On Meditation

I remember a couple years ago, I told Rachel that if she meditated correctly her head would hurt. That's because when you meditate correctly, your brain tries to exit your head. It wasn't totally false, it's just one way to meditate.

When I first bought my synthesizer and started composing a lot, I began to do what I now call synth meditation. I would create a sound patch, improvise for a few minutes, and compose a short melody. Then, I'd take this melody and play it over and over again, every now and then deviating from it. Sometimes, I'd have the synth plugged into my hard drive, and I'd record these meditations-compositions-improvisations. The first of these synth meditations comprised my first electronic full-length album, recorded in 2005.

Recently I found an old journal which described my discovery of a new type of meditation. I'll paraphrase the entry:

Today I discovered a new meditation. I took my new Brad Mehldau Trio CD to the cedar bench, and stretched out on my back. Listening to the record, I took a short nap. It was December, and when I woke up, a thin layer of snow had collected over my face and body. When I opened my eyes, I stared straight up at the tree that hangs over the cedar bench. Without moving my body or my eyes, I focused closely on the tree branches, then at the glowing moon behind it. I became completely in control of what I saw - I could at will remove the tree from my view, and just look at the moon. I did this repeatedly, removing then replacing the tree back into my view. And it was meditation.