Many people who are new to meditation say they are interested but feel they do not have the time they need for daily meditation practice.

Given how busy most people’s lives have become, nothing could be more understandable.

Either with both parents working, or single parent households, with the children, with keeping up with errands and chores, with long commutes to work and long hours at work, with 2nd or 3rd jobs to help pay the bills, and with at least occasional trips to the gym or yoga studio, many people really don’t have much time at all for themselves. And the little time they do have they find they are too tired for anything other than TV, videos, video games, texting, or eating.

One important part of getting off this treadmill is to begin to realize that you want to transition over time to a less complicated life. Essential to this transition, which may take years, not months, is to be patient with yourself as you discern how you can simplify your life so you do have more time for prayer, meditation, yoga, (or T’ai Chi) and serious reading.

But there is something else you can do. Look around your community and see where there is a local meditation group that meets regularly. It is possible it may be a meditation group that is more Catholic, more Buddhist, more Quaker, more Hindu, more Sufi, or more New Age than you yourself are. On the other hand you may be fortunate to find one of these groups that is a close match for your personal beliefs. In either case, what is important is to get together with others on a consistent basis. Sitting with others is a great help. The discipline of the leader and experienced members of the group will help you develop the discipline of maintaining your good posture and stillness during the meditation time. Even if the only time during the week or month you meditate is with these folks it is worthwhile to do so. It may be necessary to tune out quite a bit of the verbiage and dogmas of the talks given after these meditation sessions. Regrettably, a lot of what you hear in both traditional and progressive talks is kind of flakey or just plain wrong. What is important is to remember you do not have to agree with various doctrines or mythologies you hear. The value of getting together with other people on a regular basis and respecting the general seriousness of their purpose and the valid points of their tradition will help you establish your own meditation practice.

When the time is right, if you feel you need to, you can establish your own small meditation group with one or two friends or family members. You can do this either in your home or in a local community center or church. You can model your group, and the style of your meditation practice, on one of the groups you have become familiar with or you can develop your own basic process and set of readings and chants if you wish to.

While these small groups tend to be fairly short lived, they are all still valuable. Over time people will learn how to attract more people and develop an understanding as to how the group can work together in a manner that is viable for the long term.

Whether joining in with others or beginning your own group, the best way to develop your own discipline with daily meditation practice is to sit with others when you can.

In addition to finding ways to simplify your life so you have more time, and shifting your priorities so you can make the best use of the time you do have, sitting with others on a consistent basis will help. With the consistency of practice you will gain the early fruits of the benefits of practice. The occasional week-end retreat away from the family, the chores, the chit-chat, and the consumer electronics will also support the ability to experience the greater calm and clarity that are primary benefits of practice.

The goal is daily practice twice a day. But this is a goal most people new to meditation will have to work towards carefully over time.

Finding a local meditation group, even if it is a tradition you are not that close to, will help you move towards that goal one uncertain step at a time.

Someday calling together your own meditation group, when and if you feel that is needed is another helpful step to consider. If possible, it is best to obtain the blessing of at least one experienced teacher before taking that step. But if that blessing is not available, or is unreasonably withheld, then proceeding in simple ways with an appropriate degree of humility and dignity is acceptable.

As your meditation practice becomes established you will be better able to do one of two things. Either you will have more skills to help with the renewal of the church and faith tradition you are involved with, or you will be better equipped to discern if you have a calling to form a new church and faith tradition you can co-found and develop.

For out of the people will come the leaders of the future.

Let me know what city and state you live in. I can check my lists to see if I can help you find a meditation group near where you are. If you are more experienced and want to start your own group, please let me know that as well. I would be glad to help you with your start-up efforts.

Will Raymond Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness”   will@meditationpractice.com

Host of MeditationPractice.com

774-232-0884

New Year’s Eve has tended to be a holiday I am never quite prepared for.

I generally have put so much time into Christmas that I never really plan for New Year’s Eve.

Some exceptions were in the 1980’s when year after year I and family members would participate in Boston’s first night celebrations. First Night would kick off with a parade of dragons and large Bread and Circus style puppets processing down Boylston Street in Boston. It was a little known secret but the people who made the puppets needed folks to volunteer to be the ones to be in the dragon or carry the puppets down the street. It was unbelievably easy for us to simply show up and get a terrific puppet and costume and be central players in this exciting pageant. We did this many years in a row. My good friend Deborah and our son and my brother and his wife and children all joined in. It was great fun but it only lasted a couple of hours and the rest of the evening was a bit anti-climatic at least for me.

