There are two strains of thought on this topic of totality and meditation.
One: Some believe that what they are doing, if they are total in it is a meditation. Some people are very good at this "technique" of meditation and are able to do it, probably because they are experienced in meditation and are able to focus solely on one thing at one time. You know these people. They are the ones that do not answer you if they are immersed in what they are doing because that is the only thing they are doing. They are the ones that will not acknowledge you if they are speaking to someone else, despite the fact that they know you want their attention. It is the ones who are not distracted by their blackberry devices and the ones who have the awareness to turn them off when they are doing something that requires them to be total, which could mean all moments of the day, if one's life is to truly become like a meditation.
These people are probably rare, but are most likely the type of people who dedicate much of their lives to their meditation practice. You know them.
Two: The other strain of thought that occurs on whether or not an everyday action, such as cooking, or brushing one's teeth can truly be a meditation is no. In all honesty I am of this belief. Meditation is meditation and time is needed to devote focus to the activity or non-activity, however one would like to see it. It can be confusing when one enters the world of meditation because at first, many are seeking the "right" way to meditate. Many ask about a technique or techniques that they can use to help them meditate. In general, most people beginning to meditate need some form of instruction or facilitation until they get to a place of realization that what occurs in their lives in a result of their action and reactions and observations. For many of us, the "answer" is "out there," and we want someone to tell us how to meditate, for someone to heal us, for a guru to follow, or for someone to at the very least, give us advice when we are wondering what the next step is for us to take in a particular situation, or in life.
Meditation and all of its vastly different kinds of techniques is something that can be learned, experienced and practiced. Many people do not realize that there are so many kinds of meditation to try, such as dynamic, kundalini, laughing, screaming, crying, social, etc. Their views of meditation may be limited to believing that meditation is only being done when one is sitting still, silently.
Osho meditations and other therapeutic techniques of self-discovery are good ways to break free from limiting beliefs and social conditioning. I recall a thought in my mind when I was in a meditation at the Osho Centre in India and we were going to walk around the room and observe how everything changes. A person for example, does not look as they look today when they were first born. A piece of wood furniture, for example, does not look as it did when it was a tree in the forest. I remember thinking that this was not truly meditation until I looked into the eyes of someone in front of me and truly experienced the point of the meditation that everything changes. This may or may not be considered the training of my mind, but it all depends on who and when one is attempting to define meditation.
That definition may be exactly the point of this article. Can meditation be defined? If you are looking at it from a linguistical standpoint, the attempt is futile. We know that there is no end to meditation, and that the experiences in life that are meaningful are usually those experienced without language, planning, or rationalized thought of what one is doing or how. Like meditation, they happen, spontaneously, with love, in a state of what Osho and many others consider "no mind."
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