{"id":8188,"date":"2011-02-18T14:21:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T19:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pbs-wnet-preprod.digi-producers.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=8188"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:13:42","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:13:42","slug":"february-18-2011-meditation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbs-wnet-preprod.digi-producers.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/02\/18\/february-18-2011-meditation\/8188\/","title":{"rendered":" Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SHARON SALZBERG<\/strong> (Author and Meditation Teacher): A very, very common foundational exercise in meditation is to just sit down and feel your breath, just the normal, natural flow of the breath wherever it\u2019s appearing, and most people are kind of shocked to discover it\u2019s generally not like a thousand breaths before your mind wanders. It\u2019s generally like two.<\/p>\n

We practice letting go, we practice beginning again. No matter how long it has been, no matter where your attention went it\u2019s okay. Just gather our attention back to feeling the breath.<\/p>\n

\"post01-salzbergmeditation\"We all get distracted, and I think it\u2019s important to realize that it\u2019s normal, it\u2019s natural, it\u2019s not a sign of failure, it doesn\u2019t mean you are doing badly, because I would say the critical moment in the meditation in that way is the moment we realize we\u2019ve been distracted, and that is a moment where it is so common to just berate ourselves and condemn ourselves and carry on for a very long time, whereas we have this opportunity to just let go and to begin again. So beginning again is, I would say, the essence of the transformation of meditation.<\/p>\n

So many times people in Manhattan will say to me, it\u2019s fine for the Buddha sitting under a tree 2500 years ago in India. It\u2019s too bad that I live in Manhattan where it\u2019s too noisy. But if you do live in Manhattan you have to work to make it real right there.<\/p>\n

Meditation has been cradled in many, many religious traditions. It\u2019s really about the method. It\u2019s not about a belief system, it\u2019s not about a dogma. It\u2019s about personally utilizing a method to see what benefits you might get.<\/p>\n

I come from a family with a great deal of suffering and loss and conflict, and like for many people it was a family system where this was never ever spoken about, so I didn\u2019t know what to do with all of those feelings inside of me, and here was the Buddha saying you are not alone, this is part of life. And the other thing was his completely open invitation to do something about that suffering\u2014not of course the suffering that comes our way through loss and circumstance, but the way we hold it. There are very practical, pragmatic methods that anyone can utilize to transform their own minds.<\/p>\n

When we are lost in anger that\u2019s very painful, and greed and fear and jealousy\u2014these are extremely painful states, and if we can make that transition to reframing it we can have some compassion for ourselves, and that\u2019s a good beginning.<\/p>\n

So maybe you are at that contentious meeting at work and energy is starting to rise and tempers are starting to go up. You don\u2019t have to say, oh, excuse me for a minute and like go and open a closet door and pull out all your equipment and do the set-up and, you know, light the candle\u2014sorry, Buddha. You don\u2019t even have to close your eyes. No one needs to know you are doing it. Isn\u2019t it amazing that we can have that kind of resourcefulness? We tune in, we connect, we come back.<\/p>\n

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