INTRODUCTION TO MEDITATION
WEEK ONE
This page hold content from the weekly class, originally recorded on January 8th, 2025. For the daily meditations, go to the daily meditations page.
You CAN Meditate
There is a widespread misunderstanding about meditation and even people who have been doing it for decades often believe they can’t do it, or that they are bad at it. This is simply a misunderstanding.
Meditation is not about having some superhuman ability to hold perfect concentration. That WOULD be hard. Instead it is a process of experiencing small moments of focus, often. In between we get distracted.
Getting distracted, and then noticing you have been distracted by the mind – is part of the meditation. A very important and useful part. Each time we notice we have been distracted we are developing an improved awareness of our own mind.
Then when we refocus our attention back onto the breath we are developing the skill of being able to move our attention from where it is to wherever we want it to be. This is a superpower that can improve every single aspect of our lives.
One of the things we are doing in meditation is simply becoming more familiar with our own mind. Indeed one of the Eastern terms for meditation is often translated as meaning – to become familiar. At first glance our mind can be a little scary.
The very first thing we often discover in meditation is that our minds are not as under our control as we might have thought they are.
That doesn’t mean we can’t meditate, or that we’re bad at meditation. We think it’s the reason we do meditate.
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