For those of you who may or may not know, there is this Zen Buddhist meditation technique where the zealot takes three steps and then bows on the ground. Stands up, takes three more steps, and then bows on the ground. This is repeated over and over again. Though this meditative practice is most commonly performed in the temple, I have heard stories of people traveling over eight hundred miles while performing this ritual. This technique is commonly known as, Three Steps, One Bow.
 
In one of my Zen Film, (I think it is), Live Photo Hong Kong, 香港现场照片, you can briefly see a woman undertaking this practice, while walking up the many steps to the gigantic Buddha, Tian Tan Buddha, in Hong Kong.
 
Though this may seem like an abstract form of meditation, but that is the essence of Buddhism, and particularly Zen Buddhism, embracing the abstract as a means to push the mind towards nirvana.
 
…I was driving the other day; I noticed this homeless man. He was on a push scooter. What he would do was to push his scooter one time and then stop and contemplate. He would then push his scooter again; stop and contemplate. What was going on in his mind, I have no idea. I am certain he was what would be categorized as mentally ill. But, how is what he was doing any different than, Three Steps, One Bow?
 
This is the thing about meditation and (perhaps) why so few people practice it. It is so abstract.
 
There are obviously a ton of various reasons why people do or do not meditate. Do you? Do you take a prescribed time out of your day, each day, to step out of the confines of everyday reality, calm your mind, and move into meditation?  If you do, then you understand the reason why. If you don’t, if you can’t, if you don’t believe you can, then meditation is simply some abstract concept that you leave on the back burner of your mind and never truly contemplate or think about.
 
The thing is, meditation has been passed down, in all religious, since the dawn of humanity, as an important element to the refinement of the individual’s mind. It is used as a pathway to enlightenment, a means to come closer to god, or simply as a way to calm your racing mind. By whatever logic, meditation is known as a means to reach higher consciousness. Yet, so few people practice any form of it. Why is that? Moreover, if you truly do practice meditation, why do you practice meditation? If you do not practice meditation, why don’t you?
 
Here's the essence and the basis for the true practice of meditation; knowing your reason why.  Most people pass through their life with very little thought about anything. They simply do. They simply react. What most do not do is, however, to chart a prescribed pattern of life, lifestyle, and a road to higher consciousness.
 
Here lies the difference between the individual who pushes his scooter one steps, stops and thinks about whatever, and then pushes it one more time compared to the person who practices, Three Steps, One Bow. The difference is intent.
 
What is your intent in life? Why are you doing what you do? Do you just do because of that sense of forced whatever? Or, do you do to actually do?
 
As is demonstrated by, Three Steps, One Bow, anything can become a meditation. How, “Anything,” becomes that technique of meditation is its foundation, causation, and the focus you put upon it.  
 
Zen, as abstract as it may be, causes the practitioner’s mind to focus on that becoming—becoming that essence of that something so much more vast that can be conceived by the thinking mind. If you cannot or do not choose to focus your mind to the degree where true meditation may be found, by whatever method you use, then your life remains an endless hodgepodge of actions driven by nothing more than the temporariness of your emotions.
 
You can be more than that, however. You can choose to be more than that. Here lies the essence of the truth of your ability to meditate; your choice to step away from the bounds of known reality and guide yourself towards that deeper meaning—as abstract as that deeper meaning may be.
 
Do you meditate?