let’s all meditate, yeah!

 

So many traditions to draw on: eastern ways, western ways, aboriginal ways, Christian ways, Jewish ways, Sufi ways, yoga ways, Eckhart Tolle ways … for ages, it seems, people of all stripes have searched for ways to calm body and mind, to be still, to slip out from under the strains of the everyday, to turn inward, to uncover truth, to be near god. 

 

After more than ten years of studying meditation, I still catch myself expecting something to happen as a result of my efforts. Some relaxation, at least, some rest maybe: is that too much to ask? Well, what I’ve have discovered (just as the teachers keep saying), is that as I sit still focussing on inhaling and exhaling, I notice just how busy my mind is. Monkey mind, they call it in India: swinging from one idea branch to another, looking here, going there, hanging upside down, and flying through the air without apparent purpose or direction.

 

“Every form of meditation,” writes Ken Wilber, “is basically a way to transcend the ego, to die to the ego. In that sense, meditation mimics death—that is, death to the ego.” Whoa! probably more than we bargained for. But that is where all serious meditation points towards: the dropping of busy concerns which are essentially ego-driven: me, mine, about me and you, me and my stuff, me being right, me being this or that. So we know where to start!

 

“To study the Buddha way, is to study the self,” taught Japanese Master Dogen (1200-1253), thus articulating the essence of Zen meditation (zazen) as it’s practiced to this day. To study the self, essentially, means to meditate, to get know the self—as it is. And to meditate means to “realize the entire universe as the self.” Dogen knew all about busy minds: “Cease from the practice of intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate yourself.”

 

No tools, equipment, or excessive time required. Ten minutes a day will get you started. If you haven’t already, kindly read yesterday’s post by Norman Fischer (on meditation practice) and for basic meditation instructions type how to meditate in the Search box on the right-hand side of this page. Stay tuned: Centering Prayer (Christian meditation) is next.

 

source: Ken Wilber. (2004). The simple feeling of being: embracing your true nature. [Excerpts from his many books.] Boston; Shambala, p.148.  image: profile.myspace.com