Usually we spend our free time doing various things; reading, watching movies, using the computer, playing the guitar, meditating, cooking... The empty spaces in a day are soon filled with small activities, amusements, things that pass the time more often than enrich it. The mind is engaged, all the time. Always there is a focal point for the mind, something for attention to flicker towards. Always there are things to distract us, to keep us moving.

Meditation is prescribed as a countermeasure to this constant activity. There, the mind is allowed to relax. Thoughts can make their own way out, and, when one spends a lot of time meditating, over a long period, there can be strong positive effects. But even when meditating, sitting on a cushion for the sole purpose of calming the mind, there can be a purpose. The mind is engaged there, too. There is a direction to this meditation, just as there is to every other activity.

But think of this: Who first discovered meditation? Who was the first person to meditate? And this person, was she doing it for the purpose of attaining enlightenment? Of course not. There was no one to tell her about enlightenment, no one to tell her about God or spirituality. Maybe she did not have a reason to meditate. Maybe she just did it, spontaneously and innocently. And think of this: Did it have the same effect on her that it has on one of us today?

When we sit down to meditate, we do not do it spontaneously. We do it because we have been told it is good for us, because we have been told it will lead us to enlightenment.

Maybe it will. But of what importance is the spontaneity of meditation? Of what importance is our motivation to meditate?