The Essence of Meditation Revealed

No matter which
spiritual techniques
you practice,
it all really comes down
to attention.

Whether you are
watching your breath
or repeating the name
of a Guru or God,
or are asking "who am I"
or witnessing
or surrendering,

they all require
your complete attention.

And it is through
the practice of attention
that you grow in awareness.

Understanding intellectually
only gets you on to the path.

Through practice
you experience
what the words point to.

And through experience,
that which you are seeking
becomes your reality.

But if you buy into the idea
that you do not need to practice,
then the mind remains in power.

You remain a slave
to all of the thoughts and emotions.

You remain at the mercy
of chasing one desire after another,
one worry after another
until so much time has passed
that you wonder where your life went.

Attention at first
does require discipline.

But the moment
you give your complete attention
to what is happening here,
rather then allowing the thinking
to control you,
there is extraordinary peace.

And you will fall in love with the peace,
you will fall in love with the practice.

In the same way
when you fall in love with someone
you want to spend
all of your time with them,

when you fall in love with attention
you will want to immerse yourself
in attention.

You will cherish it more than anything.

And because of that love for attention
you become attention itself.

Fall in love with bliss
and you become bliss.

You don't leave it
in the corner of a room,

you give it
your complete focus.
Blessings,
Kip