Any kind of longing is separation focused. We are gripped by an impression of distance in time and space and our attention is preoccupied with a particular thing, person, goal or memory, which represents that distance. For example, being at work and wishing you were on vacation, you imagine yourself in Hawaii. You know vacation time is not in the near future and that Hawaii is far away, thus you feel separate from Hawaii in time and space. Sometimes we feel separation acutely, as alienation. In that case, the whole world around us becomes the object from which we feel separate. Everywhere we turn we see signs of our separateness and we may also remember a time in the past and another place where we once had a sense of belonging, heightening our isolation now. Our relationship to separation can cause us untold suffering and when we are suffering we are more likely to inflict suffering on others. The problem is not that we experience separation. Separation is inevitable, it is a function of being alive. The problem is the degree to which we are unconsciously gripped by the experience of separation and the degree to which we consciously feel trapped in it. In school we are trained to analyze, navigate and orient ourselves in our world. We are trained in appropriate social behavior, self expression and how to be a productive member of society. Our schooling revolves around attending to separation. We are not taught to focus our attention on the unseparate, on that which is the foundation of all experience and therefore inherent in but not limited to any one experience. Paradoxically, this nothingness (as in no thing from which we feel separate) can be known by the conscious mind and in that moment of knowing, our sense of separateness completely disappears for an instant into oneness, which means we disappear with it. There is no longer an impression of “I”. There cannot be a witness. The impression of when and where has stopped so there is no thing to witness and no time to measure events in. Meditation trains our attention towards what is uniting us all to erase our impression of separation, momentarily. This is experiential. When our minds experience this absence of separation consciously, for even a split second, the result is a deep sense of relief. In fact, all relief you have ever known is this coming into contact with the absence of separation. For example, the absence of thirst or hunger gives us a sense of satisfaction. The food or drink is just the vehicle our minds ascribe our satisfaction to. We are in the habit of perceiving conditions from only this perspective. We can choose to develop the inverse perspective. We cannot necessarily focus on what is not there, but we can focus on what is passing away, moment by moment. Engaging in that activity leads us to this direct experience of nothingness or oneness. In mindfulness meditation, this is done by exploring each of the ways we receive sensory input and recognizing it’s wave quality. For example, intellectually we know sound to be a wave. Meditation trains us to listen carefully to the comings and goings of sound. We listen with so much care that we become totally engrossed in the sound as it comes and goes and we become participants in that activity. Eventually we no longer feel separate from the sound and when it goes away we can let our awareness go away with it. Consciously cultivating this focus on the passing away of separation enhances these moments, builds a momentum of fulfillment over time and gives our minds a choice so that we can make the most of any experience.