Meditation is something different from meditating. Most frequently meditating is associated with contemplating or concentrating. People say they meditate for all sorts of reasons. Some are looking for that "calm" "grounded" place. Others are trying to make themselves into something that fits their own ideas of perfection or happiness. These people meditate as a means.

Yet meditation is more and less all at the same time. To start meditation is a noun and a verb. A state of being. With meditation one needs to cultivate a practice to access meditation. Depending on the person this practice can be almost anything. Most commonly and effectively this practice is sitting.

Sitting is not meditation. Sitting is a posture in which the body is held. Sitting allows the body and mind to be in that state of being called meditation. But sitting is not the only way to be in meditation. Walking, standing, running, ... really there is not limit to access of meditation. But to truly access meditation it takes a certain amount of calm abiding.

Calm abiding is a byproduct of doing nothing. Since birth we have been grown and developed to do things. Eatting, sleeping, chasing, fleeing and on and on. The mind and body seem to always be doing something. In brief flashes calm abiding pocks our lives, but it isn't until we begin a journey of exploration through meditation that we actually seek out calm abiding and work to make it expand in our lives.

In seeking out calm abiding we begin to work with the mind through meditation. Through that meditation we gain a greater familiarity with our minds and bodies. Meditation is the keystone in our structure, without it we are ever lost in the cycle of emotional ups and downs from birth to death.