D. Harshada Wagner is a meditation teacher and author based in New York City. Considered among the top teachers of his generation, Harshada travels widely teaching meditation and leading deep meditation workshops and retreats. He is the founding director of Banyan Education, an organization whose mission is to promote meditation and help people from all walks of life cultivate happiness and enjoy a rich inner life. Harshada's Living Meditation CD series, co-produced with Inner Splendor Media (http://www.innersplendor.com), have topped the New Age charts on iTunes and Amazon.com.
Meditation is like a good book--like reading a good book.
The other day I was reading Think and Grow Rich. It really is an amazing book. It was written in 1937 and is basically about the power of intention, the power of our minds to create our reality. It's a yoga book written decades before most people in the US had even heard of Yoga. I highly reccommend it.
Anyway, I was reading the book in a fairly busy cafe. There was music and chatter and people walking by the window and cafe workers coming up with samples of drinks. As I read, I was constantly interrupted- but really it was no big deal. I would look up for a moment and then right away come back to the text without losing my place.
Haven't you had a book like this? The one you can't put down, the one you read on the subway and the beach and at night before you sleep? The one you carry in your bag and take out while you're waiting on line in the store?
This is how meditation can be.
For most people, meditation is not like a good book but like a boring (albeit important) book or a book written in a beautiful but foreign script. Even in a quiet place- even in an ideal place, it is very difficult to stay with it. The slightest distraction is enough to take your attention away or make you put the book away. Only the most religious, disciplined and self-sacrificing are willing to sit down with it every day- slowly deciphering one letter of the script at a time.
What most people don't know is that you have the power to make your meditation more compelling. Make your practice into that great book. If you're bored, change your method or something about your method. Re-vamp your meditation area. Buy a new cushion. Sign up for a workshop, take meditation lessons. Learn techniques that get you in touch with that which is captivating. If this reads like a Banyan sales pitch, that's not my intention.
Simple adjustments like this make all the difference in your practice. And like a great book, when you practice becomes that beloved thing- that near-obsession that you can't wait to dive into- your life is affected. But this book- is one that doesn't have to end.
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For more info about supporting your meditation practice, visit us online at Banyan Education.
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