The Bridge

If resistance to meditation is a common feature of your practice, then you should suspect some subtle error in your basic attitude. Meditation is not a ritual conducted in a particular posture. It is not a painful exercise, or period of enforced boredom. And it is not a grim, solemn obligation. Meditation is mindfulness. It is a new way of seeing and it is a form of play. Meditation is your friend. Come to regard it as such and resistance will disappear like smoke on a summer breeze.

Henepola Gunaratana;

Mindfulness in Plain English

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I remember how I felt when I first began to regularly practice meditation. I have a fused spine so it is too difficult for me to assume the lotus position… or to sit directly on the ground. Others, who have experience with hatha yoga, look so beautiful and full of grace as they sit with ease for as long as they wish with legs crossed. I had to give up preconceived notions of what meditation was to me before I found that a short stool, or even a chair with a back, works best. If I am to relax enough to quiet the mind, I can’t be distracted by a ridiculous adherence to self-imposed physical discomfort. The bridge to cross the stream of consciousness into mindfulness is already constructed; why then should I impose on myself a forced march to ford it?

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