It is easy to sit down for meditation with an unspoken demand: something should happen. A beautiful image. A clear answer. A moment of peace. Before long, the sitting can become an examination you are trying to pass.
Let this sitting be this sitting
Inner Worlds makes room for the sitting you actually have. It may contain images, feelings, thoughts, stillness, or very little you can describe. There is no requirement to produce a remarkable story afterwards.
An earlier experience can become a standard you keep trying to reproduce. You remember how clear it felt and look for the same sensation, the same atmosphere, the same moment of arrival. That expectation can take up much of your attention. A useful question is simply: what am I noticing now?
A modest way to begin
For a simple reflective sitting, choose a position that is comfortable for you. Let your breathing be ordinary. You might rest your attention on the contact of your body with the chair, a nearby sound, or the natural movement of breathing. Choose something easy to return to.
When you notice that you have become occupied with a thought, acknowledge it and return gently. There is no need to argue with yourself about having a mind that thinks. Nor does every thought need to be followed to its conclusion during this particular sitting.
Keep the practice within what feels manageable. You can open your eyes, shift position or finish whenever you need to. Duration is not a test of seriousness.
Notice without immediately naming
If an image or sensation appears, you can observe its qualities before interpreting it. Was the image fleeting or sustained? Was the feeling localised or spread through the body? Did it have an emotional quality? Did it change when your attention moved?
There is room to be interested without constructing a complete explanation there and then. A sensation does not need a grand title to deserve a line in your notes. A vivid scene does not need to become a prediction.
Leave room for an ordinary result
Some sittings may simply give you a pause. You may finish with no message to share and no new theory about consciousness. Within this approach, that is a perfectly acceptable outcome.
Andrew’s wider emphasis is on lived experience over performance. Applied to meditation, that means describing what happened honestly rather than making the sitting sound more impressive. ‘My thoughts were busy, but I rested for a while’ is a complete account when that is what occurred.
Returning to everyday life
At the end, take a moment to notice your surroundings before moving on. If you want to write something down, a few lines are enough: what stood out, how you felt, and whether anything changed afterwards.
Looking back across those notes may be more useful than judging each sitting as a success or failure. You can notice variety, recurring themes and changes in your own approach without requiring every meditation to deliver the same thing.
TO TAKE WITH YOU
After your next sitting, complete the sentence ‘Today I noticed…’ without using the words good, bad, successful or failed. Let the description stand on its own.
Worlds beyond.