Filling the Mind

A couple of years ago, in the months before his death, my uncle asked me why meditating was so difficult. He had struggled with mental health for most of his life, and had tried unsuccessfully to make meditation part of his daily routine more than once.

Many people are under the impression that learning to meditate means that you sit down, close your eyes and empty your mind. Those that try meditating with this expectation decide pretty quickly that it is too difficult and give up.

I think this is what my uncle experienced. So, if he were here today, I'd tell him to stop trying to empty his mind.

Over the past eight years, I have taught different types of meditation in my classes, but I now teach mantra meditation based on how I was taught Transcendental Meditation. Giving the 'mind monkey' something to do in the form of a mantra allows us to, as David Lynch says in Catching the Big Fish, 'dive deep into the ocean of consciousness'.

There are all kinds of products available to people seeking the peace of mind promised by meditation. They can choose to relax with CDs or MP3s of New Age music, the sounds of waves or forests, or guided meditation. These can be useful tools for teaching the value of stillness but, in my experience, they keep you on the surface of consciousness.

This is not to say that by practicing mantra meditation one can expect to have profound, deep experiences every time they sit. Each meditation session is different for me. Sometimes time drags; other times - like this morning - it flies by. Sometimes I feel amazing, rested and brimming with insights afterwards; other times I feel frustrated, agitated and tired.

The hardest part about meditating is deciding to do it. Understanding that I shouldn't expect the same experience each time I meditate makes it easier to do it every day. Each time I decide to sit in that kind of silence, I gain something, even if it isn't obvious at the time.