Loving And Living The Questions: A Guided Meditation

In this guided "do nothing" meditation, we learn to be patient with the questions that burn deeply within our hearts. By coming to love and live the questions themselves rather than rushing to answer them, we find a more wholesome way of being in the world. Once we learn to perceive the beauty of questions unanswered, we can finally let go of the compulsive need to answer the unanswerable.

Transcript

The meditation that we are going to do today is a do nothing meditation. And the approach I follow is straightforward. Two rules. Whatever happens, Happens. And don't move and don't talk. So those are the two rules. And the don't move, Just to be clear, I mean, You can move, You can scratch an itch, Literally. Or you can wiggle your shoulders. But what I mean is don't stand up. If you are sitting, Stay sitting. If you are standing, Stay standing. Just stay in the general posture that you decided to meditate. Even if you are wiggling around. I don't care about that. So that's what don't move means and don't speak means don't open your mouth. If your mind wants to speak out, As it surely will, Let it. So the mind wants to wander, You let it wander. If the mind is agitated, You let it be agitated. There is no right or wrong way of doing this practice. So with that in mind, Let us find a comfortable posture. And I will ring a bell to begin this meditation. So as we begin this meditation, See if you can give yourself permission to, If only for the next few moments, Simply be here. To be here now. With no agenda. Nothing to attain or accomplish. Nowhere to go. There's just this sitting here. There's just this sitting here with whatever is. You. As you ease your way into presence, See if you can allow your mind to do whatever it wants to do. If it wants to think, Let it think. If it wants to wander, Let it wander. If it wants to get lost in a storyline about past, Present or future, Allow your mind to do just that. The thought, The malice, The anxiety, The nervousness. They are not mistakes. They're just here. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. The author, Bob Sharples once wrote in a piece titled meditation. Don't meditate to fix yourself, To improve yourself, To redeem yourself. Rather, Do it as an act of love, Of deep, Warm friendship to yourself. In this way, There is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement. For the endless guilt of not doing enough. It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard. That wraps so many people's lives in a knot. Instead, There is now meditation as an act of love. How endlessly delightful and encouraging. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. The Austrian poet Rilke once said, Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves. Like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek for the answers that cannot be given. For you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. And perhaps without knowing it. You will live along someday into the answers. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. The spirit of this practice is captured by the poet Kaveri Patel. In the poem Dear You. Dear you. You. Who always have so many things to do. So many places to be. Your mind spinning like fan blades at high speed. Each moment always a blur. Because you are never still. I know you are tired. I also know it's not your fault. The constant brain buzz is like a swarm of bees threatening to sting if you close your eyes. You've forgotten something again. You need to prepare for that or else. You should have done that differently. But what if you closed your eyes? Would the world fall apart without you? Or would your mind become the open sky? Flock of thoughts flying across the sunrise. As you just watched and smiled. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. In a few moments the bell will ring signaling the end of this meditation. And as we transition from formal sitting to the informal living of life. Perhaps we can find some guidance in the problem in the poem found by the poet Frederick Buechner. Maybe it's all utterly meaningless. Maybe it's all unutterably meaningful. If you want to know which pay attention to what it means to be truly human. In a world that half the time we're in love with. And half the time scares the hell out of us. The unexpected sound of your name on somebody's lips. The good dream. The strange coincidence. The moment that brings tears to your eyes. The person who brings life to your life. Even the smallest events hold the greatest clues. So let's try a