Meditation by waterfalls

I’ve noticed a common thread in talking to many new meditators and Buddhist practitioners. People want to know how meditation is going to make them happy. How long do you have to meditate to transcend to the next plane? How long do you have to meditate before getting high.  How does all this meditation get rid of my suffering?!!!!

All of the above are common myths. Buddhist meditation does not make you happy. Buddhist meditation does not make you high, or transcend you to any next level or place. The real magic of Buddhist meditation is in the journey itself. While many people do experience peace, bliss, happiness, and they do find suffering falling by the wayside, it’s not meditation that creates peace, bliss or happiness.

It’s understandable why people have these views. The way many books and articles are written, it seems like meditation is the magic that creates happiness, the calm, the composed Buddhist practitioners you may meet. Additionally, when Buddhism came to America other Eastern philosophies, metaphysical models, and religions came with it. This created confusion in a big way regarding language, and equally confusing regarding practices.

The real magic of Buddhist meditation is in the diligent practice of observation, and a willingness to let go. Observation reveals the many ways we create our own suffering, and the letting go is what allows happiness, bliss, and peace to arise in the space where suffering had been. It’s a lot like a pot of soup. Open the lid and all the wonderful aroma is released to be savored and fill the house. The lid is the suffering we normally hold on to, while the soup itself is the peace that gets buried and squashed down by delusions, cravings, and attachments.

The question often comes up, What is Jhana like? In the deeper states of meditation called Jhana, one experiences freedom,  happiness, bliss, total peace, feelings of disembodiment, etc. But What is Jhana like is the wrong question. It doesn’t matter what each of the Jhanas is like. What matters is how do you get to each. To experience Jhana at all, one must let go of the desire to follow thoughts, to be swallowed by emotions, to be enticed by stories of the mind, to be seduced into sleep, or to getting off the cushion, to resist countless desires and cravings, lust and greed, anger and sadness, boredom and excitement.

No one ever said Buddhist practices are easy. On the contrary, Buddhist meditation is hard work in the beginning, and that beginning may last years. It’s work resisting the mind and body, old habits and new desires. It also requires brutal honesty and a willingness to be wrong about many of the things you thought were right.

But little by little, as you learn to let go, just for a few seconds here and there, you experience fleeting moments of calm and quiet. This encourages one to press on, and you start to explore the nature of sound, the nature of taste, the nature of bodily feeling. Curiosity about these processes get peaked, and you learn to be in the present moment, without thoughts of the past or the future. Then the meditation magic really begins as you let go of more and more and more.

All of this letting go seeps into the rest of your life, and you’ll notice the boss doesn’t push your buttons so easily any more. You let go of that comment he made this morning without even realizing it until later reflection. You realize how good it feels not to get riled. Your practice is strengthened by these daily improvements, bits of suffering that start falling away.

Buddhist meditation is like EVERYTHING else in life. It’s a process, born of many conditions, and continuing on conditions. It’s dynamic, not static. In fact, there is nothing static, nothing permanent, and after awhile you are no longer surprised or disturbed by change.  Eventually, every part of life is practice, is mindful meditation. The meditation is not magic, the letting go is.

Buddhist meditation is about the journey, one step at a time.

Tags: Buddhism, freedom, letting go, meditation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Buddhism, meditation, Mind, reality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.