To take up the practice of meditation in a world of somewhat frantic feeling trouble,
To take up the practice of meditation in a world where anxiety and collapse,
Frustration,
And all the variations of activity,
Inner and outer,
Seem like the necessary response to what's happening,
Is a radical act.
It will never be the case that we will complete everything that calls out for our attention and care,
As if we could get to the bottom of a kind of whole life to-do list,
And then finally,
With relief,
Sit down for meditation.
In the same way,
We will not tidally complete every last obligation,
And then die with an absolutely clean slate.
And so,
Like dying,
Sitting in meditation interrupts the busyness of our life with stillness.
Unlike dying,
We get to choose the moment that we sit down,
Gather our attention,
And pause in everything else we're doing.
And we do this again and again and again.
All the distractions and challenges in meditation that trouble us,
That get in the way of softening into ease and inner joy,
All of the hindrances are ways that,
Although we have asked the body to stop moving and be still,
The mind refuses to settle down.
The heart finds itself unable to settle down.
It's so difficult to stop doing,
Figuring out,
Planning,
Fixing,
Trying to fix,
Mourning,
Grieving,
Arguing,
Celebrating,
Praising,
Clinging.
Because we are unable to complete all our tasks before sitting down for meditation,
We have to become good at compartmentalizing them,
Setting them aside,
Setting the burden down for a moment,
Trusting that it will be there for us when it's time to get up,
But also trusting that we can set it down and that to do so doesn't shirk our responsibility to the world,
Even to ourselves and those we are close to.
To sit in meditation and attend to the breathing body is to set aside everything else on purpose for a little while.
Like a heavy to-do list,
It calls to us from across the house,
How dare you just sit there?
And,
Of course,
The world seems to need so much.
So this is the heart of the practice of concentration,
Of samadhi,
Of one pointedness of the heart-mind,
Is to set aside everything other than this one steady process and to become deeply satisfied with that one process,
The rise and fall of the breath,
The pulsing of the body around the central column.
You don't have to process every strong feeling that comes through every anxious thought.
So we learn to draw a bright circle around ourselves,
A kind of luminous force field,
Permeable but clear.
It's just made of intention,
The intention to be still in a world addicted to movement,
To settle in a world addicted to restlessness,
To be content with almost nothing,
Just the next breath,
The shelter of this house,
These clothes,
Food in the belly,
The basics.
Everything else can wait.
So we'll sit together.
Know that the nature of the mind's habit is momentum.
At the heart of samadhi is not resolving the thoughts that come through,
Not even really fighting them off but seducing them into settling,
But just letting them go by without giving further attention.
And as you do find some space in the heart-mind,
Some silence to rest into,
Notice it,
Delight in it,
Stay in it.
For a few moments,
Let the world pass you by.
