Meditation is a Radical Practice of Deprogramming Ourselves
Meditation provides an opportunity to be with things just as they are, right here, right now.
This act is more vital than you might realize.
Meditation is radical. It's counter-cultural.
It is an opportunity to deprogram from a culture of self-deprecation.
That may not be how you experience it.
Often meditation can be frustrating. The mind wanders around following its own path, meandering this way and that.
At the end of the meditation, you might wonder: “What was the point of that? I just wasted all this time. I could have been getting all these things done instead.”
Here lies the essence of the practice.
To be OK with it. To not scold oneself. To be gentle and patient. To accept.
Every moment of meditation is an exercise in acceptance.
Accepting that I just got lost in a daydream, but I'm back now and that's OK.
Accepting that I am sitting here doing "nothing," even though there is so much to do.
Accepting that I am bored, that I am frustrated, that I am impatient.
This is the opposite of how we are programmed to think of ourselves and our lives. By that, I mean, all we have been taught by our culture.
Our programming is to override and overrule.
When we are uncomfortable, we try to do something. Maybe react. Or we numb out.
The last thing we do is just sit with what is frustrating or disturbing—to be with that something and get to know it.
Instead, we try to distract ourselves.
Our programming is to get impatient with ourselves, to criticize ourselves, to judge, to denigrate.
In meditation, we practice the opposite.
When we find that we have drifted off into la-la land, we simply acknowledge it and we are back. Back here in the present. We do this with kindness towards ourselves.
When we feel impatient or frustrated, we stay with the discomfort.
When we think that we have too much to do, we recognize the speedy energy and sit with it.