“Meditation is not easy. It takes time and it takes energy. It also takes grit, determination and discipline. It requires a host of personal qualities which we normally regard as unpleasant and which we like to avoid whenever possible. We can sum it all up in the American word 'gumption'. Meditation takes 'gumption'. It is certainly a great deal easier just to kick back and watch television. So why bother? Why waste all that time and energy when you could be out enjoying yourself? Why bother?”
This is the question posed by the Venerable Henepola Gunaratana is his classic text “Mindfulness in Plain English” which is available for free on the world wide web.
The answer to the question “why bother?” is simple because although meditation does require hard work, like anything worthwhile, if you are persistent, meditation will lead you to some very beautiful and meaningful places and in the end it will lead to great happiness.
Now, you don’t need to take it from me that this is the case because modern research is beginning to demonstrate (with some quite robust findings) what monks and nuns have discovered from their own experience over the past two or three thousand years. So the practice of meditation, to use a modern scientific notion, is truly an ‘evidence based practice.’
However, as I know from personal experience, on the path to happiness there are many pitfalls and so it is helpful to receive some guidance so as to avoid wasting ones energy going up blind alleys.
Now, I am not a monk and I do not profess to have travelled very far along the path to enlightenment as there are limits to what one can achieve in everyday life. However, I am an experienced practitioner (I have been practicing since 1986) and teacher of mindfulness meditation (I have taught short course to both health professionals and the general public since 1996) and what I do know a lot about are the realities of trying to maintain a meditation practice in the midst of a modern life filled with distractions from the pressures of work and family life, and the temptations which constantly threaten to overwhelm us in the midst of twenty-first century living.
So if you are a beginner or a relatively inexperienced mediator who would like to deepen their practice I have a few tricks up my sleeve that will hopefully ensure that you keep moving in the right direction.
It’s true, meditation takes effort, but no-one I have ever spoken to, who has maintained a regular practice, has ever said that meditation was a waste of time.
If you would like to learn how to meditate I offer a short course of individual instruction that involves three or four (preferably) face-to-face sessions followed by occasional (typically monthly) follow up sessions which can be conducted over the phone or by email.
The fees for the initial three or four sessions is the same as for individual psychotherapy.
Why do I charge a fee when traditionally the teachings are offered for free? This is a contentious issue amongst Buddhists but my take on it is that nothing is ever for free. The monks and nuns of the East would not be able to teach if it were not for the constant patronage of the community, and the sale of books, and furthermore their needs, as monastic’s, tend to be very modest. We live in a very different society and so operate by different rules.
Links yet to be added but for moment you might want to google names like: Jon Kabat-Zinn (re mindfulness in general), Sare Lazar (re brain imaging studies), Mark Williams (re mindfulness and depression) and Masha Linehan (re mindfulness and borderline personality disorder).