When I moved to Colorado in 1992 that mini-tradition ended at least for me and my fellow puppet-teers.

In general my tastes have changed over the years. I have never been that interested in traditional ways of celebrating New Year’s Eve such as having a large party or going to Times Square in New York City to watch the ball drop, although I did tend to watch the ball drop on TV.

What I would like to do in the future is to have New Year’s Eve be a time for sustained meditation practice either for that day or as the end portion of a long Christmas retreat.

I do not know others who have similar interests but I know that others do and I hope to meet more such people before too long.

This year, as I did two years ago, I will be on a long private retreat over the 12 days of Christmas, which includes New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

In silence and in solitude, perhaps taking in a service at a nearby convent, I will continue to be open to letting my meditation practice deepen in the quiet cold of winter.

Should you also be inclined to spend New Year’s Eve in sustained prayer and meditation cast your thoughts to the rest of the silent sentinels around the world. Whether our vigil is tinged or drenched in loneliness, or deep serenity, know that there are many of us in our little out of the way places around the world. In the heart of major cities, amidst the dessicated conformity of affluent suburbs, in monasteries and convents and retreat centers around the world, in lonely University dormitories, isolated army posts and jail cells, housing projects and penthouses, many if us will be sitting in silence alone or with others with our reverent hopes for a more peaceful world.

May this New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and the days of the year to come be a time when your practice reaches new experiences of peace, acceptance, compassion,  and sacred beauty.

May tens of millions and then hundreds of millions of people in their own way and in their own tradition find ever more creative ways to offer their love and forgiveness towards themselves and all others.

What was your New Year’s Eve like? What do you want to do differently in the year to come?

Do you want to get together next New Year’s Eve for a time if patience, silence, and meditation as our way to say good bye to the year just past and to say hello to the New Year to come.

Whether together or far apart, let us be joined in the quiet army of the silent revolution.

All constructive comments will be posted.

Will Raymond Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” host of MeditationPractice.com

will@meditationpractice.com    774-232-0884

You sit down for a few minutes, or longer, to practice meditation.

You have chosen the breath as the object of your meditation or you have chosen to repeat over and over some word or phrase that is meaningful to you. Those who believe in God approach meditation in one way, those who do not believe follow another path as do those who are not sure what to believe.

After a few moments, or minutes, you “wake-up” and realize you have drifted off into some distraction and have lost your focus on the breath or your sacred word.

What are the most effective ways to work with distractions? Here are a few suggestions:

1) In the moment you realize you have become distracted notice carefully if there is any sense of self-reproach in that moment and the ones that follow? Is there any tension or judgement of self for having lost your focus again?

If there is, do not judge yourself for having judged yourself. See if you can offer a patient knowing smile towards yourself and gently draw your attention back to the breath or sacred word. Observe any frustration or impatience that may arise without judging yourself for “being a bad meditator”. Just observe the feelings and thoughts that do arise in the moment when you realize you have become distracted yet again.

Observe and notice without judgement and gently draw your attention back to the breath or sacred word, or whatever theme you have chosen as the object of your meditation.

2) Pause for a moment to consider whether the distraction was a thought about the past or the future. You can be sure it was one of the two, for if you had remained focused on the present you would still be focused on your breath or sacred word or phrase.

Pause for a few moments to observe your buttocks sitting on the cushion or chair. Notice the sensations of the body as well, such as the abdomen rising and falling as you breathe in and out or the feeling of your hands whether they are folded or resting on your knees.

Checking in with the sensations of your body always opens the door back to the present.

Once you feel grounded in the sensations of the body in the present moment you can then draw your attention back to the more narrow focus of the breath at the point of the nostrils or to your sacred word. What is helpful about this technique is that you can begin to notice how often the mind drifts off into the past or the future both during meditation and in the active hours of life. Remembering to remember to notice whether it is the past or the future you are thinking about will be helpful. Remembering to then notice any of the different sensations of the body will begin to strengthen the ability to return to the present moment and to remain focused as new moments unfold.

3) Another way of working with distractions is to notice who you were thinking about during the distraction. Was it some thought about yourself? Was it a thought about your wife or husband, child, or parent, boss or co-worker? Were you thinking about some political issue or the politician involved in that issue?

