“Meditation is the quiet and sustained application of the mind to the contemplation of a spiritual truth. Its purpose is to deflect our minds from the problems we are experiencing, to raise our thoughts above the grievances and discontent that color our thinking.” (ODAT, 17 October)
Cushions, candles, posture, breathing, and (for a while) focusing on the body and emptying the mind are useful practices to prepare for an Al-Anon Step Eleven meditation, but they’re not the thing itself.
The Step Eleven I’m enjoined to practice has as its purpose: conscious contact with God, and as its output: knowledge of God’s will for me and the power to carry that out.
The two legitimate forms of contemplation in Step Eleven are the spiritual ideas themselves and their practical application to the tasks of the day.
Step Eleven is about directed, deliberate, purposeful, constructive, and structured thought, not detachment, absence of thought, physical sensations, and so forth.
The output is knowing precisely what I am to do today and how to do it.