Who says there has to be a right way to meditate?
Who says you have to just watch your thoughts pass by as if in some brook?
Why not welcome our thoughts?
What if they’re the first sentence in a story we haven’t heard yet?
Who says we can’t stroll our bodies like libraries, browsing for the information that might give us clues for how we arrived at being the person we call ourselves?
We’re not alone in our bodies after all.
There’s younger selves in here and ancestors and livers and spleens…
And they’ve all got stuff to say.
Important stuff.
We all go sit in a chair to watch someone else’s adventure to find the holy grail, while our own is sitting inside us waiting to be discovered.
Why not explore our depths? Discover where the gold is?
Have you ever tried to communicate with someone and they say, “Wow, I’m not at all absorbing what you’re saying! I’m watching your words and thoughts pass by in the river of my mind!”
You might want to slug them.
In fact, that might very well be your last conversation with them.
Why not listen carefully and respond to the voices inside ourselves?
We don’t need to let them take us where we don’t want to go, but why not ask them the reason for wanting to take us there?
Some of those voices might be the confused voices of upset younger versions of ourselves who internalized a lot of negative stuff.
Why not take the time to listen to their concerns, and show them a new direction?
Or if we’re feeling damaged, instead of watching our damaged parts float down the river, why not appoint ourselves our own doctor or triage nurse and tend to our own damaged parts?
We store our pain in our bodies. So if we pay attention and scan our bodies for which parts of us are having an emergency, we can hurry to their proverbial bedside and soothe their wounds.
‘Oh boy. Someone rang the nurse’s bell from the lower left leg of the hospital! Stat!’
‘Uh oh. There’s someone who needs immediate assistance in the heart of the hospital! I’m on my way!”
The point is, meditation can be a time to heal ourselves, and healing can actually be really interesting and even fun.
And as long as you’re not attached to any particular way to meditate, it can be made up, like any recipe, to suit your particular appetite, your particular set of ingredients, and your nutritional needs.
Sure, I still carve out the time to focus on my breath. And I’m grateful that my breath is always here, as the most reliable anchor to ground me.
But when there’s a feisty negative thought, I don’t let it go… I go toward it, and I ask where it came from and why the big upset. And each time I really listen, the same thing happens. I wind up understanding where that upset came from, and that upset thought turns into an insight, and all I'm left with is empathy and love.
To me, the purpose of meditation is to discover what I'm made of, and to give each part of myself my attention, understanding and love. And as far as I know, there’s no right way to do this.
But because this relationship with myself is the longest term relationship of my life—I figure I better make the process of getting to know myself as fulfilling as possible.
-JLK
