The Practice of understanding “what is essential” is the core of meditation-in-action.
The search for the essential in the clutter of life is, in itself, an act of disciplining the mind.
This map represents the amount of ‘structurally defined’ clutter in our minds. The amount of clutter is in-built by what you see.
Meditation-in-action
If you see life as experiencing, your mind will wander in 20 different directions.
If you know that life has to be lived for a goal higher than experiencing (i.e., experience is not the essence of life), you will not worry about all the experiential possibilities open to you. You will still experience life, but your mind will be less cluttered.
Similarly if you are achievement oriented, the mind is focused on what you seek, and is willing to ignore the multiplicity of experiences open to you.
The next level is living for a purpose. Purpose simplifies your life and gives direction to every action you do. You are now able to organize your energies in the fulfillment of a single, unifying, goal.
Consciously becoming one’s highest ideal is going beyond purpose. Purpose is dichotomous. In living one’s ideal, one is becoming. When you reach here, you don’t waste your time understanding. You are.
At the next level, the essence is understood as the Infinite Reality – the ideal of all ideals. You are becoming that which is described variously across cultures and religions but, in essence, is the highest possibility that man can strive for.