What Meditation Looks Like

One of my best memories from last summer is walking along the beach, listening to a commentary of Anand Sahib. It’s a composition I’ve known for years, and one that I felt like I knew decently well. Sikhs sing this bani regularly, so the words are very familiar to many of us.

It’s also written in simple language, so it’s fairly easy to access and understand. It’s personal and reflective, and when I read it, I often imagine Guru Amardas Sahib reflecting on his long life and appreciating his journey to spiritual contentment. Anand Sahib feels gentle and celebratory as it meditates on the beauty of spiritual experience, and at the same time, sharp and direct, reminding us of the transience of our lives.

I love Anand Sahib and thought I had a decent grasp of it—and then I went for this walk on the beach, listening to a commentary on it. I found myself humbled in all the best ways, reminded of how little I actually know. I especially enjoyed the simple explanation of the teachings and how they might apply to our daily lives and spiritual practices.

My walk turned into another, and another, and another, until I had completed the whole series. It was a special experience, and I put it on my list then that I would one day reach out to the person behind it—Satpal Singh—so that I could learn more about him and from him.

Many members of my family and friend circle have connected with him through his courses, but I didn’t have that privilege until recently, where he graciously agreed to join me for a podcast interview. That’s the occasion for us getting together here.

Satpal Singh is CEO and founder of the non-profit organization Nanak Naam. They teach spiritual wisdom coming from the Sikh tradition and make it easily accessible to the whole world. They're on a mission to awaken minds and transform lives through Guru Nanak's spirituality.

In my conversation with Satpal, we explore barriers to the understanding of human nature, the different approaches to meditation and how to maintain inner peace and equilibrium in the midst of daily adversities.

Together, we contemplate philosophical ideas to discover how compassion, justice and gratitude provide practical insights into living a spiritually enriched life.

I’m sharing an excerpt from our conversation below. Click here to listen to our full conversation on Wisdom & Practice.

Satpal Singh: You know, once you go past a certain age, you don't just rely on what your parents have taught you–you start to kind of look out a little bit further. And the way it started was I would just have these debates with friends in school who were from the same tradition, and very interestingly, I found that there were multiple versions of the religion that I was brought up with based on who you were and what families you were in and what philosophy you came with.

So, no longer was the religion that I was brought up with just this static thing, but all of a sudden I was seeing nuance and I was seeing details and variations within different Sikhs of the same tradition. So that fascinated me–you know, why is it that you believe this and I've been brought up to believe that?

And I think that once I was introduced to the more spiritual side of it, I almost see that as just a small catalyst that was just lit within me, and it wasn't an overnight sort of enlightenment. It was a gradual process, but a spark had been lit within me to go and then dig deeper to then go and research the philosophy to then actually spend significant amounts of time actually meditating within yourself and figuring out what is meditation and trying different types of meditation and succeeding in some and failing in others and working out why you failed.

And then it was this constant refinement process. But I think for me, the most interesting thing was I was no longer just learning facts and figures. I was actually learning about myself and some deep fundamental truths... How much can I actually know about the nature of the mind, the self? Why do I think certain ways? Why do certain thoughts keep coming back? And it was that to me that became the most interesting part of it– I was learning about myself.

Simran Jeet Singh: As I'm hearing you, I'm wondering about your actual practice during this period, I wonder if you might give us a window into that part of your experience during this time–what role did meditation play in this journey?

Satpal Singh: I think it's important to state that meditation isn't actually one thing. I equate the word meditation to exercise. If someone says that I exercise every day. You're still none the wiser as to what exactly their practice is because there's so many different ways to exercise and in the same way there's so many different ways to meditate.

Click here to listen to our full conversation on Wisdom & Practice.