Because we are all time-poor, constantly busy and incessantly distracted, the most difficult part of establishing a meditation practice is – establishing a meditation practice.
The actual meditation is not the hard part. It is the discipline, making the time and space in our lives. So this commitment must come first: once the commitment is made, everything else will flow easily and naturally in time.
Meditation changes our lives for the better, true: but not by thinking or talking about it – only by practising.
To establish a meditation practice, there are two key requirements: a set time, and a set place. Once you have your set time and place and stick with them, it doesn’t matter what techniques you employ; if you practice with sincerity you are bound to make good progress.
The best time of day to practise is first thing in the morning, before we enter into the hustle and bustle of life.
It is said that “morning shows the day”. If we want more peace, poise, tolerance, patience or joy in our day, then let’s start by bringing these qualities forward right from the beginning. Of course it is also helpful to meditate at the end or at any other time of the day, but regular morning meditation provides the most solid foundation for progress.
So choose a time when you can realistically set aside 5 or 10 minutes to be alone, quiet and peaceful, before any significant outer activities.
It is essential to be awake and alert for meditation, so get out of bed, take a shower or wash and a few stretches or jog around the block before settling down to meditate. If this means getting up 10 or 15 minutes earlier than you were used to, then so be it. Do it.
From time to time, we have glimpses of an expanded, elevated awareness: a moment flooded with love, peace or joy; a flash of insight; a state of pure being beyond cares and stress, beyond our little selves, beyond even time and space. Such moments – which are rarely under our control and often appear “out of the blue” – awaken us to a sense that we are much more than we are aware of.
The conscious exploration of these deeper, hidden realms of self – is meditation.
To find what lies inside anything, we first remove the surface covering. To find what lies inside our own consciousness, we must first clear our surface awareness – our cluttered mind.
Once the mind’s thoughts, distractions and desires are brought under control, meditation is self-revealing and spontaneous.
To clear and control the mind, we need concentration. Concentration is the most essential life skill – which is never taught. Not in school (where it is desperately needed); not anywhere. Better concentration saves us time and energy, and improves everything we do.
Concentration has little appeal. Would you want to attend a class in concentration? We all want to meditate, but who’s excited about concentrating?
Yet we need to get excited – for concentration is the indispensable foundation of successful meditation. Fortunately, we can teach ourselves concentration – with commitment and practise.
Exercise:
Take a few minutes, a few times a day, to pause whatever you are doing and focus on a favourite object before your eyes. Feel that you are focussing from your heart, not your mind. Exclude all other thoughts. Immerse yourself in the object, merge with it. Project yourself into and become the object. Then from your perspective as the object, observe yourself concentrating on the object.
Have you ever felt that sense of being part of something much vaster than yourself?
… listening to your favourite music, feeling swept up to another realm of harmony, beauty and perfection …
… witnessing giant ocean waves crash over rocks, feeling this stupendous power surge through you …
… gazing into the night sky, feeling at once the inconceivable distance and intimate closeness of each star to your own heartbeat …
… running through the forest, feeling you could run forever effortlessly, your feet turned to wings soaring with the wind and the pure joy of birdsong …
… drinking in the sunset from a mountaintop, feeling profound peace as sky farewells the day and earth surrenders into the arms of night …
… observing something tiny – caterpillar on leaf, dewdrop adorning a blade of grass – feeling the entire universe held lightly in this moment …
Stop reading for two minutes. Close your eyes and re-live one such moment in your life. Recreate every detail in your mind’s eye, open every sense and breathe in that fullness of feeling. Surrender, become the moment. Find one word that expresses your feeling in this moment.
After these two minutes, chances are you will feel lighter, brighter, uplifted, clearer, happier and more complete than before. If not, try again more sincerely…
Now go back to your “magic moment” for another minute. Re-live it once more, its thrill and fullness. This time, ask yourself one question: not – what am I feeling in this moment, but – what am I thinking?
Stumped for an answer?
Most people respond: “Nothing!”
This is meditation: a moment of pure feeling, a glimpse of pure being enabled by a brief pause in our mind’s activity. These are life’s most precious moments, and pure meditation.
Everything grows from within. As a flower blossoms from the bud and the tree grows from a seed, so all our perceptions, thoughts, feelings and actions flow from our inner awareness.
Meditation dives into our inner awareness, the root of our consciousness. It can therefore benefit everything that is determined by our inner awareness – which is virtually every aspect and activity of our outer life.
It is said that “We are what we eat,” which is absolutely true on a physical, energetic level. Yet how much truer to say that we are what we think; what we feel; what we long for. Just as our commitment to good health demands we take control of our diet, so – if we are to be happy and fulfilled – is it essential to take control of what we think, feel and long for.
Yet how to do this?
The surest way is to go to the root: beyond the source of our thoughts, feelings and longings. This is practically the definition of meditation.
The root sustains the tree. Meditation re-connects us with our roots, and thus nourishes our inner – and hence our outer – awareness. Regular practice of meditation can thereby affect, influence, sharpen, enhance, intensify and expand our perceptions, thoughts, feelings and responses. It can change us at the level of our very being, and every dimension that flows from there.
Want to sleep better? Swim better? Play the harp better? Meditate …
Want to control thoughts, desires, feelings, responses? Meditate …
Want to understand yourself and your role in life, the world, the cosmos? Meditate …
Want to be happy, not by having, but by simply Being? Meditate …
How can meditation expedite all these goals and much more? The same way one Sun nourishes all living things …
