Meditation is a lot of fun. Too many people see it as a pill you have to swallow in order to get extrinsic benefits. It isn’t emphasized enough what a fun hobby it is, and how pleasurable it is to sit and meditate once you learn the proper technique. Imagine people who get really into rock climbing: They show up to the climbing gym day after day not with a sense of drudgery or obligation, but with excitement to have some fun on the wall. And the challenge of climbing harder and harder routes over time, and seeing yourself improve, only adds to the fun. Meditation is like that.
Meditation means learning to take off a 50-pound backpack we carry everywhere we go: this unpleasant state where thoughts about other places and times trigger grumbly emotions and tension in the body, and keep us cut off from the beauty of the world around us. It is viscerally and immediately pleasurable to take off the backpack, relax, and open your eyes to reality outside of your head.
You’re living your life, but what you’re really experiencing, what you’re really paying attention to (except in extraordinary moments when something pops out and grips you), is
It’s like getting really into Jiu Jitsu, or getting good at the piano, or training to climb Mount Everest. It’s a thing you can dedicate yourself to, get a little obsessed, and see yourself progressing. And meet some really thoughtful, sincere, and inspiring people along the way.
And the prize you get for progressing at this skill is the ability to drop a humungous layer of bullshit that we all carry with us: body tension, negative thoughts, inauthentic personas, living in the past and future. The sky is the limit, and you can radically change who you are as a person if you dedicate yourself enough to it.
Here are the instructions:
- Sit comfortably with your spine upright and your body relaxed.
- Bring your attention to the sensation of breath at your nose.
- Every time your attention wanders (which it will), gently return to the breath.
Recommended media:
- Mindfulness In Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana –– great for beginners.
- The Mind Illuminated by Upasaka Culadasa — a manual for developing concentration on the breath.
- Expandcontract and Shinzen Videos YouTube channels by Shinzen Young — this guy is my hero.
- Mastering The Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel M. Ingram — for the hardcore and the gung-ho.