Whoever it was, pause for a moment and offer a loving wish either to yourself or whoever you were thinking of and then return to the object of your meditation. “May I be happy. May I be well”, or, “May they be happy. May they be well.” A simple moment to exercise your skills and develop your talent with loving-kindness is all that is needed. Then return to the awareness of your breath or sacred word or phrase.

Any one of these techniques or a combination of two of them, or all of them, will help as you work with distractions. They are helpful because each of them will allow you to notice another nuance about your inner experience during meditation or in the active hours of your life. These efforts will allow you to accept the fact that the mind often becomes distracted. These efforts will also, over time, strengthen the power of mindfulness so that distractions will begin to happen less frequently.

Over time you will begin to see all the different streams of phenomena that make up the overall sense if your interior experience.

There are the sensations of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, and the passing thoughts of the moment.

There are the words that make up the sentences that make up the inner dialogue of our mind and the distractions we experience.

There are the times of self-judgement and the judgement of others and other interpretive valuations.

There is a general tendency for the mind to skip absent-mindedly into the past or the future?

There is the general sense, either potent or not-so-potent, of “I” and “me” and “mine”

There are the various feelings of anger, fear, happiness, guilt, triumph, desire, and loss.

The mind, the brain, and the body are a vast and intricate web threads that are woven together into the complex quilt or mosaic we individually call “I” or “me” or “my experience”.

Sitting in meditation and paying a bit closer attention to the distractions when we notice we have become distracted is one way to begin to see how much is going on moment by moment in the mind. How much is arising, how much is continuing to be present, how much is fading and being supplanted by the next arising phenomena?

Above all be patient with yourself. There is a lot more happening in your mind and body than you are aware. Any one of the multiple sensations or fleeting clusters, feelings or thoughts can be enough to hijack the mind into one distraction or another.

Be patient. All of this is more challenging and more rewarding than it may appear.

What have you chosen to use as the object of your meditation? Have you chosen the breath, or some sacred word, phrase, or image?

How often do you find you are distracted during a meditation sessions. How do you work with the distractions that do arise?

Send me a note. All clear and constructive comments will be posted.

Will Raymond Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness” Host of MeditationPractice.com will@meditationpractice.com    774-232-0884

Some people believe strongly that God exists.

Some people believe equally strongly that there is no such thing as a soul, or the soul’s journey to God, or God.

Some people are not sure what to believe.

What is important is to ask yourself as honestly as you can a few questions, “What do I believe is the truth of this life?” “Do I really believe what I say I believe, or do I just give my answers to such questions because these are the answers I have always given?”

If you believe God exists, then how do you know that what you believe is true?

If you believe there is no God, how can you be sure your view is correct?

If you really are not sure whether God exists or not, how can you proceed to explore this question to see if there is a way to find out one way or the other?

The more carefully one examines their beliefs, the more they will be able to see that they really are less sure of their answers to important questions than perhaps they let on. The more one examines the foundations of their beliefs the more they will find out the foundations of their beliefs are pretty shaky and generally poorly thought out

This is just as valuable an exercise for believers as it is for atheists.

Certainly there are many people in religion, politics, philosophy, business, and science who will tell you with great certainty what their beliefs are and why they are correct to believe as they do. They will give you their arguments in a confident form as though there could not be any other interpretation.

In fact one of the core traits that an atheist such as Richard Dawkins, or a Christian Fundamentalist such as Jerry Falwell, or a Vipassana Buddhist such as Mu Soeng have in common is how convinced they are they are right and that alternative views are wrong.

In limited questions of science or the history of religion there are many questions that have clear answers where someone is right and those of the opposite view are wrong. But that is not the case with the great question of whether God exists or not.

There is plenty of evidence to conclude that there is no God or at least not one that has any particular concerns whether any of us live or die. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that God, or universal spirit, is indeed the foundation of all existence and is available as a source of strength and inspiration for our personal life.

In my view there are a couple of important points.

Think carefully and honestly about what you believe is the truth of whether God does or does not exist. Look carefully at the foundations of your beliefs to see if they are as solid as you think they are or whether in truth they are a hodge-podge of sketchy assumptions and hazily thought out opinions.

Let your unanswered questions emerge. Give yourself the permission to inquire whether you really believe what you say is true, or whether you believe as you do because someone else told you it was true.

Draw your attention to whatever few core beliefs and values you either are sure are true or you feel are at least worthy of deeper exploration.

