If you can breathe…

…you can meditate.

By: Christine Russell, 889 Co-Founder
@889christine

Sharing some thoughts on meditation. I’m doing a 28-day meditation program this month. 12 days in, I think it should be re-named a 28-day meditation rescue program! I’m loving it. I came upon this challenge from one of my favourite Buddhist meditation guru’s, Sharon Salzberg. I have been listening to her audio recordings for years now, and have just picked up her most recent book “Real Happiness – The Power of Meditation.” She resonates with me as a teacher because she is smart, honest, and earnest and delivers the art of Vipassana meditation in a way that makes me feel curious, accepted, normal, nurtured, and inspired. And as she says, ‘if you can breathe, you can meditate.’ Her book is a great ‘how-to’ for newbies and also great for those who have been at it a while.

I first began meditating on my own – it was an extension of my yoga practice. I can’t remember precisely, but I think I started meditating to relax my mind. I set up a little altar in my room, kept a journal, and I did my own thing – sometimes a mantra, sometimes a guided meditation, sometimes just quiet thought. It was random. It was after a few months of this that my sister and I discovered the ancient practice of Vipassana insight meditation. Vipassana is within the Buddhist tradition.

I remember thinking, ‘Vipassana?’ Ugh, that sounds like some weird cultish thing. It sounds spiritually complex and exotic but it’s anything but. You simply practice meditation sitting and focus your attention on the breath – our most primal, innate human function – in order to connect more fully with your experience.

Insight meditation embraces the notion that everything in nature, ourselves included, is in a constant state of change. Most simply, it is training our attention beginning with the breath, so that we can be more mindful of our experience. Sharon writes in her book, “Once we see clearly what’s going on in the moment, we can then choose whether and how to act on what we’re seeing.’

Just as there are misconceptions of yoga (I have to be flexible, I hate incense, I’m not spiritual) there are misconceptions of meditation. Sharon captures it so well in her book. Here is what meditation isn’t:

• It isn’t a religion
• It doesn’t require special skills or background
• It doesn’t eliminate sadness or rough patches from your life (unfortunately)
• It doesn’t demand a huge chunk of your time every day
• It isn’t an attempt to stop thinking or insist on only positive thoughts
• You don’t have to renounce your opinions, goals or passions; you don’t have to shun fun
• It’s not navel gazing (meaning, it isn’t self-indulgent or self-centered)

What I love most about insight meditation is that it accepts our mind for the way it works – it’s ALWAYS thinking (that’s it’s job) – and it’s up to us to train it to become more mindful. And when you get lost in thought – which in vipassana is a completely accepted and anticipated thing (thank god!) - you simply acknowledge this and begin again. You don’t have to judge yourself and create stories around what is or isn’t.

The program has been organized into four weeks, each one flowing into the next. You should try it if you are thinking about beginning meditation or if you already practice – it is very simple.

• Week One Concentration: breath awareness
• Week Two Mindfulness and the body: body awareness
• Week Three Mindfulness and the emotions: dealing mindfully with our emotions
• Week Four Lovingkindness (my favourite): compassionate awareness

Breath awareness was last week and body awareness is underway. So far the first 12 days have been more enjoyable than I anticipated. I have loved going right back to basics – spending a whole week just focused on the breath and a second week on mindfulness body scanning. I also like the commitment to every day. I was saying to Kim, one of 889’s teachers that in my head I think I meditate everyday but in reality it’s only about 3-4 times per week (sigh). A daily practice is powerful. I also like following the mindfulness sequence and building each week; we did the same sequence at a 5-day silent meditation retreat I attended in the fall and it helped me to break down the practice to build. I’m also loving the online community that Sharon is building over these 28 days. You can go to her 28-day meditation challenge site and see her featured bloggers, and comments by the global community sharing their experiences. The combination of reading through her book, sitting and breathing, listening to her audio, and being part of the online community this month is making me feel interconnected. You can follow at @sharonsalzberg and the hashtag #realhappiness. Sidenote: Sharon retweeted me the other day. Sort of the highlight of my twitter career.

So how is it going so far? Well, I forgot to meditate one day, and fell asleep in another, but other than that I’ve looked forward to getting on my cushion or whatever I was sitting on. More than usual. Having a program to follow has of course kept me disciplined, but also keeps me from being discouraged when I have all the usual head trash: “I’m a bad meditator, Crap – how long was I just planning my day for?, Ugh – there I go again totally not paying attention to Sharon’s guidance, Why didn’t I write a blog post for week one like I had intended? I had a bad meditation. And the list goes on.”

I’m warmly reminded that this is the practice. The practice is in acknowledging when we are off course, and to begin again, free from anxiety, judgment or feeling of failure. This is where the power of the practice is. It gives me a great sense of ease within.

Doing this 28 day program probed the question, “So why do I meditate, anyways?” I had to think about it. Here’s what I came up with, with the help of my readings:

And now I sit (every day this month) with this intention in my heart: May the actions I take toward the good, toward understanding myself, toward being more peaceful be of benefit to all beings everywhere.

Stay tuned for how week 3 goes…