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well I've been meditating now whatever it is 45 years maybe 50 years and I started off with TM Transcendental Meditation and then moved through other
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practices particularly mindfulness and what's always stuck with me is the complete effortlessness of meditation that as soon as we start trying to meditate we're doing the opposite of
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what meditation is about for me meditation is allowing the mind to relax and when we allow the mind to relax We're allowing our thoughts to relax we begin to drop back into our our
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essential nature back into our beingness back into that sense of just fundamental self just that meanness and where I've got to in recent years is recognizing that whenever we're
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caught in some thought some thinking whatever it is that always creates some slight sense of tension or constriction in the
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mind and if we can notice that it's very faint but with practice we begin to notice how as soon as we're caught up in thinking whatever it is or focusing the attention in any way there's this very slight sense of tightness comes into the
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mind if we can notice that and recognize that's also part of the present moment there's nothing wrong with that that's just how that's just what happens and let our awareness be with that sense of
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constriction or slight tension in the mind when we put our awareness there Shine the Light of awareness on it it just begins to dissolve and we drop back into our own essential nature without
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having to do anything we don't have to stop anything get rid of anything so the way I put it for myself it's not about redirecting the attention to somewhere else to the breath to a
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mantra to some deity to the heart or whatever there's many practices like that but it's more about attending to the quality of the attention and notice whenever the this tightness in the
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attention just to let it soften and relax and we just drop back into our own beingness and it's so so simple and it's for me that allows me just to in a sense wake up at any time I
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want to I mean I'm going to 5 seconds later I'll be caught up in thought again maybe but that doesn't matter it's not about how do we stay there the practice for me is not about staying in that
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state but it's about how do we come back to it recognizing we be drawn off then how do we come back I think whenever we're in pain whether it's physical pain emotional
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pain it becomes more challenging because what tends to happen is we tend to fight the pain we tend to resist it pain is uncomfortable and it's
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meant to be uncomfortable it's it's really a call for attention if my knee is hurting there's something wrong there and it's like hey you know look at the knee there's something happening here or
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if there's something emotional some emotional pain it's like hey I want your attention please what we tend to do is say I don't like this we'll take a painkiller to get rid of the pain in the body or emotional pain would push it out
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don't want to let this in because if I let this sadness or anger in I might break down or something but as soon as we do that we're creating that resistance is creating us
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suffering that's where suffering comes from is resisting the experience in fact the root meaning of suffering in Buddhism is actually to resist the experience in the present
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moment so if we accept the experience turn turn our attention to it allow it in then that the suffering coming from the
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resistance goes away dissolves and what we find is and I say it's challenging but if we can just be with the actual experience we often find
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well two things begin to happen one we notice it isn't actually as bad as we thought of we can actually be with it more EAS easily but also natural healing
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mechanisms come into play whether it's physical or emotional and things begin to change and unwind themselves I think of it as a sort of its own metabolism as we turn our attention to
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it things begin to shift and I know this you know if I've got you know some anger or something going on like that if I actually allow it in feel it what's it actually like in my body what's tensing up what's happening what are the
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thoughts that are going through my mind again by shining the light of awareness on it things shift and change and it's it's fascinating but you know we tend to do the opposite we tend to push it away and
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so my recommendation is explore allowing it in in fact I reframe letting go as letting in and letting be allow in the experience allowing in the
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resistance whatever it is and allow it to be there and see what happen happens the way I'm practicing meditation now and the way I'm teaching it and what I teach is always just where
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I am what I'm discovering in my own process it's different from mindfulness as it's classically taught mindfulness is putting the attention
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onto something whether it's the breath emotions thoughts whatever and I think done properly mindfulness is not about concentrating it's about just letting the attention
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rest there but it's still redirecting the attention to somewhere for me the practice is leaving the attention where it is not trying to move if if you're caught in a thought
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leave the attention there if you're aware of your breath leave the attention there it doesn't matter where the attention is but it's noticing the quality of the attention and noticing whenever that
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sense of tightness comes into the attention and and letting it relax so it's more working with the attention itself but not trying not trying to change it or
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move it
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