MEDITATION — the skinny on the mindfulness way
“Do you meditate?” asked an innocent neighbor. If he means sitting uncomfortably cross-legged on a mat with a hard cushion tucked under my behind, trying to quiet my chattering ‘monkey mind,’ trying to stop thinking for even a few seconds — then my reply has to be, “Not often.” But if he means contemplating an image of a wise, smiling Buddha, keeping secrets about The Meaning Of Things — or Sufi dervishes whirling into altered, ecstatic inner states –or simply Listening fully to birdies in my garden? Then I say, “Yes, I meditate every day!”
While I’ve tried on many styles of meditation practice, my preferred habit is Mindfulness. This means practicing being present, awake, attentive to whatever is happening right here, right now, in this precious moment of being alive. Breathing. Tasting the chocolate. Seeing and smelling the rose. Feeling the sensations of a hug or kiss on your skin. A few short years ago, mindfulness meditation was proclaimed the “#1 health-booster” in the U.S.: Go America. But any intentional practice that creates the experience of openness, spaciousness of emptying me of accumulated crud, while filling me with appreciation and wonder is meditation, to me.
My open-ended notion took root in the 80s. My first formal workshop began with a “chaotic meditation” practice. Participants were instructed to stand and make wild and crazy noises while systematically shaking out every imaginable body part. Afterwards, I felt remarkably calm, rested, and ready to sit quietly in silence for the duration, minding my breath, letting thoughts pass through the skies of my mind. –I loved it! Not so much so when in the 90s, I endured a seriously formal Zen class practicing walking verrrrrry slowlllllly, circling the room. I valued the practice, but it wasn’t a natural cuppa meditation tea for me.
Practice styles can be formal or informal, still or dynamic/moving, masculine or feminine –or combinations. On a recent sunny Sunday morning, I headed to Sebastopol to a dancing meditation. It had been two years since my last class. I noticed I was feeling a bit self-conscious, not recognizing anyone there. I located a spot on the large dance floor in between two other early “body prayer” arrivers and began my warm-up stretching. Closing my eyes, I found my breath, letting the gentle music move my physical instrument –me. Emotions loosening, tensions dissolving, I swayed and stretched down to through soles of my yoga feet, embracing my surroundings. Dancing and bearing witness was just the soul medicine I was needing. Two hours and many dances later, I felt blissfully tranquil within, at Home again in my world –and part of kindred community.
So what’s The Rub According To Marcia for how to meditate? Start with your breathing. Just notice how it is, stay with that. If a thought or physical discomfort distracts you, simply (if not easily) return to your breathing. Just Be. In the middle of a board meeting, an argument, making love, shopping for groceries. Come home to your breath, your existence, your preciousness.
Here’s a question for you: What do these words have in common: mediation, medicine, median, meddle and meditation? Med: a middle or central position. A vantage point that reconciles opposition (duality), restores equilibrium and well being, shakes us out of our sleepy norm, and ultimately, allows us to glimpse heaven on earth. Meditation is a medicine that mediates between the local and non-local, physical and non-physical dimensions of our lives. It is any practice that creates this altered state of ordinary/extraordinary awareness.
So, I ask, “Do you meditate?” Whatever your reply, may you continually discover the relief of not having to label, judge or control anything, for a moment. That’s meditation. That’s a way to move through each day, and enjoy a pretty good life.
Shining deLight, Marcia
