The Knee of Listening – The Life and Understanding of Franklin Jones

Meditation doesn’t do anything for
you. It has no purpose. When a person begins some form of
seeking, he immediately turns to an effective, remedial
technique that will get him quickly to his goal. Thus, when
a man adapts to various kinds of religious and spiritual
effort, he begins almost immediately to meditate in some
way. The Christian and the devotee begin to pray and adapt
to religious forms. The spiritual seeker begins to
concentrate and internalize the mind. Others use drugs,
study, critical thought, relaxation and poetry, pleasure,
etc.

But real life, the way of
understanding, is not another form of seeking. For the man
of understanding, meditation is not adopted for the sake of
something else. He does not pursue understanding or reality
or any kind of experience through meditation. Real
meditation is already a radical activity. It is
understanding.

In the logic of Narcissus, the
separative mentality, all things are seeking. But the man of
understanding perceives the logic of reality and lives as
it. Therefore, he is not concerned about meditation. His
business is understanding, not ascent, vision,
transformation, liberation, or any other goal. The way of
understanding belongs to those who recognize the
fruitlessness of seeking.

I do not recommend that you
meditate. There is only understanding. Therefore,
understand. And when understanding has become observation,
reflection, insight and radical cognition, then the state of
consciousness itself is meditation. When understanding has
become a radical process, and the avoidance of relationship
has become an inclusive and sufficient recognition, when you
have understood that seeking is all a function of dilemma,
and when you no longer are voluntarily motivated by the
physical, mental or spiritual problem, then you are already
meditating.