I’ve been asked many times if there is an ideal place to practice formal mindfulness meditation. Like so many of my answers I tend to say “it depends”. If we are just beginning our meditation practice I would recommend a comfortable place with as few distractions as possible. That would translate to a place that is quiet, has a neutral or no smell to it and a comfortable place to sit whether it is on a cushion, chair or whatever your preference. With mindfulness meditation the emphasis is on connecting to the body, thoughts, emotions and breath so the fewer distractions from those four things the better. There are other kinds of meditation where we connect to other things such as mantras, images (internal and external) and other things seemingly outside of ourselves where meditation environment can be modified using incense and other aids to stimulate various reactions and experiences. All of that is very interesting but can result in the focus being “elsewhere”.
There is the argument that there is no elsewhere and everything stems from the self but that is a discussion that could take up many books and still would only be conjecture as these things are difficult to prove. For now we will agree that we live in a relative world where we need to adhere to the definitions of the relative world such as there being an inside and outside of ourselves. Perhaps to further complicate matters I will also say that once a degree of mindfulness is experienced, those different kinds of meditation can be explored with more balanced results.
Once we have established our mindfulness meditation practice it is not as necessary to create the ideal environment although I always try to set things up that way. If I can’t create that ideal environment for meditation then I just go with the flow. In fact, there is perhaps something to be said for learning how to adapt our meditation practice to fit any kind of environment. That’s not to say that my preference would be to meditate in a noisy, smelly place but it would be good to be able to adapt to something like that when necessary. It’s a good practice for life to be able to adapt our meditation practice that way. There should be a continuum between our formal mindfulness meditation and mindfulness in daily activity. Having the flexibility of being able to meditate under any conditions helps to create that continuum so that the experiences of meditation are able to spill over into everyday life and everyday life spills over into meditation resulting in a 24×7 experience of being present.