What if meditation didn't have to be so hard?

 

In the years of working as an Acupuncturist, I have recommended the practice of meditation to many clients. Invariably I hear one pervading reason as response: "I tried to meditate, and I couldn't do it..." I then as for clarity, as the sentence is rather loaded, bespeaks of a presupposition of what meditation is, and what the results, the outcome of such a behavior should be.

We tend to think of meditation as the end, the result, at the beginning.

What that means is that when we actually sit, we are terribly surprised to find that we do not enter into a very quiet, clear space and are instead besieged by thoughts, thoughts concerning those thoughts and the push and pull of wanting to do it 'right' and also wanting to not think.

I will be blunt: trying to not-think is a form of neurosis.

The very definition of meditation in western tradition is 'what one focus's upon,' that is, the idea of the pure mind, absolute quiet, total perfect peace isn't necessarily the aim of the practice. It is simply a manner of focus, and then a return when that focus is disrupted

Thus the idea meditation session shouldn't be a perfect, untenable, clear experience. It is rather an opportunity to develop a quality of focus on what you want to consider.

When we drop the presupposition that we should already be 'good' at meditation (similar to learning a language or a musical instrument), we are free then to engage in the practice and have it offer us meaning and development.