In the previous post, we explored the true promise of meditation. By examining our own conscious experience, we can discover our own innate qualities of mind—such as awareness, compassion, and wisdom—and in so doing get in touch with an unshakable source of wellbeing that is available to us regardless of what’s happening in our lives and the world.

However, many of us have the core belief that reality is fundamentally physical, and so everything in our experience is ultimately dependent on the physical circumstances of our bodies, brains and environment. If this is true, our wellbeing must be largely dependent on external circumstances that are mostly outside our control, and the idea of finding a stable source of wellbeing through meditation seems like wishful thinking at best. But what if this view turns out to be misguided, based entirely on a conception of science that is demonstrably outdated and inadequate? Is it possible that practices like meditation can help us discover something truly fundamental about ourselves and the reality we inhabit?