What Does it Mean to Observe "Without Interpretation"?
How to work with this concept during your next meditation.
This is a question I tried to help someone with recently. The idea of sitting without judgement made sense to them, but there was some confusion about the concept of “being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation.”
Think about this in the context of what our thinking minds do for us (and TO us) in our everyday lives.
The human mind is a problem solving machine. We tend to take in all the inputs that our modern lives throw at us, and filter them through the problem solving mechanisms of this squishy little pink wonder between our ears. A lot of good comes to us in our lives because of our ability to problem solve so effectively as humans... but a lot of the stress and anxiety in our lives comes from this ability as well.
The thinking mind giveth. The thinking mind taketh away.
We are so routinely immersed in the perpetual churning of this problem solving machinery that we come to completely identify with it. We don't even see it as an element of our human condition that should be serving us. Instead, we are swept up by it, to the point where it can become our complete identity.
The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.
So, what is meant by "without interpretation"? It really means to look at whatever arises as in the mind with curiosity. As something to be observed, not as a problem to be solved.
In this moment, allow your thinking mind to take a break. Even if just for a little while. There's nothing to solve here. There's nothing to categorize, assess, make sense of, or interpret in any way. We're simply meant to observe.