Setting a goal

I am awakening to the idea that any effort made in a lifetime needs to have a goal otherwise it tends to go to waste, so in the smallest sense, if your goal is just to have a cup of tea, you have to assemble the bits and boil a kettle.  Therefore meditation needs a goal and that might vary between people; it could be just to become calmer or it could be an aid in conquering an addiction, or it could be for freedom and enlightenment.  Reading what the Dalai Lama says in regard to meditation, Buddhist tradition includes a systematic meditation/reflection on the virtues and on detachment and also developing compassion for all beings as goals along the way to enlightenment.  To accept these requirements means that we understand that we are still prone to non virtue and attachment and more so, we are not in a state of universal love for all beings.  Fortunately he says that we need to be patient and proceed with one thing at a time.  Simple meditation as a practice of clearing the mind of whatever impedes the focus of meditation, is a general practice which will help all these other goals.
Onward Ho!