Pay particular attention to those core beliefs and ask yourself, “Is there room for improvement in the way I practice what I preach?”

Look carefully at all of your relationships and ask yourself, “Is there room for improvement in the love and respect I offer to others?”  

If the answer to these questions is, “Yes”, then look honestly and sincerely at your life as you search for ways to live your core truths and values with greater integrity and fidelity.

Look carefully at the way you treat friends, lovers, family, co-workers, neighbors, store clerks, and others. Regardless of whether you know the answers to the great questions of life and faith, each of us can find our way forward to the next deeper level of peace and understanding by improving the way we treat ourselves and others.

From this simple practice, great truths will emerge.

Careful, sincere, patient searching for ways to be more faithful to both your core truths and your core unanswered questions will support your practice of meditation in this way.

You will be much more clear about what you really believe is true and those beliefs you either are not sure of or which you come to see need to be set aside. A deeper respect for the subtlety and the confusion that most of us feel with regards the great mysteries of life will engender, hopefully, a true and meaningful humility. The humility to know that one is often wrong and that others are sometimes right.

Sorting out what you truly believe from what you no longer believe, or at least are no longer quite so sure of, is also beneficial.

You will find a few simple beliefs to which you can devote your best and most lucid efforts.

You will be able to gather your energy and concentrate your best efforts to cultivate the full potential of your beliefs and core values.

There is a secret to making progress with the practice of silent meditation. This secret works just as well for atheists as it does for believers and those who are genuinely perplexed.

The secret is this. You do not need to know the answers to the great questions of this life unless you naturally feel you do.

It is enough to commit much stronger efforts to the simplest of beliefs than most people would ordinarily think of doing. A full engagement of the simplest beliefs and values over the long contours of your life will help you unlock the great power of simple views and virtues. A full engagement of the simplest beliefs and values will allow you to reach the highest states of consciousness and wisdom available in this life.

This is the secret.

Please let me know what you are working on with your practice. All sincere comments will be acknowledged and posted.

Peace

Will Raymond will@meditationpractice.com     774-232-0884

Author of The Simple Path of Holiness and Host of MeditationPractice.com

What you believe, what you truly believe, is the truth of this life is important.

For what you believe is the truth of this life will shape every aspect of your practice of silent meditation.

Last week I discussed how one relates their belief in God or universal spirit to their practice of meditation. Please see last week’s post for those comments. This week I want to offer some comments to help atheists as they begin their practice of meditation.

For atheists who wish to practice meditation the process is similar but the words or tones are different. An atheist is one who believes there is no such thing as a soul or God or universal spirit of life. The best examples I know of atheists who practice meditation are the Theravada Buddhists. Other terms for this tradition are Vipassana or Insight Meditation. Other good examples of atheists who are serious about meditation are Zen Buddhists. While I personally do not believe Zen Buddhists are really atheists, I believe I am correct in assuming many Zen Buddhists would certainly not use the word God in the same way that Christians, Jews, Moslems, and Hindus do.

Atheists may naturally choose the breath as the focus of their meditation. What could be simpler? As they breathe in they focus on the sensations of the in-breath. When they breathe out they focus on the out-breath. Or they may simply scan the sensations of the body, or the emotions and thoughts of the mind, as they arise, have impact, and pass away.

Still some Buddhists who are atheists have the same problem focusing on the breath as do believers. Being non-verbal, the breath is too general and too subtle for many atheists to be able to keep their mind focused on it for any length of time. Atheists find they are constantly getting distracted in the same way believers are. To solve this dilemma some Theravada Buddhists also choose the recitation of a word as an alternative to the breath. They recite “Buddho” on the in breath and “Buddho” on the out breath.

Choosing a word or phrase gives the word-and-thought center of the mind something to do. Having a word or phrase is a way to center the mind on one thing as compared to a constant stream of ad hoc distractions.

Many Tibetan Buddhists use another phrase “Om Mani Padme Hum”. This is a phrase repeated in silence or out loud. For some it is a list of values one needs to follow closely. For others the phrase invokes the blessings of Chenrezig or Avalokiteshvara both of whom are figures which are viewed as embodiments of perfect compassion.

For modern atheists who do not wish to repeat the word “Buddho”, or some phrase or mantra which seems very close to invoking a form of Goddess worship, there are other choices.

