Meditation in Amsterdam - Is Meditation Actually Hard
Today I though I'd make a small essay on a topic that keeps popping up once people begin their meditation lessons in Amsterdam.
The typical comment is that meditation is really hard, and this difficulty makes people give up in what could otherwise become a regular and therefore successful practice. I though to elaborate on the topic a bit given that on one level this statement is very true, and on the other hand there is a misperception in the air.
You will remember we mentioned in previous articles all the things that meditation is not. This is where our problems begin in the case of most beginers. As a beginer it is impossible to know what meditation actually is and therefore what to be aiming for. The result is that we take the techniques that are offered and we expect certain results within the sessiona and outside of the sessions which are not only unrealistic but also incorrect.
I often teach art as well as meditation and I have seen this same fenomenon come up time and again: someone is interested in learning how to draw and paint, they come over and put pencil to paper. If the drawing they make in the firs 30 minutes does not turn out great they conclude they have no talent and get demotivated.
With meditation we have the same situation, a headful of wrong expectations of what the purpose is.
And so when people can't make their mind become quiet and all kinds of anxieties and feelings pop up during the session they conclude that meditation is hard and they can't really do it. As I heard a lecturer say the other day: if you're going up the stairs instead of takin the elevator, you don't get alarmed or discouraged by the fact that your heart is pounding and your legs are hurting, because that's what going up a flight of stairs feels like.
The same principle applies to meditation, and the important thing here is to know what it's all about.
In separate articles I will elaborate more on the importance of sticking to the methods and let meditation happen.
This is a big point to understand and I will create perhaps separate entries for it because it has major repercussions: meditation is not something you do, its something that happens to you. That's because the very essence of the practice is to move away from doing and allow for being.
So you can do meditation techniques, or sessions or practices to grow the meditative disposition in you, but meditation as a feeling, a quality will grow in you slowly and you can't do it. More on this point later when we begin to get into the neurobiological underpinnings of meditation, which at least for me have been major eye openers on the topic.
So is it hard to meditate? No because its not something you do, but it does take time and actual effort for meditative qualities to grow within you.
If you stick to the method and put in the time to simply do the sessions as prescribed in my Amsterdam meditation practice, meditation is unavoidable in you and when it happens, trust me you will feel it. You will know something has shifted within. But it would be a mistake to try and cause this or do this. It cannot be done.
Once you let go of this outcome, you're simply left with a set of techniques that should be followed with zero expectations.
As such the most difficult part for most people is to actually sit down and do it, and to do it regularly because of our addictions to media, people, food, sex and other distractions that we use to avoid the internal discomfort that arises when we're sitting quetly.
Namaste
Pablo
www.meditationamsterdam.com
The typical comment is that meditation is really hard, and this difficulty makes people give up in what could otherwise become a regular and therefore successful practice. I though to elaborate on the topic a bit given that on one level this statement is very true, and on the other hand there is a misperception in the air.
You will remember we mentioned in previous articles all the things that meditation is not. This is where our problems begin in the case of most beginers. As a beginer it is impossible to know what meditation actually is and therefore what to be aiming for. The result is that we take the techniques that are offered and we expect certain results within the sessiona and outside of the sessions which are not only unrealistic but also incorrect.
I often teach art as well as meditation and I have seen this same fenomenon come up time and again: someone is interested in learning how to draw and paint, they come over and put pencil to paper. If the drawing they make in the firs 30 minutes does not turn out great they conclude they have no talent and get demotivated.
With meditation we have the same situation, a headful of wrong expectations of what the purpose is.
And so when people can't make their mind become quiet and all kinds of anxieties and feelings pop up during the session they conclude that meditation is hard and they can't really do it. As I heard a lecturer say the other day: if you're going up the stairs instead of takin the elevator, you don't get alarmed or discouraged by the fact that your heart is pounding and your legs are hurting, because that's what going up a flight of stairs feels like.
The same principle applies to meditation, and the important thing here is to know what it's all about.
In separate articles I will elaborate more on the importance of sticking to the methods and let meditation happen.
This is a big point to understand and I will create perhaps separate entries for it because it has major repercussions: meditation is not something you do, its something that happens to you. That's because the very essence of the practice is to move away from doing and allow for being.
So you can do meditation techniques, or sessions or practices to grow the meditative disposition in you, but meditation as a feeling, a quality will grow in you slowly and you can't do it. More on this point later when we begin to get into the neurobiological underpinnings of meditation, which at least for me have been major eye openers on the topic.
So is it hard to meditate? No because its not something you do, but it does take time and actual effort for meditative qualities to grow within you.
If you stick to the method and put in the time to simply do the sessions as prescribed in my Amsterdam meditation practice, meditation is unavoidable in you and when it happens, trust me you will feel it. You will know something has shifted within. But it would be a mistake to try and cause this or do this. It cannot be done.
Once you let go of this outcome, you're simply left with a set of techniques that should be followed with zero expectations.
As such the most difficult part for most people is to actually sit down and do it, and to do it regularly because of our addictions to media, people, food, sex and other distractions that we use to avoid the internal discomfort that arises when we're sitting quetly.
Namaste
Pablo
www.meditationamsterdam.com
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