is therefore a high-level abstraction that combines mental, physical, and spiritual discipline coordinated on a single point, or a singularity. And let no one claim spiritual practice without also knowing the root of that word; spiritus = breath.
Beyond this broad descriptor, in more precise terms meditation is putting the mind and body into a trance to optimize homeostasis. Homeostasis is defined as ‘the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.’ Consider the homeostasis of the mind as equanimity, and we have two sides of the same coin. Homeostasis is an ongoing subconscious process; its not something you have to worry about or control typically. However, the thoughts and events we become exposed to have psychosomatic effects that stress and destabilize the mind-body ecosystem. These negative effects are mediated (as in make peace, literally) by meditation.
Sidenote: Curiously, mediation and meditation are only differentiated by a ‘t’ (a cross), the symbol of the ‘Christ’ (the title ‘anointed one’), thereby semantically representing the embodiment of peacemaking. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it… Nevermind my SumAntics.
While homeostasis is already occuring in the background, we can also practice ‘stasis’ in itself to enhance the process. Just like when you fall asleep, if stillness is maintained the body will naturally enter stasis (and paralysis), except with meditation you are ‘awakened’. The stillness is mirrored in mind and body, prompting a novel type of inner awareness and regulation, wholly distinct from any external activity which may engage both mind and body. Mental distractions, physical ticks/itches, or environmental disturbances can easily throw you off track, but the discipline of meditation is to ignore them.
A byproduct of proper meditation is entering transcendent states of consciousness, which are only made sensible with knowledge. Although the experience may be divine or ineffable, being able to describe it in relatively rational terms is the only difference between true enlightenment and new-age nonsense or metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.
It is pointless to celebrate the manifold benefits of meditation if you can not define it clearly. Yes, it has cognitive, physical, emotional, and social benefits, but how, and why? And what is it? Scientists study it at a very deep yet superficial level — Yes, they are looking at neuroanatomy, but very much from an ‘outsider’s perspective’. It is studied in a very tautological way, measuring only the fact that people are meditating and that there is positive effects associated with it. It mostly tells us what we already know, just in more concrete terms.
For meditation to be more scientific, it needs to be considered more like an algorithmic subroutine. And given how many instantiations of meditation there are, it should be ordered like a program — a set of subroutines. Meditation should be abstracted.
Metaphors and analogies are very helpful to understand meditation. Meditation can be thought of as akin to “diagnostic mode” on your computer; a chance to evaluate itself and purge unnecessary memory, viruses, and programs taxing the system’s resources. Occasionally one has to clear their desktop, wipe down the screen, upgrade the operating system, and reboot the entire thing. It’s called routine maintenance, and applies to any system or machine. This wouldn’t be very helpful if you are an ancient Indian yogi though.
My analogue alternative to this example would be ‘calibration’ or ‘tuning.’ Calibration is defined as a ‘comparison between measurements — one of known truth value (the standard)’ usually aided by a device. With yoga, the standard is geometry, which is not a device, but an abstract proof. As described above, correcting body posture and finding solitude to quiet the mind are the first steps to meditation, which can then allow the ethereal self to emerge.
A better analogy is to identify with a tree (a tall Cedar or Spruce are good species to emulate; the emergents of the forest). Our DNA is 50% plant after all. The tree is alive, and it breathes carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen just as we do the reverse. It grows slowly, perfectly upright, and appears timeless, but it is in flux as are you. Like the tree swaying gently in the wind, you can sense your own spine stacked to heavens, subtly orbiting around its own axis, absorbed in its own being and evolution.
You can learn a lot from studying nature. The best meditation teachers are likely not humans or plants but animals. Have you ever observed an animal just being still, all cute and squinty eyed, not giving a shit about anything? It is not that they are transcending time and space, but they are much better at ‘being’ than we are. Animals lack of abstract faculties is what makes their various mental states more obviously distinguished from humans; hunt mode, play mode, eat mode, chill mode, sleep mode, etc… Dogs and cats are ideally situated for meditation, since they have their basic needs taken care of by humans. After all, where do you think “downward dog” came from? Humans are steeped in layer upon layer of abstractions which mystify reality, making it very hard to just be.
