What is "Meditation"?

In most peoples minds, the word "meditation" brings forth images of sitting quietly in the lotus position, perhaps chanting a mantra or a prayer. This essay hopes to correct that association. Meditation its self is conscious control over ones own mind. There are many different styles and methods of meditation, but the focus here will be on meditation as it applies to every day activities, and constant maintenance of awareness, rather than "spiritual enlightenment" its self. Indeed, achieving any particular state of mind does little good until you can maintain a given state of mind regardless of your surroundings, and during every activity.

In the Ch'an and Zen Buddhist schools, monks are taught to meditate first while seated, then standing, then walking, running, working and so on. The very essence of eastern martial arts takes this practice into consideration and applies it to the most extreme expression of the human being, that of inexorable violence. The state of mind known as "No-mind" is utilized for this particular aspect. Far from a state of mindlessness, the concept of "No-Mind" is rather paradoxical in nature. According to "The Unfettered Mind" by Takuan Soho, the state of "no-mind" allows the True Mind to act unimpeded by random distracting thoughts. It is a state of total awareness. It is without ego based judgements or consideration, merely perceiving what IS, and reacting naturally or "instinctively/intuitively" to what ever happens. Bruce Lee explained this concept in an interview:

Question: What are your thoughts when facing an opponent?

Bruce: There is no opponent.

Question: Why is that?

Bruce: Because the word ''l'' does not exist. A good fight should be like a small play...but played seriously. When the opponent expands, l contract. When he contracts, l expand. And when there is an opportunity... l do not hit...it hits all by itself (shows his fist). Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.

Martial artists train the same basic movements repeatedly in order to program their muscle memory, and train their natural reactions into effective patterns of hand to hand combat. The intent is to train their bodies to react without having to plot out each sequence of the technique in their mind before, or as they attack. If you are thinking about every single move you and you opponent makes, you will not stand a chance, especially against a skilled opponent.
You want to be able to react naturally, rather than in set predictable patterns.
The hand is also quicker than the eye, and if you are relying on sight alone, you will lacking the potential offered by using all of your senses. Some Philipine martial arts, especially stick and knife fighting, train blind fighting as well for this purpose, largely because sight alone is no longer good enough once certain levels of quickness are achieved.
Sound is actually a more accurate and effective sense in terms of distance, timing, and so on.

The state of "No-Mind" is essential to the skilled execution of martial arts, not just because it allows you unfettered access to your 5 sense, but because it also helps your other (psychic) senses become properly engaged.

Even though you cannot open up the body to see something you may call the spirit,
it is by virtue of the existence of the spirit within that you perform various actions.
When you stabilize the spirit in situations where swords are quiescent, thereby
all sorts of marvels appear in the hands and feet, causing flowers to bloom in battle.

The spirit is the master of the mind. The spirit resides within, employing the mind outside. The mind, furthermore, employs psychic energy in external activities for the sake of the spirit, if the mind lingers in one place, its function is deficient. Therefore it is essential to make sure that the mind is not fixated on one point. For example, when the master of a house, staying at home, sends a servant out on an errand, if the servant stays where he goes and does not return, he will be missing for further service. In the same way, if your mind lingers on things and does not return to its original state, your ability in martial arts will slip.

For this reason, the matter of not fixating the mind on one point applies to everything, not only martial arts.

- Yagyu Munenori

All sensory perception begins and ends in the mind. In combat, your sight must see all, without being focused on any one thing.
Obviously this takes a good deal of practice, and requires a shift in perception from what would be considered "the norm". Then again, what is "the norm"? Did anyone ever talk about "methods of perception" while you were growing up?
The mind, like the body, is a tool you possess. It is like a muscle, and it will grow and strengthen (or not) depending on how you use it. Meditation is essentially mental exercise, in any fashion of style of practice. Recent scientific studies have shown evidence that meditation actually causes certain parts of the brain to thicken and expand when practiced regularly.

This begs the question, just how much influence and control over the body does the mind really have? What are the limits to this potential? This has been explored for centuries in many different cultures and organizations, but has been documented especially within the merging of martial arts and the philosophies and mental practices of Buddhism and Taoism in Asia.

