Meditation

I just got this email from my teacher, Jacqueline Kramer. I love the info she shared and she gave me permission to share it here.

Dear Sangha,

A number of you have confided in me that your meditation practice is
scant at best. I have been sitting with that and would like to share
some thoughts about rejoining ones sitting practice. It is hard to
maintain a sitting practice without an in house sangha. Although our
virtual community is here to support us in our spiritual development,
it is not physically in our homes with us. Sitting with a teacher who
has logged in a fair amount of time on the cushion is also an asset
to our sitting practice. If the teacher has a well developed practice
sitting with them lifts up our awareness while meditating. Alone, in
our homes, it is hard to maintain a meditation practice. Rather than
feel any shame about this perhaps we can experiment together and find
ways to develop a rich, satisfying home practice. I would like to
share some ways to support that practice and a bit of about why it is
important to do so.

Reading uplifting words, cultivating generosity, kindness and all the
other spiritual virtues is an essential aspect of our spiritual
development. These practices bring depth and joy to our lives but can
only bring us so far. The unique benefit of sitting in meditation is
that when we meditate we turn within. All day long we turn outward to
our families, to meeting our needs, to the world. The time we spend
on the pillow is unique in that rather than focussing outward we are
focussing inward. That inward focus puts everything into a new
perspective. It allows us to take a rest from our habitual patterns.
We come back to our active lives with new perspectives and insights.

Sitting down to meditate can be like trying to stop a train that is
going 100 MPH. Our minds become habituated to thinking in a certain
way and it is uncomfortable to make any changes. When we sit feelings
and thoughts that were just background noise suddenly become front
and center. This can be upsetting. This alone can make us think of a
million things we'd rather do than sit down on the cushion. But if we
can sit down and watch the parade of thoughts and feelings without
judging them or running away from them, they eventually settle down.
Like children, they just want to be seen and heard and then they can
relax. If we can make it through this initial resistance there are
unlimited rewards in store for us. Here are some ideas for how to
make it through the initial resistance.

1. Expect resistance. expect the mind to chatter away. Be ready for
this to happen and when it does just allow it to run its course.

2. Everything is a gate to insight. This includes a chatty mind.
Watch it, be with it, make it your focus of mindfulness until it
settles down. Then you can watch the breath.

3. Make a commitment to sit once a day. It doesn't matter if it is
only for 5 minutes. There is a confidence that comes with keeping
commitments. This commitment has power and will see you through the
difficult initial stages of creating your sitting practice.

4. Create a comfortable place to meditate. Make yourself cozy, wrap
yourself in a blanket, sit in a favorite chair or pillow. Create
something to look forward to.

5. Develop some ritual around your sitting. This puts you in a
beautiful frame of mind and eases you into the meditation. The ritual
can be as simple as lighting a candle and burning some incense. You
can keep a poem or verse by the place you sit and read it to set you
mind on a higher course. Ritual signals to the psyche something new
is about to happen. It helps with the transition from everyday life
to inner reflection.

6. Seek out opportunities to sit with others.

Like you I have struggled with a sitting practice alone in my home. I
have a lot of respect for your effort and wish to support you in
this. There are insights you can only get by turning within.

May your meditation practice bring you joy and comfort,
Jacqueline