***A New Meditation for Busy People

It’s said that the Buddha admonished his students not to believe anything just because it’s taught by teachers or appears in sacred books but, instead, to examine everything carefully themselves. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some ideas about meditation.

I have often wondered about the phrase "meditation practice." Tell me, just what you are practicing for? Most people say they are doing meditation practice to improve other parts of their lives that don’t have anything to do with meditation.

In what other field do you try to improve at something specific by doing some other practice entirely? Do you know any violinists who practice their skills by playing golf? Obviously not. Violinists practice the violin. Golfers practice golf, and physicists work on physics problems.

Sitting meditation practice is great… if you want to practice your sitting.

Somehow we got the idea that in meditation, you can step out of your daily life, go off to a corner somewhere and practice an unusual mental task - like trying to stop your thoughts or paying undivided attention to your breath - and then bring back into your daily life whatever you got from your sit.

That seems like it makes sense, especially when enough teachers say that’s the way it works. But how reliable is it really? And even if it does work, is it the most efficient way to get the benefits you desire?

I ask because I've had many discussions with meditation teachers and lifelong meditators who tell me, "After meditating for 40+ years, I still get annoyed when my husband says something rude, or when my kids wreak havoc in my kitchen, or when someone cuts me off on the road. I also don't make a lot of money and I have trouble being around my mother and father.” Then they top it off with, "But boy, you should have seen what I was like before meditation."

This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Then there are people who attempt to do their daily activities in what we think of as a meditative fashion, saying they are "practicing for living." So they’ll move very slowly, or pay close attention to the dish they’re washing, or do just one thing at a time. But I don’t see how this is a good way to practice for the way people actually live, because it’s unusual to actually do one thing at a time or to move super slowly in our real lives.

So here are some questions to consider: Are there meditation techniques that don't require you to leave your life, even for just a few minutes, but let you practice in your actual, daily life? Is there a way to get the benefits of meditation now, rather than hoping for a carry-over effect after you’re done?
Just asking these questions, putting the Buddha’s admonition into practice, can open up a whole new dimension of your meditation practice.

Steven Sashen is the developer of the Instant Advanced Meditation Course, which Dr. Gay Hendricks calls, “Perhaps the fastest and easiest way to relax, expand awareness and find deep inner peace.”