Abstraction as Meditation, or Meditative Abstraction
“the eight, i.e. restraint, penance, postures, regulation of the breath, abstraction, devotion, contemplation, and meditation (Yoga-sutras II, 29)” — The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, by Archibald Edward Gough
Abstraction is explicitly one of the ‘eight limbs of yoga,’ although not all lists refer to it as such. For example, comparing the above excerpt with a typical list, abstraction corresponds to Pratyahara, meaning ‘sense withdrawal’ according to this blog post from Ekhartyoga.com. There is no mention of ‘abstract’ in that post. However, the Wikipedia page on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali adds that the fifth limb “[Pratyahara] is a step of self extraction and abstraction.” Furthermore, for the seventh component, Dhyana (‘contemplation’, in the above excerpt), it is stated that it “literally means “contemplation, reflection” and “profound, abstract meditation”.” (translation source). So abstraction is at least a key aspect of meditation in several regards, but I argue it can also be a starting point or focus itself.
As Pratyahara, or abstraction, is the fifth limb, it marks the transition from the first four limbs, focusing on mastery of the physical practice, to the last four, which perfect the mental technique and inner spirituality. In this way, abstraction is an excellent bridge between mind and body, as I am arguing in general. It is also a meta- concept that helps describe the entire architecture of meditation systems, including physical aspects. The final limb, Samadhi, is the unified meditation practice, the holistic integration of all lower functions. This is the highest level of abstraction.
Another way that meditation should be considered abstractly is in terms of secularism. Secularism is ‘the principle of separation of the state from religious institutions’ but it also has a generalized form, meaning the practice itself is abstracted from the religious and spiritual dogma that has been attributed to it. Secularism is usually contrasted with the sacred, but that is not what I’m implying here. The secular can be sacred, if you value life, rather than the fetishization of life.
Secularization is an important abstraction process because meditation has different ritualistic meanings and techniques in different religions, and to different people. Christians, Muslims, and Jews all pray differently according to custom, but these forms of prayer are merely sectarian forms of meditation, and ideally we want to define meditation abstractly and universally, so you know that you are doing it right, and not just mimicking some routine or mouthing dated scripture.
Contrary to these abstract approaches, you might think that in some ways abstraction is the antithesis of meditation. If you are sitting there thinking, planning, conceptualizing, or ruminating, you are not meditating in the conventional sense. What is meant above is abstraction in the sense of withdrawal and introspection into the self. Meditative abstraction is therefore the opposite of cognitive abstraction. This is just the equivocal nature of the word abstraction; we have to be careful in our usage.
However, perhaps there is grounds for a fusion of abstractions, or at least an oscillation between them. Many of my great ideas have come during periods of meditative abstraction, where I allowed my ideas to synthesize and flow until an epiphany was reached. Such powerful moments of inspiration are perhaps the only good reason to break ones trance prematurely (to seize a pen and paper), but denial of those impulses is also a good exercise in restraint.
Now let me propose then meditative cognitive abstraction, or Platonic abstraction. It is taking abstraction as a process of ideation and problem solving and applying it within a meditative state. This might include metacognition, visualization, conceptualization, or a synthesis of knowledge, among other things. It is like thinking in overdrive.
In order to do this type of abstract meditation, one must consume a lot of knowledge before hand, which is the fuel for such an exercise. A description of such a practice is also found in primary sources:
“…the Platonic abstraction is a contemplation of the eternal ideas, the patterns after which the visible world was moulded, the universal verities discernible through the things of sense ; not a Hindu meditation on formless being, on the characterless Self, nor a Buddhist meditation on the vacuity into which all tinners are resolvable ; and the Platonic after-life of the free intelligence is a positive exercise of intellection, neither a Hindu absorption into the fontal essence, nor a Buddhist extinction into the aboriginal nothingness of things.” — The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, by Archibald Edward Gough
How to Meditate
- Sit maximally upright on deep inhale, eyes closed, gaze forward, lock the body position in space, release tension on exhale, empty your mind, breath naturally. Focus. Maintain as long as you can, within reason.
- Breathe. To regulate the breath is Pranayama; to simply observe the breath is Vipassana. The respiration chart below provides some reference.
Now, no simple definition can possibly suffice, as each step, as simple as it may seem, must be unpacked and explained. And surely there are valid variations on this sequence. The above points are merely the abstraction of general meditation, not the schemata and methodology for all meditations. The first part about posture cannot be understated. It is not meditation if you sit there hunched over in agony, however still your mind may be. We have already come along way in describing posture and stability, but an even more concrete metaphor will solidify your understanding.
After assuming an exalted pose, allowing for optimal efficiency of posture and maximal movement of the diaphragm, imagine that you are a statue. Imagine all of you, except your abdominal region, is frozen or quantum locked in space, immobilized. It may take some initial effort, but do not strain yourself. Remember that you should also be able to be completely relaxed. The way this works is that the spine and torso are in fact springs under compression (by the muscles), so the correct posture is one in which there is no tension in the body, but you are stacked and balanced, so everything is stable. As I mentioned, the full breath also pushes outward on the body, downward on the organs, ensuring the most stability. The diaphragm should rise and fall with ease, and you should fall deeper into your trance.
