Be Careful Reading About Meditation!

I know, I know...the irony 🙃

There are three levels of understanding — conceptual (learning about something), experiential (tasting it), and habitual (living it).

Indulging conceptual understanding is dangerous for the untrained mind, which mistakes thinking about something for wisdom. We Westerners have over-developed conceptual understanding as a means to create safety, control. But conceptual understanding is just the park map at the trailhead entrance. It’s entertaining to look at, but don’t take a selfie there and post it!

The value of conceptual understanding is to learn basic instructions and motivate practice, so that you may experience and ultimately pervade in that experience. This is source of real wisdom.

You already know meditation is good for you, unless you’ve been living under a rock! And there’s a plethora of how-to meditate content out there (including from yours truly). Most people over-estimate the amount of instruction they need (this is actually avoidance, fear).

Back in the day in Tibet, villagers would walk for days and weeks every couple of years to receive a few minutes of instruction and then return home and practice, every day. If you’re addicted to learning versus practicing, you can pause, and kindly, firmly say to yourself, “I know this feels a little uncomfortable...and...we’re safe now...there’s no right or wrong, winning or losing, succeeding or failing...we’re just going to practice.” Offer yourself some compassion, take a breath, and practice already!

Did you learn how to ride a bike by reading about it ☺️?!

Because just reading about meditation tricks your brain into thinking you’re getting the benefits from meditation. But you aren’t. You’re actually doing the opposite, strengthening the thinking mind! If your mind wanders “too much” while you meditate, this is why. In meditation, the thinking mind learns to surrender to the feeling body. There’s great wisdom in resisting the desire to always be learning or busy in favor of a few minutes in silence each morning. That’s really all it takes to start. Frequency is much more important than amount of time.

Afterall, reading about riding that bike isn’t going to get you very far!

If you’re committed to practice and legitimately have a how-to question, feel stuck, etc., drop me a line, and I’m happy to help — everyone’s practice is unique, and these types of questions are rarely well-answered in content produced for the masses.

And if you’re still noticing some resistance, you might get curious about it — what in me wants to want to meditate but actually doesn’t want to? What am I afraid I’ll have to feel or give up if I do this? How, why...am I committed to staying small? This is typically a very old part that came into being in early childhood to keep you safe. And while it wants to help, it probably isn’t anymore. If you find yourself here, these questions warrant further investigation and typically support. It’s seldom wise to bulldoze through them with willpower and cold showers. Or to continue to indulge the fantasy and string yourself along! I’m also happy to help if you’re in this camp.

Happy (actual) meditating 🧘🏻!

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