How to maintain a meditation practice: Give your practice meaning

I sometimes hear people on yoga retreats say that they have trouble maintaining a regular meditation practice. These are generally very disciplined and organized people. They can hold down a job and take care of families etc without too many problems. And have no problem coming to their yoga classes. But when it comes to meditation, they say they're a little... flaky. They are not skeptics or new to meditation. They have often even been on long meditation retreats and appreciate the many valuable benefits of regular meditation. But they still can't figure out how to maintain a meditation practice.

I've been thinking about why it's so difficult for so many of us to maintain a regular practice. And what can we do about it?

I think there are many reasons why we find it so difficult to meditate regularly. Perhaps most obvious is that meditation requires us to enter into a completely different and unfamiliar relationship with our thoughts and feelings. It can feel like a drag at times - as you keep discovering how distracting and busy your mind is. And how little peace you actually experience in meditation, contrary to your expectations!

I won't go into that in this post. I wanted to explore another possible reason why, when so many of us are introduced to meditation, we don't stick with it.

Modern mindfulness

This may have something to do with how meditation or mindfulness is taught in the modern Western context.

I'm a big fan of mindfulness in general and I'm happy to see it being taught in hospitals, schools, prisons and businesses around the world today. In my opinion, this is a good thing and can only contribute to the overall well-being of our communities. Modern life is stressful and demanding. Mindfulness offers people the opportunity to relax and escape the chaos of it all.

Is mindfulness boring in the Western world?

I also believe that in his heart, most obviously in the early days of the modern mindfulness movement (initiated by John Kabbat-Zinn), there was a genuine desire to share the benefits of the Buddha's teachings in mind, etc., with people who would not normally be interested in spiritual matters. With great care and attention, the teachings were demystified to make them simple and accessible to people who had no interest in the “spiritual world.” The advantages of this pioneering work are obvious. Mindfulness helps many people who struggle with issues such as depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, etc. Mindfulness is good for many people, and that's what really matters. Yet many of us still seem to struggle to keep it going.

As much as I am impressed with the achievements of the modern approach to mindfulness, I think the problem with having a regular practice may have something to do with what has made it so successful and popular: stripping out any direct evidence of a search for truth or meaning. Simply put: Meditation, divorced from the deep truths it can reveal to us about our true nature and potential, is just a little, dare I say it... boring (or at least it can seem boring.)

Spiritual Transformation: Give meaning to your meditation practice

I learned meditation from an Indian teacher in my twenties and it was related to enlightenment and the potential for profound spiritual transformation. While this approach also has its serious dangers (perhaps I will address this in another blog post), one thing was never - boring! Since then, meditation has never been boring for me. Challenging – certainly and occasionally even frightening – but never boring.

And that's because the practice was the foundation upon which a different understanding of who we are and what our place is in the bigger picture was built. I think we benefited from a regular practice in the same way that modern mindfulness practitioners do today - we generally felt more comfortable, less stressed, etc. But for us, the sauce was the potential meditation revealed for a completely different way of living. Discovering a different “liberated” relationship to thinking and feeling was not just a practical “tool” in our personal life coaching manual. It was a stick of dynamite to light a fire within us to transform us personally, even to change the way we live collectively.

OK, maybe we got a little carried away. I recognize that the esoteric and mysterious spiritual traditions of the East - of gods, gurus and enlightenment, etc. - can be magical and regularly open genuine "seekers" and practitioners to abuse by teachers. But this context gave meaning to our practice. For this reason, we wanted to practice every day and found the strength when it was a challenge to lower our backs and still sit still. Meditation was very important to us and we took it seriously.

The summit

If we learn mindfulness in a context where this search for deeper meanings is missing, it can easily become another technique or “hack” to improve our lives a little. And then it's likely that our commitment to it doesn't really achieve much. And that's a problem. Because meditation is not always easy. It's simple, but not necessarily easy. It is so different from the way we usually relate to our experience that it requires a lot of effort (not making effort). We're learning a whole new way to think and feel, and that's a big deal.

As the man said, “The path and the destination are one.”

I think perhaps we sometimes struggle to find the discipline to practice regularly because we do not appreciate the magnitude and radical potential that meditation can reveal and ultimately catalyze within us. If you start climbing Everest expecting a gentle stroll in the park, there's little chance you'll be prepared for the challenges you'll face. And no chance of reaching the summit.

So before you sit down, or if you're just thinking about practicing, it might be worth thinking about the peak. Or learn about the role meditation plays in our great spiritual traditions. After all, as the man said: “The path and the goal are one”.

My teacher once said to me, “If you want to understand what I’m talking about, sit still, don’t move.” And that was the best advice I ever received.