“Love” is one choice that works as well for atheists as it does for believers. “Freedom” is another. Some with a philosophical bent may find the words “existence” or “being” to be relevant. For phrases one might choose something like “I open my mind and heart to truth and illumination” or, “Quieting the mind, quieting the heart”.  What is important is to find a word or phrase that is closely related to your core values.

What is also important is this.

Whether you are one who believes in God, or the universal spirit of life, or whether you believe there is no God is not as critical to attaining high states of consciousness and liberation as it once was believed to be by many spiritual cultures.

What is important is that you develop a high degree of fidelity to those beliefs you do ascribe to, assuming your beliefs are centered one way or another in love, compassion, and high degrees of personal integrity. Regardless of whether you feel called to choose a God centered or an Atheist set of beliefs you will need to make very strong commitments to cultivating the highest quality skills you can with core practices and values of love, forgiveness, charity, courage, humility, and the search for insight and wisdom.

These core values are essential to the attainment of the deeper experiences of peace and freedom that are available in the practice of meditation. It is simple. You will not attain liberation with shoddy efforts with these values. But these core values are general enough they can be adapted to one’s beliefs whether one follows one particular religion or no religion at all.

What do you really believe is the truth of this life? What core values do you have that you know you need to cultivate with greater sincerity and self-honesty about the work you still have to do.

Atheists and believers have the same challenge. When you get stuck you can be sure the way forward is always to be found with greater sincerity and self-honesty about the efforts you are making with love, compassion, and those beliefs you say you have faith in.

What do you believe is the truth of this life?

Where are you kidding yourself about the quality of effort you are making to reform and renew the moral values at the center of your life?

Peace,

Will Raymond will@meditationpractice.com   774-232-0884

Author of the Simple Path of Holiness and Host of MeditationPractice.com

I am at the Natural Living Expo 2013 trade show this week-end in Marlborough, MA.

It is a great and large gathering. Many sincere and open minded people.

I have had the great pleasure of speaking to many people who are interested in meditation but have not quite reached the point where they can practice on a regular basis.

Part of the issue is how busy so many, many people are these days. But there seems to be another stumbling block that gets in the way of many folks.

Over and over again I have heard this week, “I can’t clear my mind”. As a result of not getting to this meditative state, it seems many people feel there is little point to keep trying.

The first thing is this.

If your mind is jumpy and unsettled, don’t try to force it into some imagined peaceful meditative state. It is enough to say within yourself, “Yup, I keep getting distracted.”, “No big deal”, and then come back to the breath or sacred word or phrase you have chosen as the object of your meditation.

What I have noticed is that many people have not had the chance to do the following process for themselves. This process is for those who believe in God, whether their image of God is specific or somewhat general and without form. I can touch on how this process works for people who do not believe in God, next week.

To begin the process I tend to ask, “If you believe in God, what image or phrase comes to mind?” Some might say “Jesus” or “God the Father”, or the “Divine Mother”. Many others would say “energy” or “universal energy”. What is important, in my opinion, is to ask, “What image comes to mind when you think of who God is for you?” The next step is to refine your answer.

When you answer this question simply and clearly you can choose a word or phrase that is closely related to the image you have of the divine other.

The word might be “love” or “energy” or “spirit”. The phrase might be “Jesus draw me ever nearer unto you.”, or “Come Holy Spirit” or “I open my heart and mind to you O holy one.”

What is important is to match the word or sacred phrase to the image or sense of who you envision the creator or divine other to be.

Then you can simply repeat this word or phrase quietly within yourself as you breathe in and out for 5 or 20 minutes, whatever time you have for that session that day.

As you begin each session there is something else you can do. You can see if there is a need to forgive yourself for any poor choices you have made that caused suffering in your life or in the lives of others.

You can call to mind the lives of those you love the most and offer a prayer of good wishes for their happiness. “May my son, or my husband or my mother, (whoever it is that you love the most), may they be happy may they be well.”

Someday you can get to offering love and kindness to those who you feel do not deserve either of these intentions. But for today and tomorrow it is enough to forgive yourself and to offer love to those you love with gentleness and deep sincerity of purpose.

For today it is enough to think, “If I believe in God, what is the image of the divine or the sound of the divine that comes to mind when I think of this divine friend.”

Draw a sacred word or phrase from that image and use this phrase as a way to begin to settle the restless mind and heart.

