I have read of such challenges, discussed them with others, and I have had such problems myself in the past.  So, what do we do?

The answer may surprise you, we do nothing but continue to sit.

You may read one passage that says you should meditate with no goal.  That there is nothing to attain.  You may then read that you must give it everything you got, that you do not have enough time to waste, that your efforts must be 100%.  They seem to be in opposition.  You are not meditating to accomplish something, but then again you must give it all your effort.

Try thinking of it this way ….. if you are specifically saying that I must accomplish stillness in my mind, then you will only increase your frustration if you fail.  You are saying you must be perfect.  You are saying you must accomplish a set expectation.  If you do have a pleasant experience, then you are more likely to measure future times of meditation against that pleasant experience.  Why is it not like last time?

Many times I have read of a meditator wanting to speak with their teacher about some transcendent experience they had, only to find their teacher to say to ignore it, and go back and sit.

I believe we sit, because that is how we will gain.  We gain by letting go.  Opposites, yet the same.  Attachment to something good, is still attachment.  Meditation, and stilling the mind is letting go.  Stilling the mind ….. letting it settle ….. letting it be original mind ….. no labels, no judgements.  Just sit and follow your breath.  If you cannot help but think of everything else except for your breath, that if fine, that is the state of your mind.  Breathing in, I know that I am breathing out.  I wonder what is on tv tonight?  Breathing out I know that I am breathing out.  Simpley keep at it, acknowledge the thought, and return to the breath.  It is okay that you have these thoughts, just try not to feed them.

I would like to share one of his teachings as another part of my meditation process.  I cannot remember where this comes from, but I once read that he called smiling yoga for the mouth.  Not only do I try to start my meditation with a smile, but I also remember that it is yoga for the mouth.  Who knows why, but just thinking this thought makes my smile stronger and completely genuine.

Ajahn Brahm has said that he can tell how people are doing with their meditations by whether they are smiling or not.  Why not bring smiling with you into your meditation?  Just remember …..

SMILING IS YOGA FOR THE MOUTH    ; )

While I do not believe this part to be critical, I will share my setting. I meditate sitting on my bed. Nothing against a zafu and a zabuton, in fact I have them and plan to get rid of them, but they just take up space and cost money. I do burn incense and have a small Buddha. My Buddha is actually one of the BuddhaBuddha banks. Very cheesy, but it does make me smile, and that is a great start to the meditation in and of itself.

Then, I simply start to watch my breath. Breathing in, I think … Breathing in I know that I am breathing in, and then while breathing out … Breathing out I know that I am breathing out. Then continue to do this over and over.

I also have a digital kitchen timer that I set for my desired duration of meditation … This allows me to simply meditate without wondering if i have put my time in. I suppose it could be limiting if you wish to meditate longer, but this way i do not have to look if i wish to stop and wonder if i have actually sat as long as i wished to or not (more on this thought with a later post). As per my last post, I am committing to 5 minutes a day right now. The important thing for me is to develop a strong habit of meditating every day. Who does not have 5 minutes to meditate?

Other methods of meditation may even strike some as being better, but I like the simplicity. Methods such as counting your breaths is more like engaging in an activity. It gives you something added to be frustrated about when you don’t remember what count you are on.

For me, the primary goal, if you need to label it as such, is to still my mind. Thich Nhat Hanh has written something to the effect of it being like a glass of dirty water, and as you sit, the water becomes clear as the dirt sinks to the bottom. I believe he also wrote something along the line that it is the only time your mind gets to rest. Even. When you are sleeping the mind is active.

So let your mind have a break every day, even if it is only for 5 minutes!

Leading up to the 1st of the year, I plan to commit to meditating 5 minutes EVERY day.  For anyone who has thought about meditating, I have often heard that if you even meditate for just 5 minutes a day, that you will notice a difference.  I have often meditated for longer periods of time, but I wish to make this a daily habit.

If you are starting with meditation, then just commit to sit for 5 minutes each day.  Often we feel that we do not have the time, and we often think we need to start for a longer period of time.  This really just does 2 things to sabotage our meditation.  It is much harder to commit to 30 minutes versus 5 minutes.  If we are beginning our meditation practice, then we find it even more discouraging to struggle for 30 minutes versus 5 minutes.

From the Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell …..

Chapter 63

… accomplish the great task

by a series of small acts.

The Master never reaches for the great;

thus she achieves greatness.

…

This is how I plan to approach 2012.  A series of small acts.  How does a doctor become a doctor?  By attending class 1 day at a time.  No matter how many years something eventually takes to accomplish, it is accomplished 1 step at a time.  Continue to accomplish 1 small step again and again, and eventually you will achieve greatness.

Just set a timer for 5 minutes, a n d    S I T.

My 100 Thing List

1. Eames DCM chair.

2. SONY eReader. (I know, not a very good picture) CLICK ON PICTURE OF SONY eREADER TO PURCHASE DAVE’S NEW BOOK

This book gets 5/5 stars from me specifically for the inspiration it imparts.

