Meditation
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It's Not What You Think
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y C y n t h i a K n e e n
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The
biggest obstacle to meditation is the idea of meditation.
There's a tendency to think that meditation is a different
state of mind than our everyday state of mind. We habitually
think there is something we are supposed to be experiencing
that we are not experiencing. "Am I doing it now? Is this
it? Should I be breathing like this? Should I be thinking
these thoughts?" We drift and come back, and when we come
back, we drift off again. "This is bad. This is good.
This can't be it. Maybe tomorrow when I sit, I'll be able
to meditate." What is in the way is the idea that resting
with your ordinary mind as it is is not genuine enough.
You need to bring that struggle to the cushion, too-as
one more struggle that takes you away from being as you
are, directly, in the present, now.
 Unconditional
meditation is the opposite of struggling to experience
something pure or perceive something special. You are
not trying to destroy your nightmare or build up your
bliss. The purpose is not to dwell on a particular state
of mind. It is to be, in a simple and straightforward
way, with the everyday beauty, boredom, tension, joy,
lethargy, and speed. You have thoughts of your relatives,
your coworkers, the driver who cut you off yesterday,
the driver who cut you off ten years ago, your sense perceptions,
sounds from the neighborhood, what you want to eat for
dinner, how you don't like brussels sprouts, pain in your
legs, how you are going to be a success or a failure,
fears for your children, and fears for yourself. You are
aware of basic dignity, an insect that has landed on your
arm, thoughts of basic goodness, thoughts of how you have
to do the laundry, moments of nonthought being, and anything.
No state of mind has a special charge. Everything is equal.
The sound of a dog barking. Thoughts about how the neighbors
should take better care of their dog. Everything is simple,
accepted clearly and precisely, as it is. Trungpa Rinpoche
said, "No state of mind is a V.I.P."
The foundation of meditation, the method to use, and the
results to achieve are the same. The foundation is your
natural disposition to be as you are, to be with your
world and your experiences as they are. The method is
a reminder to relax and be natural in this way. And the
result is settling down with the natural processes of
your body and mind, so that your human qualities of intelligence,
warmth, and power can be strengthened and evolve.
Excerpted from Awake Mind, Open Heart:
The Power of Courage and Dignity in Everyday Life.
© 2002 by Cynthia Kneen, published by Marlowe & Company,
a division of Avalon Publishing Group Inc. This excerpt
may be freely distributed electronically, as long as it
contains all the above information. See also www.cynthiakneen.com
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