Can Meditation Practice Affect How We View Our World? A Series of Articles

Part Four – Getting Swept Away and Coming Back Again

Meditation is about getting used to not being distracted. Or, to put it another way, meditation is about being in the state of non-distraction and getting used to that state.

When we begin the practice of meditation, we can become pretty disheartened to learn that our mind is everywhere else but on the object of our meditation. Even after years of working with these methods, there are times when instead of meditating, I find myself caught up in a sea of emotions and thoughts, unable to do anything but try desperately to ride the waves and not get swept away.

What is most wonderful about this whole process is that even getting swept away and coming back to our meditation is in fact our meditation practice. That is, the practice of meditation is just that, getting used to meditating. And getting used to it means getting used to practicing even as thoughts and emotions arise.

Meditation is not about trying to block or prevent thoughts from arising. Nor is it about trying to cultivate some absolutely still, blissful state. Both of these efforts are actually antithetical, in direct opposition, to what we hope to achieve from our meditation practice. That’s because what we want to achieve is a state of non-distraction, allowing our mind to rest in ease, in the face of whatever arises. As such, we do not practice by trying to prevent whatever arises from arising. Instead, we work on returning to our mind, restful in its own nature, each time that we find ourselves swept away.

Returning again and again to a state of calm abiding can feel like “hard work.” And, in a way, it is. It’s hard because we’re not used to being undistracted. We’re so used to being swept away by the mere arising of a thought or emotion, that we find it difficult not to do so.

Have patience, have persistence, and have…a great sense of humor! And, when you do get swept away, and you remember that you’ve been swept away, and you return to your practice, congratulate yourself. You’ve succeeded in changing the way that you normally have worked with your mind, and that’s success!

Remember this: each time that you are distracted, it is an opportunity to practice non-distraction, so that even your distractions are practice. Each time that you return to your practice of non-distraction from a state of distraction, you’re meditating. Failure is impossible if you stick with it!