Why Bother?

Can we learn to be quiet and observe who and what we are right now? Can we observe and listen to whatever is happening, inside and out, this very moment, and perhaps wonder, ‘Who sees this?’

This is true meditation, no rituals, discipline, tradition, prayers, or incense required.

Listening to the train whistle in the distance, the ambulance siren, the sound of traffic, and the morning conversation of the neighborhood crows. Feel the warmth of the sun on your body and the soreness of your knees from yesterday’s tennis match. Observe the mind, thoughts arising; where do they come from? Watch how the faintest thought can catch hold and develop, seamlessly, into a story, one’s memories, regrets, and expectations, all, for the most part, to one degree or another, couched in self-concern. Can we learn to see the thoughts as thoughts, and perhaps begin to rest in the space between the thoughts, detach from the story, and return our attention to what is happening, right here, right now?

Why do this? Why meditate? For most of us, it feels like a lot of work for little return on investment. The story of ‘me, myself and I’ appears to be an endless and sticky distraction, like an addiction that we feel like we can’t live without.

So, why even bother with this work, the work of this moment?

While wondering about all of this, you look up and spot a little bird in the naked branches of a nearby tree. Another little bird lands, and now there are two. They sit together for a moment, then fly off. There is a lovely breeze, and the sounds of the city and within, you are at peace. The concern for the news of the world, as well as the news of your world of self-concern, cannot touch the ineffable, empty space of awareness, which has been patiently waiting to know itself through you. The question of ‘why meditate?’ has become irrelevant. In a way, it’s like asking why does the wind blow? We have no choice but to return to what we are beyond the story of oneself. We have no choice but to return to the mystery and beauty of what is, this very moment.