When you realize you have become distracted, notice carefully if there is any sense of judgment towards yourself for having become distracted…touch that judgement with gentleness and a soothing, patient care. Then just start again with your sacred word or phrase and your breath as you breathe in and out.

If you prefer a simple focus on the breath without any words as you breathe in and out that is fine to.

Be patient with the restless mind. If you get distracted 20 or 50 times per meditation session that is OK. Just know that a few minutes a day is the way to get into meditation.

Over time your mind will quiet and settle and you will have found more of the peace and wisdom you are looking for. You can proceed from there to deeper experiences of both.

But when the mind is jumpy and you don’t want to sit and meditate, this is what I do to cajole myself into doing at least a little bit of sitting.

“Can you sit for two minutes and repeat your sacred word or phrase or follow your breath even if the mind does not settle at all?”

“Yes. I can do that.”

Most of the time I am then able to do a full meditation session. But sometimes, all I really only can do, or feel like doing, is to sit for 2-5 minutes. Even a brief highly distracted sitting, without any noticeable benefits, is still much better than no sitting at all.

What is important is to develop a realistic schedule for yourself and then to stick with it regardless of whether the mind is peaceful or prone to multiple distractions.

Please let me know what you find when you ask the question, “What image of God comes to mind when I think of the creator or universal energy?”

I can help you find the right sacred word or phrase to serve as the focus on your meditation.

Peace to you O Pilgrim.

Will  will@meditationpractice.com

Author of “The Simple Path of Holiness”

Host of MeditationPractice.com

Most people learn the basics of meditation in some introductory workshop or practice group at their local church or meditation retreat center.

What is most important is to be patient as you seek to develop a daily meditation practice, or as you proceed from the good beginning you have made.

Most people will probably not be able to find twenty minutes in the morning and another twenty minutes before dinner to sit and focus on their breath or sacred word.

Their lives are either too busy, or they are not sure there is enough benefit to meditation to make times of silence and stillness a strong priority. Be patient as you continue to discern whether there is sufficient benefit to be gained from meditation and the related practices of Yoga or T’ai Chi to make these efforts a centerpiece of your daily schedule.

Continue to seek out those places in your community where you can go and sit with others for twenty minutes or, if possible, for longer periods. Being around other people who have chosen meditation as an important part of their life will be helpful. This comment is offered assuming that those people are open-minded and mature enough that they are not pushing their style of meditation as the “only true way”.

Continue to seek out people who have been practicing for many years whose personal insights, comments, and general demeanor indicate they have found the peace and clarity you are looking for. Having regular dialogue with a competent instructor will be of real help.

But patience may be needed in your search to find others to sit with. Patience may also be needed in the search for a teacher or mentor. Most meditation teachers are too closely tied to one tradition. They tend to be very Catholic, or very Buddhist, or very Zen, or very Kabbalah, or very Sufi, or very 12-step, or very Greek Orthodox, or very Hindu etc. If one of these traditions is the one you are drawn to that is great. Any reasonably well trained teacher in that tradition will be able to help you get started. Over time you can find the teacher who really is a good match to help you with the intermediate and advanced stages of the journey.

For those who do sit in meditation on a daily basis, or at least on most days, patience is also needed. There will be times when there is real peace and ease to your meditation practice and you will get the sense, “Good, I am really getting somewhere with meditation.”

There will be other times when then session will drag on and on and on. You may need to fidget every few minutes and are constantly losing focus on your breath of sacred word.

It may seem that meditation is both incredibly boring and frustrating and you may start to wonder, “Perhaps this really is not for me, or, I guess I just don’t have the special skill with this that others do. Be patient when such thoughts arise within you.

Every time you are willing to sit in silence and stillness and try to focus the mind is valuable, whether the meditation is peaceful or quite frustrating.

Do not try to force the mind to settle into a state of deeper peace if it just is not happening.

It is enough to continue to maintain your focus on the breath or sacred phrase, or image that is the object of your meditation. If you are struggling in any session or retreat you may wish to turn your attention to different points in the body for a very detailed examination of bodily sensations or a detailed study of the particular emotion-tone you are experiencing.

If you feel a need to fidget, be patient, hold off for another twenty or thirty seconds and try to notice more closely the itch on your cheek, or the pain in your knee. Just observe the details of the sensation you are seeing and notice the minute changes in those sensations. See if you can wait it out until the discomfort subsides. If you still feel a need to scratch or move, then consciously decide in what way you will move and notice the changing sensations of the move as you shift and as you come back to stillness.

