What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Starting a Meditation Practice

Before you begin meditating, it’s really helpful to adopt a permissive attitude towards your current state: however I am right now, it is fine. I like reminding myself that I don’t need to do anything to receive sensation—the universe will keep on being the universe, and interesting data will come to me, I don’t have to force anything. This can bri... See more

And, fundamentally, a critical attitude towards the current situation is detrimental to collectedness—it’s much easier to focus when you accept your current thoughts and emotions. Thus the most powerful meditation prompt I’ve ever heard, from Loch Kelly: “What is here now if there's no problem to solve?”

Here is a better set of beginner meditation instructions: “Settle in a posture that, for you, provides a good compromise between comfort and alertness. Open yourself to the detail of your experience. Allow yourself to be interested in, and receptive to, the rich, particular texture of what’s happening—look beyond the concept of experience into what... See more

The quality that you’re looking for in most meditation is, I think, best described as collectedness. You can think of this as the opposite of being scattered. Your mental activity is being naturally organized by the intention to stay present in the moment, rather than the intention to, say, continue a Twitter argument in your head. This is not at a... See more

For the sake of this discussion, “attention” is the little thing you’re focusing on—say, these words specifically. “Awareness” is everything you could direct your attention towards—so, the full page of text, beyond it the full visual field, body sensations, ambient sound, feelings, thoughts, any other bits of potentially accessible mind-stuff.

Moreover, adopting this curious, receptive attitude throughout your life is what will make your practice actually meaningful. Sitting for long periods of time is not particularly useful if you don’t make practice part of your way of being. See if you can drop into a state of presence here and there throughout the day. Get into the habit of asking, ... See more