Finding New Ground - John Main

To Learn to Meditate

We have to learn to be profoundly silent. The way we follow is to sit absolutely, dynamically still. That is certainly the first hurdle each of us has to surmount: To learn not to fidget physically. The second thing, which is even more demanding, is to learn to say our meditation-word, the mantra, with a total attention; not to fidget mentally. Stillness and the mantra are the essentials of meditation. It is utter simplicity. Say your word and continue to say it from the beginning to the end. You will find that thoughts and distractions will appear in your mind at various levels. Don’t be discouraged. The mantra helps you to plough through the distractions. Don’t use any force to try to dispel them, use all your energy just saying the word.

Learning to meditate is a process, and like every process it takes time. We must learn great patience and humility. After all our education and experience it is very challenging to learn just to say our word. We have to be very patient with our slowness and with our failure to persevere. I think all of us, when we start to meditate, start and stop and start again, and all of us need courage and encouragement. The courage and the humility is to keep returning to it. The courageous and the humble are those who start again. Indeed, every time we meditate, every time we sit down to meditate we are starting again. Not surprisingly, therefore, perseverance makes us think and feel better about ourselves.

© "Yoga International" (May, 2002) published by Himalayan International Institute, Rural Route 1, Box 1130, Honesdale, Pennsylvania 18431. Website: yimag.org. Reprinted with permission.

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