I have been meditating for many years. I love it. I depend upon it. I would be more likely to leave the house without brushing my teeth than I would without meditating.
Countless books and classes and CDs exist to teach people to meditate. Yet, people ask me all the time about it. So I decided to share what I know about meditating, a little a day for a while.
Lesson 1: No one can do it right.
The biggest thing that gets in the way of beginning meditators is the fear or knowledge that they are not "doing it right." If they were, their mind would be peaceful and tranquil and still not bouncing all over the place thinking of 5 million things.
Wrong. Pema Chodron, the great north American buddhist nun (who talks and writes just like a regular person--her books are short and sweet--so cool) has "sat on a cushion" for over 30 years. Sometimes she maintains silence for as long as a year. She says her mind still is not peaceful. It still bounces all over the place.
The difference between meditators and non-meditators is not the peacefulness or tranquilness of their mind, it is that meditators (experienced ones anyway) sometimes notice what their mind is doing and catch it. They can witness the business, and they don't always have to be caught up by it.
More later.
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