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elfsMeditation isn't relaxing. It's work. There's a reason we call it the practice of meditation. Like all practices, it's hard, it requires reflection at the end of the session to know what went wrong, what went right, and what your goals are.
The purpose of meditation, for me, is to cultivate two characteristics that seem at odds, but are completely complementary: a sense of serenity, and a force of will. This is a traditional silent zazen sort of meditation, but unlike the full Zen tradition, it stops there: it's an exercise in mindfulness, in building up an ability that one already has, just as one already has the ability to do one push-up, but most of us can't do fifty.
And it takes a while to even reach the stage where you can recognize, and dismiss, the chattering interruptions of your busy mind. That's okay: at the beginning of any practice, you're not bad at it, you're just beginning. If you give up, then we can safely say you're lazy.
But the lazy do not meditate.
Anyway, I'm pleased to have successfully managed five days in a row without once saying, "Not today, I'm too busy." It's only fifteen minutes.
The purpose of meditation, for me, is to cultivate two characteristics that seem at odds, but are completely complementary: a sense of serenity, and a force of will. This is a traditional silent zazen sort of meditation, but unlike the full Zen tradition, it stops there: it's an exercise in mindfulness, in building up an ability that one already has, just as one already has the ability to do one push-up, but most of us can't do fifty.
And it takes a while to even reach the stage where you can recognize, and dismiss, the chattering interruptions of your busy mind. That's okay: at the beginning of any practice, you're not bad at it, you're just beginning. If you give up, then we can safely say you're lazy.
But the lazy do not meditate.
Anyway, I'm pleased to have successfully managed five days in a row without once saying, "Not today, I'm too busy." It's only fifteen minutes.
