"Even though the meditator may leave the meditation, the meditation will not leave the meditator."
- Dudjom Rinpoche
In my Online and Private work, i have finally come around to the realization that it is better for Westerners who 'want to meditate' to do the complete opposite of how i was formatively trained in meditation in the Zen tradition; just sit for a brief time. Forget about forcing yourself to sit long periods with your unDisciplined mind until you make some headway into Quiet Mind by completing shorter sessions. start by sitting for say, one minute,chanting the Tribal Mantra or counting your inhales, for instance. Then, stop the meditation and go back to whatever Hurry you were in...just dive right back into all the chronic grasping after whatever it is that you consider to be so much better than taking your time and feeling, slowly, deeply the events, people, activities, and circumstances of this thing called the Miracle of your life.
I've found that if i can get my Students to do a "PowerSit" of even a minute, then, amazingly enough, they become more mindful of whatever they are doing. Thus, Beingness instead of their addiction to Doingness, gains a slight foothold.
After a loooooooong while of my coaching, these "WF PowerSit*" students of mine begin to sense when they begin to lose their natural ease. They then alert their Higher Self and sit again.
As Sogyal Rinpoche says, "If you do many short sessions like this, your breaks will often make your meditation more real and more inspiring; they will take the clumsy, irksome rigidity, solemnity, and unnaturalness out of your practice and bring you more and more focus and ease."
Gradually, in the way Grandfather Sun dissolves the darkness of night, through this WF Teaching of "PowerSits," some of my Students begin to attain that critical Threshold to which i have devoted the entire Science of WF toward; blurring the zone between meditation and everyday life. Suddenly, your mundane life leaps with endlessly fresh opportunities to overcome negative habits and samskaric-building lazy tendencies; your egoic addictions begin to wither, and your conditioned contrast between mundane and spiritual will dissolve. You find yourself, as Rinpoche says, "increasingly in your natural pure presence, without distraction."
May This Be Of Benefit To Your Practice,
coach ilg
*WF Teaching by Steve Ilg
photo of coach doing Mala Meditation by Melissa Grimes.
