Why Meditation is for Everyone and Something Anyone Can Do

"There is a great misconception about meditation. Thoughts of a long, gray-haired guru sitting in a pretzel-like, contorted position come to mind (even of sleeping on nails and walking on a bed of hot coals!). Wild psychedelic lights and 'turning on and dropping out,' and the whole whirl of the 1960's, the Beatles visiting India and sitar music, and the high pitched voice of the Maharishi flash before us. There are even fears of cult groups, brain washing and getting your head shaved.

But meditation has nothing to do with any of these things and everything to do with just bringing a moment of quiet and stillness to your life. You relax and let go of your many habits and impulses to act and react, to do and be, and the compulsiveness you have to keep busy at all times. The simple act of sitting quietly and allowing for a pause of peace is one of the single most healing and rewarding things we can do for ourselves. This is the work' of a spiritual practice.

As mentioned in the beginning by the Buddha, there is nothing special to be gained, achieved, be or become in meditation. Ironically, it's the quiet, the stillness and the peaceful pause in our lives that allow for patience, acceptance and understanding to develop and for inner tranquility to blossom. Meditation is about opening up and accepting, coming into contact and connecting with that tender and benevolent side which all of us have. It is not about deadlines and hostility or snapping into shape or performing like a trained seal with a ball balanced on its nose. Nor is meditation about sitting like a hen for countless hours trying to hatch eggs, expecting a reward. But through stillness and just being at rest, we get to know and be at ease with ourselves, rather than always having to lash out at the world. We take a well-deserved break from all our anger, doubts, impatience, fears and all the many unproductive habits that have managed to creep into our lives.

Our minds are filled with such a high volume of activity. We are so busy with thoughts of past occurrences, or tomorrow's agenda that we've lost contact with the moment. We live in a blur, out of touch with who we are and how things are in the present. Then, too, we are in such a constant state of being 'on'; of wanting, needing, desiring and liking. This basic battle of liking and disliking is subtly played out in every moment, situation, encounter and relationship of our lives.

We like certain situations and people so we become attached and cling to them. Then on the other hand, we dislike certain situations and people so we push them away and hate. The amount of energy we use through life's dramas and upsets is exhausting. Our lives are a battlefield of turmoil, seething, anxious and painful. Our lives have become the equivalent of war--so much wounding, firing, retaliation, attacking and defending. These are the affects generated in ourselves and those around us by our less than being in the present, mindful of our actions.

But through meditation, a time for stillness and quiet is made; a time for healing is found. We need to occasionally stop so that we can see clearly and not be in a dizzy rush. Meditation is peaceful pause from all our habits and impulses, our compulsive acting and reacting and doing battle with each encounter, circumstance, person and event that comes up is known. An understanding develops. Life doesn't have to be about all this liking and disliking and about going to extremes. There can be simple acceptance, and having patience with ourselves and others around us. This is the Middle Way, an understanding and compassionate alternative. . ."

Excerpt from Buddha Smile by Roberto Vicente
(You can download the entire book in Microsoft Word format from Metta Refuge by clicking on the book's title, above.)

I also recommend:

"How to Get Started with Sitting Meditation"

This Metta Refuge post shares Roberto Vicente's excellent beginner's introduction to meditation practice.

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit:  METTA REFUGE

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The Middle Way: The Opposite of a Profound Truth May be Another Profound Truth

In the Zen tradition, there is famous story about how the Sixth Patriarch was chosen by way of a kind of competition by a poem, or gatha. One day the Fifth Patriarch asked him monks to express their insight in a poem. The senior disciple, the highly educated Yuquan Shenxiu, offered this gatha:

The body is the bodhi tree.
The mind is a great bright mirror.
Every day you have to wipe it clean
so that the dust will not cover the mirror.

Huineng, an illiterate peasant, who came to study with the Fifth Patriarch, asked one of his dharma brothers to write out this poem for him:

There's no such thing as the bodhi tree.
There's not such thing as the great bright mirror.
From the beginning everything is empty.
Where can the dust cling?

As legend and tradition has it, on the basis of this poem, the illiterate Huineng was chosen as the Sixth Patriarch.  Later, Shenxiu established the so-called "Northern School and Zen eventually split into the "gradualist" and "sudden" enlightenment schools.

Consider these two gathas. Which would you have chosen? Why?

Is one the second poem better or more insightful or more profound? Why? In practice, does one really have to choose one or the other as "correct" or "the only way?" What do you think?

Maybe if this profound insight of quantum physics founder Niels Bohr had been understood by these ancient worthies, Zen might not have fallen into schism and warring schools:

“The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth. The poles of a paradox are like the poles of a battery: hold the together and they generate the energy of life; pull them apart, and the current stops flowing.  When we separate any of the profound paired truths of our lives, both poles become lifeless spectres of themselves — and we become lifeless too.”  Niels Bohr

My understanding of the the Buddha's "middle way" is that one seeks to avoid getting caught up in "views, including views like those in these two gathas.  I've found that if one looks deeply into practice, both views can be skillful and enlightening—"the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth."  Surely the point is to not get stuck in either view, but to find the skill in both!

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit:  METTA REFUGE

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