be happy, meditate
Rather than striving to get rid of stress and confusion, see how these mental states act as a false barrier to our own natural calm, focus, and joy.
Mindfulness meditation is not just another way to fix what we feel might be broken in our lives. Maybe you struggle with low moods, motivation, or existential malaise. Maybe you feel lonely, or bored.
Do you sometimes feel like Peggy Lee when she sings “Is that all there is?”
Meditation, rather, is a way of discovering that whatever you may be feeling or experiencing does not define you.
As you get better at observing your inner world in the present moment, you see this world is just made up of so many mental images, self-talk, and waves of feeling tones in your body.
Our practice is about observing how these groups of experiences interact; e.g., how mental images interact with self-talk producing waves of feeling.
And these interactions often happen will-nilly in our minds.
As you separate the sensory pieces and greet each one with kindness they simply flow through. And this flow feels good.
But more importantly, you begin to realize that what you really are is unbounded joy and peace. Bad news happens, as it will from time to time, but it doesn’t define you, as …
Your sense of well-being is still there.
Rather than striving to get rid of stress and confusion, we recognize how mental states act as a false barrier to our own natural calm, focus, and joy.
What a relief!
We learn how to simply relax back into the peace and joy that was always there.
If you meditate to get something, some feeling or some imagined mental state, it becomes another goal, one which may lead you to judge yourself as failing or succeeding.
This reinforces what classical Buddhism calls “grasping and aversion” — and often leads to a scattered, anxious mind.
With time and practice, you discover an open awareness which is inherently free, peaceful and joyous. And you recognize this as a more profound and delightful “you.”
You start to appreciate the difference between pleasure and happiness.
Many of us live from pleasure to pleasure, with some waiting around in between.
But the happiness you discover with meditation practice comes from deeply experiencing your core, who and what you truly are. It’s more fulfilling than sense pleasures, which seem pedestrian in comparison.
There is no waiting around here; it’s on tap 24/7, with all the bandwidth you need.
One of my favorite meditation teachers, Cheri Huber, reminds us that:
It’s not so much what happens as it is how we are with ourselves regardless of what happens –that makes the difference in our lives.
But let’s be clear: sadness, jealousy, anger, fear, physical and emotional pain, all of it, will still arise.
But these are simply surface perturbations.
We’re talking about a radically profound change in the relationship with these experiences. Meditation is a tool to see right through them, to this inner core of unperturbed peace and happiness.
How cool is this?
Be happy, meditate!
