In the same way, Ajahn Chah helped his students by pointing out denial. To me he’d say, “Hey. You’re not paying attention today, are you?” To John, “Hey there, you think you’re meditating, but we can hear you snore.” And to Prasert, “You’re afraid of the ghosts near your hut. The closest thing I’ve seen to ghosts are these big white Western monks.”

The subject of meditative concentration can be simple. We can focus on a candle flame or a light, on a visualization or the body, on the breath or a prayer, on a mantra or a feeling.

Marcel Proust once said, “The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

As the Dalai Lama suggests, he watched for the signals of tension and discomfort.

“Keep this ‘don’t-know mind.’ It is an open mind, a clear mind.”

As Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg quipped one day, “It’s easy to teach. All you have to do is ask if they’re being mindful.”

Release opinions, free yourself from views. Be open to mystery.

Shunryu Suzuki

As Shunryu Suzuki says, “When we understand the truth of impermanence and find our composure in it, there we find ourselves in nirvana.”