The Immovable Spot
Focus on stillness. Everything is a distraction. Ignore it. Commit to the practice. Strengthen your resolve. Relax. Breath. Stay put. Focus. Now that your body is immobilized and your focus is sharpened, this brings us to the Buddhist idea of “the immovable spot.” It is said that the Buddha sat under a tree for 49 days. The immovable spot is not an actual location but an abstraction in time and space, a target for you to orient your will towards, a lodestar for you to set your gaze. Imagine that nothing could seduce your will away from your meditation.
Your immobility is not a measure of your intransigence but of your determination and passion. Nothing can move you— certainly not a mild distraction like a noise or a thought. Nothing — definitely not a slight annoyance like a mosquito bite, or even a bee sting. Nothing — absolutely not a vague sore spot, muscle cramp, or the urge to pee. Not money, not power, not sex, nor food. Nothing can undermine your foundation of being. Not a fire, not an earthquake, not a tank in Tiananmen Square. Nothing — Not being nailed to a cross, burned at the stake, shot in a firing squad, or gassed in a chamber. NOTHING can break your will. No seduction or threat can move you off your spot. Remember, this is just a thought experiment — so there’s no risk — but perhaps the most important one you’ll ever conduct.
You are at peace and one with the universe, ready to die. Your meditation is righteous, purposeful, and radically peaceful. In submission to truth and love, you realize your own divinity. In making a pure decision to be still, you reach a new depth of conscientiousness and realize that nothing matters except to do only what is right, to move only in accordance with a higher logic and praxis that you are only beginning to understand. Given the fatality of human error on a mass scale, you are in fact saving the world through your inaction. This is the true meaning and purpose of meditation taken to its reductio ad absurdum (extreme end point).
Only now that we are immobile, immovable, fixed, fixated, can we viscerally understand Aristotle’s abstract concept of God as the ‘prime mover.’ Your will and insight is supreme. We can intimately comprehend Archimedes’ quote about having a point and a lever and being able to move the world. We can singularly know what the sages of the ages have distilled through meditation. Your practice and commitment and stillness is your salvation.
And then we can get up and feel good for a bit before we forget all about it and are subsumed in the chaos of contemporary society. That is if you even got the revelation in the first place. But in all likelihood, each meditation session will reinforce a powerful lesson, and will be good for your health and wellbeing.
By all means, if you must, occassionally scratch the itch, indulge in pleasure, life your life, but at least try refrain during the exercise. To live in pure abstraction is somewhat self-defeating — trust me, I’d know. But to not meditate, to not abstract, is arguably worse. The unexamined life is not worth living, according to Socrates, and meditation integral to self-knowledge. To reproach abstraction in this regard is to mindlessly mill about in life, and to blissfully participate in the banality of evil.
Why Meditate?
“To the highest point of view won by abstraction pursued to its last limit, the implication of the soul, and its release, in and from metempsychosis, are unreal, mere figments of the cosmic fiction.” — The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, by Archibald Edward Gough
We meditate to realize our ‘true self’, but who is that exactly, especially if one comes out as narcisstic and ideological as when they went in? The meaning of the dissolution of the self is to recontextualize one’s identity as ‘made-up’, much like you would put on clothes; a mere veneer hiding the cosmic self. The fact is humans are animals first and foremost, living in a shared metaphysical matrix called culture. Culture gives meditation different flavours, but also hides and distorts its abstract method and function. Meditate to relax, to heal, to learn, to strengthen, to abstract. Or perhaps for other reasons? Why is a very important question indeed. As David Vitruvius says in the film The Abs•Tract, “at a fundamental level we have to ask ourselves why we do anything at all.”
“”All things live upon portions of its joy.” “Who could breathe, who could live, if there were not this bliss within the ether in the heart?” It is not an empty abstraction; that the Indian mystic in his hour of ecstasy knows well. It is positive and self-affirming; for, says Sankaracharya, the last residuum of all abstraction is which is the not nonentity but entity.” — The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, by Archibald Edward Gough
What is Not Meditation?
“The sum and substance, it may almost be said, of Indian philosophy, is from first to last the misery of metempsychosis, and the mode of extrication from it. Of this fact the student of Indian philosophy should never for a moment lose sight, or he will lose his way in what will then seem to him a pathless jungle of abstractions.” — The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, by Archibald Edward Gough
Meditation is not something you read about in Vogue or Men’s Health. Meditation is not a secret mantra you pay thousands of dollars for. Meditation is not something you practice casually and retain your ideology. Meditation is not just practicing one form while neglecting others. Meditation is nothing without the hard work that goes into learning while not meditating. But meditation facilitates learning.