There are some very specific messages that I felt Dave gives in his book.

1. We think stuff will somehow complete us, fix us, or improve a moment in life.

2. What we really want from the stuff we buy is an illusion and therefore not something that can actually be purchased.

While reading his book, it really made me think, and that is what I believe he wants us to do. To think and to understand our relationship with stuff. Not that stuff is inherently bad, but what we expect from it may only lead to disappointment, and may just clutter up our lives and we may actually miss what we want.

While clearly a Christian, many of Dave’s ideas strike me as extremely Buddhist. Buddhism teaches us of hungry ghosts who can never get enough to be satisfied. Buddhist teachings talk of desires and grasping.

To those who object to Dave’s message, or want to be critical of the parameters of his experiment (or project as he often refers to it) we must remember that it was indeed his experiment. He thought it up, and he decided what the rules would be, and for this I applaud him and thank him.

Right now I am embarking on what I too will call the “100 Thing Challenge” until I figure out what my parameters will be. I want to tweak his parameters to accomplish a different experiment, and to figure out what I feel will be a more complete or complex end result, but isn’t this the beauty of experiments? You change something to see how the results might be the same or different. In fact, Dave suggests that we do just that ….. so why be critical of his experiment?

I hope that this book is amazingly successful for Dave, and that we continue to hear from him!

See my next post to “My 100 Thing List” for another link to purchase Dave’s book which will be tied to my next item on my list.

Today I begin with 1 item ….

1. Eames DCM chair

I played with my camera settings today … I absolutely love the look design and function of this chair … even with weird camera effects it lends itself to the design of the chair that is art itself.

William Morris said to “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

How much better when you get both?

CLICK ON BOOK COVER TO PURCHASE

My first rule will be to follow 1 item in / 1 item out.

Of course I will be trying to get rid of more items than come into the house, but want to first commit to not adding to my possessions.

To bring me up to date for the year as of the 3rd of January, I have added 1 t-shirt (a Christmas present).

Today I began to sort through bath towels and bed sheets.

So far, I have gotten rid of 3 pillow cases and 4 towels and 1 bed sheet. This is where counting comes into play. I love to read about others working on the “100 Thing Challenge”, and many disagree over how to count items. I’m going to make it up as I go, and try to explain my logic as I go.

I am going to count the pillow cases and bed sheet as 1 item gone. The bed sheet no longer had its matching sheet, and while the pillow cases are from other sets, I will treat this as if I am getting rid of a complete set of sheets (which I would count as 1 in a keep list). The 4 towels will count as 2 items as I would normally have 2 towels in a set of towels I would count as 1. I am actually going to cut these items up and put in a rag box for cleaning, but would not count rags in an item list as they are basically trash, but wish to get further use out of them, and do not consider them nice enough to donate to a thrift store.

So ….. as of 1/3/2011 ….. 1 item in ….. 3 items out.

More to come ….. watch as I eliminate, prioritize, and see how close I can get to 100 things.

Anyone else working on a similar project please let me know what you are doing and let’s share ideas.

Note: I am sure I will never get to an actual number of 100, but love the concept and will look to those that are as inspiration.

Let me say that I am not an expert on Buddhism by any stretch of the imagination, but I wish to write my thoughts from this evening.

Usually I meditate to empty my mind ….. follow my breathing, and let everything else fall away.

Tonight I followed my mind while looking at my life, and thinking of Buddhist teachings I have been exposed to.

What came to me is a story that Ajahn Brahm told in his book Opening the Door of Your Heart.

Basically the story is of a monk who worked hard to be enlightened, and reach non-attachment.  Feeling he had done so he wrote a poem that ended with the basic message that there he sat unmoved by anything.  Sending his poem to his master he knew his master would see that he had indeed attained enlightenment.  When he received the reply from his master he found that the word fart had been written after each of the three lines of his poem.  He went to confront his master demanding an explanation.  The master replied that he was able to get him to come all this way with three little farts.

I’m sure I have butchered the story, but the gist is indeed there.

It is expectations that cause us to suffer.  We expect our employers to respect the work we do.  We believe they shouldn’t lay us off or fire us.  How could they do this?  We have expectations of those around us.  How could they say that to me?

I would never wish any harm to come to anyone, but maybe it is only with suffering that we can see the truth.  It is when we lose everything that we can realize what is important to us, and with enough suffering we may realize that it is the disappointment of having our expectations not met that causes us to suffer the most.  Holding to our beliefs of what should happen, of what we deserve, of what is fair sets us up for suffering.  Expectations are an illusion.  They are empty.  Sometimes expectations are met, sometimes they are not.  Sometimes what we believe is true, and sometimes it won’t be.

If we have no expectations, then how can we be disappointed?

I wrote that tonight was my best meditation experience ever.  Maybe that too was an illusion.  Do I have expectations of my next meditation?

Just sit – you never can tell with bees.