Building a Life Long Meditation Practice Can Be Daunting

RWM Classics are some of my older editions, which fit in well with the theme we have been exploring in our recent editions. This edition is part of a series of deep dives into the audiobook “Coming Closer to Ourselves: Making Everything the Path of Awakening” by Pema Chodron.

Once, my teacher narrated an interesting story about Krishna and Balarama. 

One day, Krishna and Balarama walked through a forest to reach their destination. However, by sunset, they were still in the forest, so Krishna suggested that they rest for the night inside the forest and resume their journey in the sunlight. 

Balarama agreed and took the first watch while Krishna slept. As he stayed alert and kept watch, Balarama noticed a strange figure in front of them. It was a monster with fangs and a terrifying visage. Balarama saw the monster and stepped back from it. The monster grew a little bigger.

This scared Balarama, and he took another step back, and the monster grew bigger. With each step Balarama took backwards, the monster grew and moved closer to him. Balarama fainted in fright. 

When he opened his eyes, he saw Krishna smiling beside him. Balarama exclaimed, “What was it, Krishna? The huge monster that was here, where is it now?” 

Krishna took a tiny creature from his pocket, placed it on his palm and asked Balarama, “Are you talking about this creature?”

Balarama gasped, “Yes, but this monster was so huge and kept growing. I thought we both were goners. How did you manage to shrink the monster?”

Krishna laughed, “I woke up when you fainted and saw this huge monster towering before your prone figure. I approached the monster and asked, “What do you want?”

The monster took a step back and shrank a little in size. I took another step and asked it again, “What do you want?” and the monster took a step back and shrank again.

As I kept walking forward and asking it calmly what it wanted, it shrank in size until I could take it in my palm. Now, it can no longer harm us and may protect us on our journey.”

But like Krishna, the monster is no longer that scary if we take a step towards ourselves. The closer we move towards what triggers us, the more compassion we can generate for ourselves and all beings. 

In this newsletter edition, we will look at small section of Chapter 3 of the audiobook, “Coming Closer to Ourselves: Making Everything the Path of Awakening” by Ani Pema Chodron.

We will explore the Three Prajnas and how they can support us in creating a lifelong meditation practice.

Three Prajnas or Three Types of Wisdom/Knowledge

The Three Prajnas are concepts from the Mahayana tradition. They are helpful to remember and implement to strengthen our meditation practice.

Pema starts the chapter by introducing the Three Prajnas. These three methods can transform our lives into paths of awakening, which is especially pertinent as we integrate and apply the teachings to everyday life. 

Learning/Listening/Reading 

This particular prajna is about coming into contact with the teachings not just once but repeatedly throughout our lives. This level of wisdom is about learning and understanding the teachings intellectually - not just once, but repeatedly.

When we consider how to support or deepen our meditation practice, it is essential to spend some time reading/listening/learning about the concepts and teachings related to the path of the inner journey. 

Pema notes that teaching is also on this path. She says that once you start teaching, you must be honest about applying it to your life. Sharing our experiences with others also helps us to stay on the path.

This is pertinent to those of us who are facilitators/teachers in the space of mindfulness. I’ve seen this for myself, too: When I teach mindfulness, I understand the teachings a little bit more deeply than I did before. 

Contemplating/Reflecting

In the Kalama Sutta, the Buddha advises the Kalamas not to blindly accept teachings, traditions, or hearsay. Instead, he encourages them to investigate and examine teachings based on their own experience. 

Here is an excerpt from the Kalama Sutta:

"Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing;

nor upon tradition;

nor upon rumour;

nor upon what is in a scripture;

nor upon surmise;

nor upon an axiom;

nor upon specious reasoning;

nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over;

nor upon another's seeming ability;

nor upon the consideration, 'The monk is our teacher.'

Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are bad; these things are blameable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,' abandon them."

Hence, we contemplate and reflect on the teachings and understand their meaning and relevance to our practice and lives.

To apply the teachings in our everyday lives, we should ask questions and wonder about their relevance. Actively applying the teachings and reflecting on our experiences in this context is an essential source of wisdom. 

Meditating/Acting 

Pema focuses on meditating as a critical way of understanding the wisdom of action. The wisdom of action broadly encompasses applying the teachings in our everyday lives and attaining wisdom through our direct experience in the world.

But here, meditation is an excellent microcosm of how we manifest our authentic selves in this world. Everything that happens outside reflects on the inside when we sit in meditation. 

When we meditate, we sit with the energy of the moment in the middle of whatever is going on. Pema says that when we make time to meditate, we create more time for ourselves as we start to slow down and cut through the chatter. 

She says that all the three prajnas together “cook us,” “shake us up,” and “tenderise us.” They help us be kind and love ourselves and one another. 

Fuelling our practice 

This is one of my favourite concepts in this audiobook, as it relieved one of my dilemmas for the past eight years! When I had a fledgling and fragile meditation practice, I noticed that I had to spend a lot of time reading and listening to books on meditation.

I wanted to understand the concepts, and one reading or book wasn’t enough! I also had to remind myself why I needed to practice and what I had to practice as well.

I needed lots and lots of motivation, inspiration and encouragement even to do a 3-minute sitting. I would spend an hour or two reading/listening to do a 3-minute sitting.

When this realisation dawned on me, I was embarrassed that my time learning wasn’t translating into long or deep practice. Gratefully, I stuck on to it by some miracle, thinking maybe the fire in me takes a lot of fuel to burn for a tiny bit.

I also noticed that whenever I stopped reading/learning, my practice would go for a complete toss. It would take me weeks and sometimes months to return to a 3-minute sitting. 

So whenever I noticed I had stopped meditating for too long, instead of trying to force myself to sit, I would pick up a book on this topic and start reading. Eventually, it helped me get into steadier and lengthier practice sessions.

One of my primary motivations for reading/listening to the teachings, reflecting on them, and writing about them is that they serve as important fuel to keep my meditation practice going. 

I need lots and lots of encouragement and support to sustain my sitting practice. Even after sitting for six years, it hasn’t become an “automatic” habit, and there are many benefits to NOT having an automatic habit :-)

This means I have the opportunity to delve into the teachings so that they constantly fuel my meditation habit.

Pema says we need to find out what works for us and make time to sit. I have noticed that my preference for sitting keeps changing. Being flexible has been essential in making sure that my practice sticks.

Although I have a Zafu and a Zabuton over which I sit to do my formal practice (30-45 minutes) as part of my morning routine, I maintain flexibility in where, how, what, and how long I practice. (A zafu is a traditional round cushion, and a zabuton is a rectangular cushion!)

The idea is to do it for life, not just to get streaks on a meditation timer (which I also pursued at some point and realised I was “cheating” to get my streaks! Gosh, the perils of gamification!). This also means I have had to become aware of and curious about my expectations and attitudes towards my sitting practice. Cultivating Maitri has been essential to ensuring that I can sit every day!

What’s next?

It’s time for a tiny story and the “Meditator Asks” edition, which our paid subscribers will find in their inboxes next week. After that, we will have a week-long break, and I will be back in all of your inboxes on  17th May 2024 with the next book.

As a parting thought, I will finish this edition with a story.

Self Interest

A farmer whose corn always won first prize at the state fair had a habit of sharing his best corn seed with all the farmers in the neighbourhood.

When asked why, he said, "It is a matter of self-interest. The wind picks up the pollen and carries it from field to field. So, if my neighbours grow inferior corn, the cross-pollination brings down the quality of my own corn. That is why I am concerned that they plant only the very best."