The benefits of Meditation

There is a very simple way to start meditation practice: expect nothing. “Expectation is the foundation of failure,” notes the Dalai Lama, meaning new practitioners who anticipate the achievement of an exalted state the first time they try to quieten their minds will often find themselves disappointed. Even devotees need to let go of expectation each time they sit down meditate. The simple reason for this is that expectation is counterproductive to the practice of meditation.

Why? Does that mean meditation is aimless? Well, aims have to do with the future and meditation is about the present. Aims have to do with desires, whereas meditation is about desirelessness. Aims have to do with wanting something you don’t have, whereas meditation is about being with things just the way they are.

A far more useful approach to the practice of meditation is to let go of expectations and allow your experience of mediation to mature in its own way and in its own timeframe. It may also be useful to understand that the exalted state is not necessarily a sign that meditation is “working”. Rather, it is the capacity to live consciously, to be present, accepting and aware in moment-to-moment living that indicates meditation is having an effect. Mindfulness meditation is about the cultivation of everyday mindfulness.

Placing expectations on your meditation practice can be futile for other reasons, too. First, achieving profoundly transcendent states tends to be the exception rather than the rule for most meditators, particularly those who are new to the practice — and “new to the practice” might include those with less than 30 years experience! The disappointment if such transcendence is not experienced tends to lead to frustration and many give up the practice when their actual experience does not measure up to unrealistic expectations. Second, the focus of attention on the future outcome rather than the moment-by-moment process prevents you from learning from your experience.

Learning how to be

It would be easy to believe meditation has something to do with thinking your way into happiness. However, it may be that since childhood you have been thinking your way out of happiness and into a complex and perplexing world of worries, fears, desires and doubts. The modern world feeds this tendency with ever more force, leading to escalating levels of mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Mindfulness meditation is aimed at restoring a normal or natural state of awareness — the one we were born into. Along with that come the happiness and simplicity that were and are natural to us.