For those who cannot sit for twenty or thirty minutes, can you sit for five or ten or two minutes before you get into the daily chores and activities or before you go to bed.

For beginners and those who are more established in their practice remember to remember: patience is one of the most important practices of the path.

It is easy to overlook the value of something as simple as cultivating patience as one searches for esoteric teachings. But it is the cultivation of the simple practices to a higher degree than most generally do that is the secret of practice.

If you have a moment please let me know what is happening with your efforts to practice meditation and Yoga or T’ai Chi. Do you feel stuck? Do you feel you are moving forward?

Let me know if you would like a copy of a chapter from my book “The Simple Path of Holiness. I would be glad to send you an e-copy of either “The Basics of Practice” or “Stillness, Silence, and Emptiness” at no charge.

Will  will@meditationpractice.com   774-232-0884

Author of the Simple Path of Holiness 

Host of MeditationPractice.com

I decided to take a break from the weekly blog about the “Four Foundations of Mindfulness”. For those who have patiently been reading along and wish to continue with this study please send me an email and I will forward additional reflections on the fourth practice of this series.

I feel the subject of that series is better suited to an on-line course than a weekly blog. I will convert the material I have written and my thoughts on the fourth practice to an on-line course sometime between now and early December.

This post and the ones that follow are offered to those who are still fairly new to practice. They are written especially for the folks who have joined my 4 week series at Say Yes to Yoga in Webster, MA. The series is co-sponsored by Booklovers Gourmet also in Webster.

For the folks in this series, and those who are not but who may have more experience with daily practice, please note the excerpts from my book “The Simple Path of Holiness” and the free on-line workshops on this web site.  Both resources will be of help to people at all levels of practice.

Often people who are new to practice say they meditate while they are gardening or jogging or some similar activity. If this is all the level of interest you have with meditation then it makes sense to continue as you are doing.

But for those who want to explore meditation as a wider range of study it makes sense to find a balance between practicing meditation in times of silence and times of action.

Sitting in silence and stillness is a way to turn the focus from the external world to your interior life. Finding time to sit still in a quiet place, with the eyes closed, or half-closed, is a way of limiting the amount of activity in the body and brain. A person has a chance to be alone with their inner personal experience in a way one does not ordinarily have when the body is in motion and the senses are more actively engaged.

Over time through silent meditation practice and study you will begin to see how much more there is to your inner personal experience that you previously missed.

This activity is also a way to cultivate a new level of personal discipline. Sitting in stillness and silence for a few minutes, or for longer sessions, takes sustained effort. Watching the breath or repeating your sacred words takes sustained effort. Noticing how often the mind is distracted from the breath or sacred words and then gently returning your attention to the focus of your meditation takes effort.

Making these efforts will strengthen the aspect of your mind that is the effort-making force in your life. Cultivating this greater strength and discipline is needed to break through, or outgrow, whatever obstacles you feel may be keeping you from deeper peace and greater freedom.

Steadily seeking to allow the mind and body to settle into a slower rhythym will also prove to be refreshing. You will notice your mind will be a bit more clear and open as you continue to make the effort to be, as Thich knat Hanh says, “Present to the present moment.”

The discipline, renewed energy, and clarity of the mind will serve you well as the session comes to an end and you move on to the active hours of your day.

During the active hours of your day you can continue meditation practice by seeking to be more open to observing what is happening within you and around you. An effort to observe what is happening within you and around you with a simple innocent curiosity will allow you to be more present moment by moment to the realities and choices of your everyday life. This is the way of practicing meditation during times of action.

Making this effort to be more clearly aware during the active hours of your life will further strengthen the effort-making faculty of your mind. When you return to times of silence it will be that much more possible for you to maintain your focus on the breath or sacred words you repeat for longer periods of time.

What is important with both practices is this: Be patient with yourself. As simple as this work seems to be, it generally is more complex and takes longer to experience greater relaxation, calm, and clarity.

This is especially true for people with difficult challenges in their mind, their heart, and their everyday life.

Be patient. Be gentle. Keep going.

Meditation in times of silence and times of action is a critical part of the road that leads to deeper peace.

Please call or email. I am glad to hear of your thoughts or questions regarding your meditation practice.

Will Raymond    will@meditationpractice.com   774-232-0884

Author of The Simple Path of Holiness.

Host of MeditationPractice.com