Maintaining an empty mind (or any given altered state of mind) in the most extreme of circumstances is the ultimate achievement of meditation. While the classic image of meditation seems to be someone sitting silently in a lotus posture, this is the essentially just a beginning position, or used for a specific purpose, rather than the totality of what meditation is.

Do you want to obtain this? Walking, stopping sitting or lying down,
in speaking and in remaining quiet, during tea and during rice, you
must never neglect exertion, you must quickly set your eye on the goal,
and investigate thoroughly, both coming and going. Thus should you
look straight into things. As months pile up and years pass by, it
should seem like a light appearing on its own in the dark. You will
receive wisdom without a teacher, and generate mysterious ability
without trying to do so. At just such a time, this does not depart
from the ordinary, yet it transcends it. By name I call it "Taia."
All men are equipped with this sharp Sword Taia, and in each one
it is perfect and complete. Those for whom this is clear is feared
even by the Maras, but those for whom this is obscure are deceived
even by the heretics.

-Takuan Soho

The Sword of Taia is "the Mind of 'No-Mind"', it is the development of a mind which does not inhibit the natural "psychic" functions of the mind pertaining to the 6th sense and other such phenomena. Hard chi-kung techniques like iron palm and the like are amazing in their own right, but the principal of "No-Mind" and ability to meditate while striking and being struck is nescessary for these techniques to be effective at all. The Mind is the foundation of all achievment.

In Budo, this concept of the 6th sense as it applies to your immediate surroundings is referred to as "Ma", defined as the spatial concretization of Ki. The term contains a double meaning which pertains both to the sense of measurement of distance, and to a specific location or living space.

When Ittosai says, "If you think too much about the ma, you will be incapable of reacting appropriately to change. If you do not think about it, the ma will be right, even in a situation of movement." his idea of the ma goes beyond a speculative conceptual understanding. For him, the ma is an extension of the body. When you expand your bodily sensation into the space that surrounds you, you will feel the intention and the action of your opponent "as water reflects the moon." The sensitivity that perceives ki is obscured by speculative effort. It is in this sense that the practice of ki comes close to Zen meditation, which aims at the realization of non-thought. It is a fact that developmentof the sensation of ki is strongly dependant on ones mental attitude. If you see your arm, your hand, or your fingers, your body takes shape in terms of the appropriate name given to each body part. In this way, you conceive of your body rationally, which is very different from feeling it as if you were touching a distant mountain. The sensation of the expansion of the body is achieved beyond verbal rationallity. Thus the nature of mental activity is different in the activity of verbal speculation and in the exerciseof developing ki. In other words, in the exercise of ki, we must go beyond the semantic limitation of language. The use of images is more effective than words.

For these reasons we may think of ma as the spatial concretization of ki.

- Kenji Tokitsu

In Martial arts, Buddhist and Taoist philosophy found a proving grounds in the most violent and chaotic situation a human being can find themselves in, that of combative violence. Where a moment of distraction equals death the mind must be as sharp as possible if you want to survive. It provides the ultimate consequence for failing to remove the sickness of "clinging" from the mind.

Despite the fact that I have used combat and martial arts as an example, these concepts really apply to most aspects of life, certainly those which involve expression of the human being. The discovery of true or inner self, and actualization and honest expression thereof is yet another aspect of this type of personal growth. It is the state of "No-Mind" which offers the best method of unimpeded (by the ego) honest Self expression.
It is meant to be an awareness and state which is cultivated and developed to be present at all times, remaining undisturbed by external phenomena. This is the essence of Buddhist philosophy, in my opinion.

There are also many examples of "dynamic" meditation and qi-gong. Tai Chi is an obvious example of such, but there is in fact a wide variety of exercises and systems in the world, most of which do not pertain to martial arts. Falun Dafa/ Falun Gong practices are an example of such dynamic meditation and qi-gong exercises with a spiritual, rather than a martial focus.

Meditation should be more than exercise you do for 30 mintues to an hour a day. Ultimately it is a practice of growing awareness and expansion of consciousness, not an act of sitting inertly. In its true sense it is a constant observation of ones own self, every moment a choice between flowing, or stagnating.



References:
The Unfettered Mind - Takuan Soho
The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War - Yagyu Munenori
Ki and the Way of Martial Arts - Kenji Tokitsu