Meditation is a lifelong practice of purification and humanism, channelled through the most elemental expression of human being; simply existing, living in the breath, engaged in pure thought (or no thought). Meditation is accessing a baseline state of being that you’ll want and need to use in other aspects of life. Thus, meditation helps you achieve the peace of mind necessary to learn and act in the world.
We must not worship false idols, or practice false techniques. The above excerpt suggests that if you neglect the main abstraction of meditation — emancipation from the suffering of life and death — you will be endlessly distracted by other lesser abstractions. Thus, meditation is not easy. Meditation is not simply something ‘anyone’ can do ‘anywhere’. It must requires a more rigorous definition, as I have attempted to give. To be sure, many other great sources of meditation teaching are essential, and deeper than I can offer, but the point is to do the work yourself so you can distinguish truth from falsity, good from bad, right from wrong.
There are also other forms of meditation that would not be considered ‘meditation’ in the sense we are discussing. Meditative activities such as reading a book, flying a kite, playing golf, a nature walk, watching the sunset. These examples help contextualize what meditation is when you abstract it into the practical experience of being focused and at peace.
A great abstraction and overview of many different variations of meditation is provided in this infographic:
The Concept of Enlightenment
“A thrill of awe runs through the Indian sage as he finds that this pure and characterless being, this light within the heart, in the light of which all things
shine, is the very Self within him, freed from the flow of experiences for a while by a rigorous effort of abstraction. A perfect inertion, a perfect abstraction,
have enabled him to reach the last residue of all abstraction, the fontal essence, the inner light, the light beyond the darkness of the fleeting forms of conscious life.” — The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, by Archibald Edward Gough
Many will tell you that there is no goal with meditation, but that is wrong. I mean, not all forms have the same goals, but there is a superordinate purpose. The goal is enlightenment, and that is perhaps as complex a concept as abstraction or meditation. There are many frames in which to describe enlightenment — intellectual, emotional, spiritual, etc. — but two very useful dictionary definitions of enlightened are “freed from ignorance and misinformation” and “based on full comprehension of the problems involved.”
In this sense, meditation is necessary but not sufficient to achieve full enlightenment. One must abstract, and map the problematique. It is an individual process, and one must seek enlightenment in their own time and place, in their own contexts. That is why it is so futile to imitate and worship the conciousness of Christ or Mohammed or Buddha from thousands of years ago, without trying to be enlightened in our present 21st century reality, or to study and identify with the real struggle back then.
To know Christ is to know that he died not ‘for our sins’ but rather he was executed by the state for not getting off his ‘immovable spot’; in this case, (one of) his crimes were blasphemy, the realization that he (and all human beings) are divine embodiments of the godhead, which we can access through meditation and abstraction. The reason for having this high-minded conception is not to discourage you, but to set a standard for which to strive.
Psychedelic Consciousness
You cannot discuss meditation without ‘altered states of consciousness’ and you cannot discuss that without discussing psychedelic substances. Psychedelic means ‘mind manifesting.’ With the right preparation and priming psychedelic substances give you that transcendent experience, by passing the work for meditation. It can be heaven or hell depending on whether or not you are ready and able to handle it.
Apparently one can also achieve these states of mind through meditation, but having done both I can at least attest to the power of drugs as a benchmark for what is possible. While the connection is important for understand what meditation is, this post isn’t really about drugs, so I’ll refer you to expert meditator and psychonaut Sam Harris, and his excellent piece Drugs and the Meaning of Life.
Epilogue
In large part the entire enterprise of The Abs-Tract Organization is an exercise in meditating on abstraction. And this post is an exercise in abstracting on meditation. Abstraction and meditation are two high level concepts that go hand in hand. Complex concepts like meditation and enlightenment are best conceived in an abstract form, such as a dictionary or encyclopedic entry — but are best understood on an individual level, through knowledge and experience.
The misuse of words for commercial purposes (words like ‘meditation’ or ‘spiritual’) means that the essence is often boiled out of the distillation process, leaving you with an hollow abstraction. Abstraction proper seeks to preserve what is essential and this is especially important with concepts. As abstraction is a process of reduction and simplification, the next time you are meditating, keep doing less until there is nothing left to remove.
David Vitruvius: “The purpose of abstraction is to become a being with a point. Point being, abstract.” — The Abs•Tract: Core Philosophy
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