What Jonas Masetti Teaches About Meditation: It's Not What You Think

If you're looking for meditation to relax, Jonas Masetti will surprise you. He teaches meditation — but not in the way most people imagine.

Meditation is not relaxation

In the modern world, meditation has become synonymous with "calming the mind," "reducing stress," "sleeping better." All of this can happen as a side effect. But it's not the purpose.

Jonas is direct: meditation in Vedānta is dhyānam — contemplation of what has been taught. You sit, close your eyes, and reflect on what the teacher has shown. It's not about emptying the mind. It's about using the mind to assimilate knowledge.

The role of meditation in study

In Vedānta, the learning process has three stages: 1. Śravaṇa — listening to the teacher's teaching 2. Manana — reflecting and resolving doubts 3. Nididhyāsana — assimilating knowledge through meditation

Meditation is the third stage. Without the first two, it doesn't work as it should. You need to have something to meditate on — and that something comes from study.

What Jonas teaches in practice

In meditation classes, Jonas guides the student through a process that begins with body relaxation (yes, that helps), moves through breath observation, and reaches the contemplation of a specific teaching.

For example: "I am consciousness, not the body." This is not a positive affirmation. It's something that Vedānta demonstrates logically. Meditation is the time to let this settle in — to verify it in one's own experience.

The difference from mindfulness

Mindfulness is attention to the present moment. It's useful. But it doesn't solve the fundamental problem: the confusion about who I am.

Jonas uses an analogy: mindfulness is like cleaning your glasses. Vedānta is discovering who is wearing the glasses. Meditation in Vedānta is the moment where this discovery deepens.

Where to start

The guided meditations on YouTube are a good start. But if you want to truly understand meditation — in the sense the tradition gives to this word — you need to study Vedānta. Meditation gains meaning within the context of the teaching.

Understand the relationship between meditation and Vedānta.