Meditative practices usually involve using a reference or an anchor. This helps experience everything else in perspective. The center could be your breath — the simple involuntary act of breathing in and breathing out. Or it could be the point of contact, a sound, a combination of these.

This center is useful for calibration, especially when we are teaching or communicating these techniques to another person. It can be useful even for a seasoned meditator to calibrate every now and then. But the idea of this center is just a reference point. The center is usually neutral, and there is nothing to get attached to it. In fact the center might change, with practice and situations. We all have our own preference for a reference point, as we evolve with these practices.

And yet we do at times get attached to a center in real life. We can get attached to feeling a certain way. We can get attached to achieving certain results. Either in meditation practice or in real life situations. Reality is fluid. It does not stay a certain way for too long. The center might not remain what it was yesterday. We as individuals do not exist independently of what is around us, what is inside us. The boundaries are not as demarcated as we assume. There is a continuum.

Again, there is nothing to force yourself to learn. This comes from awareness and real life experiences. Ego can form structures around everything. And there will come a point when that structure becomes limiting. Loving attention to the present experience, and the moments flow. And there is a new reality and renewed stability. The process goes on.