Recently I had a conversation about meditation with my carer. She expressed how challenging she was finding it, and that she often feels like she ‘can’t do meditation’, because she thought the point of meditation was to ‘have no thoughts.’ I told her this was not true – even the most established yogis still have thoughts, it’s human! Meditation is more a change in perspective. Once you understand this, meditation is easier than you think, and I believe there should be no strict rules that make it hard to do. If we can ‘notice’ our breath even for a moment, we can meditate. Like sport, there’s thousands of different styles of meditation, and each is just as valid. Do what appeals to you! If you don’t like focusing on the breath, focus on noticing your ‘sights, scents, sounds, sensations, surrounds.’ (Like in my original meditation ‘Breathe The Senses’). If you need a book or someone else’s words to help you focus, incorporate reading into your meditation, like Teresa of Avila did, or listen to guided meditations. You can use a mantra and repeat a word or phrase over and over, or sing a chant. The options are endless, and they should be enjoyable! Meditation is as simple and miraculous as that. It should be nonjudgmental and fun.
The next morning, my Ma tagged me in a Buddhist post on meditation that said the exact same thing (!): how many believe meditation means no thoughts, and think they can’t do it, but meditation is more a shift in perspective. Ma asked what my thoughts on it were, and I wholeheartedly agreed, though I thought my own words were more poetic and clever! So I made them into a zine, and then this post. I hope it expresses well the simple yet enlightening shift in perspective meditation brings.
‘Aware of Awareness © 19/1/26 by Shiloh Moore @byshi.art www.byshi.hogfish.net