A Meditator’s Perspective on the Human Condition

Exploring how meditation can help us connect directly with the human predicament.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

As we set off on this new year, the timing feels right to explore our understanding of the meditative path afresh. This is an exercise I regularly find myself doing: investigating what meditation practice actually is and why it’s a meaningful investment of time.

It is helpful to begin by acknowledging and exploring the human predicament. Only with a thorough understanding of what situation we humans have found ourselves in can we begin to piece together why a practice like meditation might be meaningful and productive. What comes to mind is a recently published book by the Buddhist teacher Gregory Kramer titled A Whole-Life Path. Here’s an excerpt on how he explains the human predicament:

You and I are so sensitive. Virtual clouds of nerves wrapped in skin, we are drawn to or repelled by every touch. The slightest changes of light trigger responses in the eyes; the slightest changes of air pressure alert the ears to the unexpected. Molecules from afar touch the nose; those nearby touch the tongue. Electrochemical changes in the brain register as thoughts that touch the mind… This is how we meet the whole world. Placed in an environment in constant change, we organisms seek air, food, safety, and the comfort of others… The entire organism tenses against the world’s sensory and social onslaught, hungering in vain for stability and settling instead for temporary pleasant stimulation… Pings of pleasure cause a reflexive grasping as we struggle, individually and collectively, to hold on to what we like and avoid what we don’t like. (Kramer, 2020, p. 29)

Reading his exploration of the human predicament rattled my mind. I hadn’t considered the human condition from this clear perspective before. We are sentient organisms constantly in a changing relationship with an unstable world. There is no stability to be found. Even in a position of rest our breath is changing and our senses are geared externally to respond to potential threats. This never turns off. We are at all times responding to a changing environment within a changing body-mind. The great deception is we have tricked ourselves into imagining a future state of stability, peace, and unchanging happiness.

Another book comes to mind. This one by the Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal titled The Issue at Hand. He opens his book’s introduction by sharing this story:

Once upon a time, long ago, people walked about barefoot. One day, the queen, walking across a rock field, cut her foot on a sharp stone. Annoyed, she called together her ministers and ordered the Queendom carpeted with leather. One wise minister stepped forward and suggested an easier way. “Rather than covering the entire realm, let’s cover the soles of everyone’s feet.” The Queen agreed and that was the origin of shoes. (Fronsdal, 2008, Introduction)

This short parable clearly points to the insanity of trying to perfect each piece of our greater environment when, instead, a much more direct and attainable path is to modify our subjective relationship with the world. To improve the single point at which we directly interface with all external phenomena. This point of contact is our mind, our consciousness that receives and reacts to all sensory input.

Mindfulness is the shoe that brings greater ease to our relationship with the world. We train our mind to be more receptive and accepting of changing conditions. We train our mind to remember our human predicament, instead of being swept into its compulsive chains of reaction. We have the opportunity to respond with wisdom and compassion, and over time, change our consciousness to favor these wholesome approaches by default. It’s our primary responsibility to be the cobbler creating and mending our personal shoe of mindfulness; no one else can do it for us.

Below is a 25-minute guided meditation exploring this theme in detail.

Benjamin Hohl is a Minneapolis-based meditation practioner, practice leader, and mentor. His passion is sharing mind and heart trainings, and he is happy to meet freely with anyone to discuss meditation practice. You can find him online at benjaminhohl.org.