Teaching a Meditation Practice

I find teaching others how to meditate is impossible.  I can share techniques that work for me, encourage students to slow down, monitor their breath, witness their thoughts, let thinking pass through the mind and let it go, but in the end we each must find our own path to our practice.  I can act as a guide or mentor to a fledging student of meditation, but I can only make suggestions and point to landscapes that are familiar to me in my practice and may have little or no meaning to the other person.

I began my practice by sitting with many meditation teachers.  Each teacher shared their knowledge with me, and I selected from their knowledge what worked for me….

        On a warm night in the middle of a busy Midwestern city I sit in the presence of a great teacher that is a guru to many of those in my class.  The room we sit in is in an older building, in a time before old buildings are converted to central air, so windows are opened to hopefully trap some of the cooler air outside.  I am hot; sweat forms on my forehead, the back of my neck, and trickles down my spine.  The city outside is filled with chaotic noise as I focus on my in breath and my out breath.  We are restless, distracted by the room’s heat and the outside noise.  I am not able to let go of the distractions.  Someone voices his dissatisfaction and others voices join in.  The teacher calmly and quietly says that this room is the perfect place to practice our meditation.  Gradually the noise in the room quiets.  My breath calms, my anxiety begins to dissipate with each out breath, and calmness flows in with each in breath.  The noise outside the room becomes a backdrop for my practice and gradually fades.  The sweat on my body cools me until my physical self is no longer a concern to me.  My practice slips into place as my physical distractions and discomforts ebb away.  This room, time, and place are indeed perfect for this practice.  

The lesson I learned from this was that as I begin a practice the place is not as important as is my practice.  Accepting that distractions are a part of meditation I can witness them from the observer view point and this will enhance my meditation.

     Many years later I find myself in a hospital as the result of a stroke.  I am on the rehab floor and a friend who is a yoga and meditation teacher visits me each day.  She leads me through a type of guided meditation called Yoga Nidra.  The staff on the rehab floor include this in my schedule for therapies each day.  Every morning at 11:30 I returned to my room for a half hour of yoga nidra practice.  We place a do not disturb sign on my door, but despite this sign almost every day at my yoga nidra time the staff, the noise from the hallway, and the hospital’s public address system  come into my room to distract from this practice.  My friend asks me why I think this happens.  I am reminded of my experience in the large city years earlier.  When we begin to quiet ourselves and open to our inner awareness the world seems to arrive at our door seeking attention; and by becoming the witness and observing what is taking place we are allowed the opportunity to see the illusions that life plays out for us.

I am reminded of the extent to which we buy the illusions in life and how we allow them to direct our awareness.

  

There are many teachers who teach different meditation practices.  Each hold truth and each share good techniques.  The most valid and consistent practice, I have found, is that life has a desire to subvert our practices and by allowing these distractions to come, to wash over us, and to move on is the only way we can reach our desired state in meditation. 

I have many friends who teach meditation.  They are all honorable well-meaning people who teach out of a desire to reduce stress, ease emotional turmoil, and help us gain the peace of mind we seek.  In the end meditation is not about how well we follow instructions and rules or take suggestions; it is about following our intuition and trusting it to lead us where we need to go.  

The concern often is that the practice itself may have something to do with the problem.  The practice/a practice can be a good starting place, but in time we hopefully move beyond the practice and into our own practice.  Meditation then becomes a part of our daily life practice.