This is a 10 minute meditation.
Adyashanti wrote,
Real meditation is not about mastering a technique.
It is about letting go of control.
This is meditation.
Anything else is actually a form of concentration.
Meditation and concentration are two different things.
Concentration is a discipline.
Concentration is a way in which we are actually directing or guiding or controlling our experience.
Meditation on the other hand is letting go of control.
Letting go of guiding our experience in any way whatsoever.
The foundation of true meditation then is that we are letting go of control.
As we begin this meditation,
Let us allow our mind to do whatever it desires to do.
If the mind wants to think,
Let it think.
If the mind wants to wander,
Let it wander.
If you find that there is agitation,
Distraction,
Or resistance to what is here,
See if you can create some space to allow all of this to happen.
At the end of the day,
There is no right or wrong way of doing this meditation practice,
Simply because there is no right or wrong way of just sitting with whatever arises.
So let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Holly Hughes wrote,
Only a beige slat of sun above the horizon,
Like a shade pulled not quite down,
Otherwise clouds,
Sea rippled here and there,
Birds reluctant to fly.
The mind wants a shaft of sun to stir the great porridge of clouds,
An osprey to stitch sea to sky with its barred wings,
Some dramatic music,
A symphony,
Perhaps a Chinese gong,
But the mind always wants more than it has.
One more bright day of sun,
One more clear night in bed with the moon,
One more hour to get the words right,
One more chance for the heart in hiding to emerge from its thicket and dried grasses,
As if this quiet day with its tentative light weren't enough,
As if joy weren't strewn all around.
Let us practice like this for a few moments in silence.
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Alice Walker wrote,
But one day,
When I was sitting quietly and feeling like a motherless child,
Which I was,
It came to me,
That feeling of being part of everything,
Not separate at all,
And I knew that if I cut a tree,
My arm would bleed,
And I laughed and I cried and I ran all around the house.
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
The Japanese poet Basho wrote,
Sitting quietly,
Doing nothing,
Spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
Holly Hughes,
In a few moments the bell will ring,
Signaling the end of this meditation.
And as we transition from more formal sitting practice to more informal daily life.
Perhaps we can find some guidance in the words of Alan Watts,
Who wrote,
I had a discussion with a great master in Japan.
And we were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English.
And he said,
That is a waste of time.
If you really understand Zen,
You can use any book.
You could use the Bible.
You could use Alice in Wonderland.
You could use the dictionary because he said,
The sound of the rain needs no translation.
