I love writing meditations. They’re my favorite medium, at once invisible and ambitious. Invisible because the whole point is to direct the arrow of attention into the listener's own experience, and away from the words and the speaker. That’s why so much guided meditation is rote and constrained: one tone, one instruction, repeated at regular intervals. Less an art form than a metronome.
And yet, the guided meditation is also very ambitious. Even the simplest practice can change the listener’s experience of reality. This happens in ordinary common sense ways – invited to notice sound, we shift attention and change the composition of our awareness. It happens in emotionally healing ways – encouraged to open to experience, we suddenly notice what we haven’t been allowing ourselves to feel, and relief sweeps through the nervous system. And it can happen in profound and even cosmic ways – a sudden pointing-out that forever shifts our sense of ourselves.
In this meditation, we are NOT going for ambitious. That’s because after years of teaching, I’ve found that the most important factor in making meditation accessible is an attitude of no-big-dealness. Remember this if you get the opportunity to share practice.
A casual attitude disarms the mind’s tendency to think it needs to get everything right.
You don’t have to get this meditation right.
In fact, you can’t get it wrong. It’s about existing, and you already exist.
Done and done.
Let’s meditate.
Jeff
PS – To be clear, “no big deal” is an attitude towards meditation itself, a way to disarm the mind and let the benefits of practice in. Benefits that include grounding and opening and seeing things more clearly, so we can more effectively act in the world. The situation in the world right now is very much a big deal. Next week I’ll focus on a practise to support peace and activism.
No Big Deal