How to Learn to Meditate from Yourself.

I suppose the only person who can truly say “I do not know how to meditate” is someone who has been on the Path long enough to understand the truth in the words. The rest of us are not trying hard enough to get to that level.

It may take decades before meditation is understood with enough clarity to cause us to be so humbled and awed by its vast scope and see the arrogance of all our previous understandings.  Those of us who excuse ourselves from meditation because we “don’t know how” should ask ourselves if we are entitled to the excuse.

Meditation leads to the point of “no more meditation,” but, as beginners to say “I don’t know how to meditate” begs the question how well meditation is understood, and if we are qualified to excuse ourselves (from meditation)  For those who have not even tried, it goes without saying, the excuse is not a viable one.

Everyone, practically everyone, knows how to meditate enough to get a foothold on the Path. The problem is not with meditation, but the discipline it entails, though meditation is usually the “fall guy”. Very few of us haven’t heard a mantra or two, or watched our breath, or heard or read instructions to do so. We go wrong when we think there is more to it, and we think there must be more to it when we don’t get results, results sought after in a very limited timeframe.  Impatience is a demon.

Meditation requires a schedule, a given amount of time, and a given time of day. Even as little as ten minutes, morning and evening, will support a meditation practice that leads to insight when it is well maintained according to schedule, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. If we do maintain a schedule, we will get results, no matter whether the meditation is simple or “advanced”. A simple meditation kept, according to schedule, will lead to “advanced stages, whereas, an “advanced” meditation, poorly maintained, will only lead to discouragement.

All meditations have the aim of establishing the “right view,” which is seeing the world from a perspective free of seeking. Seeking of any kind arises from not knowing the mind itself, and this unawareness causes us to seek outside what is available within.

One of the reasons people fail to maintain a meditation schedule is because they are too ambitious. They allot too much time and give up when results don’t show up. A small seed can produce a big tree, so begin with a very short period of time, strictly kept every day. Intellectually we will see that there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to maintain a modest schedule; and this develops an attitude that helps us maintain it year in and year out. We will come to look forward rather than dread our meditation time.

It is said that “the strength of a race horse is not known by how fast it can run, but how long it can run”. The same is true of meditation. If we are beginning meditation, we should have faith in what we know and avoid unnecessarily seeking instructions. The work we need to do is within the scope of what we can easily control, our time.

If we are willing to schedule time for meditation, with a long-term view, and do it with tenacious commitment, we will succeed.

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