All Your Ideas about Meditation Are Wrong

Swami Muktananda: "Someone asked a great being, 'How should I meditate?' He replied, 'Perform every action with total concentration. That is meditation.' When you walk, you must do so with vigilance and complete concentration; otherwise, you will either miss the path or keep tripping as you go along. When you drive a car, you must be one-pointed, paying strict attention to the road and the highway signs; if you miss the turnoff, you will miss the right road, and then you will be in trouble. In the same way, chanting inwardly; you should eat your food with total concentration, as though eating were everything. When you stand or sit, you should do so with complete absorption. All your activities should be carried our in this way. This is meditation. Whatever your work or service may be, you should do it without laziness and without caring about the time it takes to complete. Work done with great vigilance is also meditation. 

"The mind must not wander outside the present moment; rather, it should stop within the boundaries of the moment, and become completely still there. If, in the name of meditation, you merely sit somewhere with your eyes closed, and allow your mind to wander all over town, you are simply wasting your time. True meditation is remembering the Self in the midst of all activities. As long as the mind continues to flow outward, your meditation will not be consummated even if you go to a temple, mosque, or the Guru's house --- even if you live in an ashram. If you remain unconscious in your home, in your shop, or in the market, how can you suddenly become conscious in a temple? A great being said that meditation really takes place only if it continues twenty-four hours a day. You should always maintain the inner recollection of meditation; then, your meditation will be continuous.

"When you practise contemplation, meditation, and chanting, are you really doing these things, or are you dwelling inwardly on mundane matters, and thus pursuing the yoga of the world. Are your journey of  meditation and knowledge only taking you towards the world?"

Source: pgs. 53-54, 76, The Perfect Relationship by Swami Muktananda