Meditation is quite different from sitting there doing nothing, thinking nothing. It is instead a focused attention on one’s present experience. A chance to minimize the distractions that pull one away from the present. Pleasant events are often spoiled by comparison to other good experiences or worry that this wonder may soon end. Difficult experiences are often tempered by a desire for escape and the fantasy of being somewhere else doing something else. The mind will wander all over the place and our present experience, good or bad, may be missed.
So meditation becomes a practice. A practice to remain here, in the present moment, fully aware. It is something that must be practiced to achieve benefit, and the practice, though simple, can be extremely challenging. But the benefits, as described in other posts and in countless others’ experience, are worth it.
So how does one begin?
