Why People Don’t Meditate and How to Anyway

August 31st, 2009

I’ve long toyed with the idea of starting a meditation routine. After all, I’m not blind to the serenity on the faces of those who practice regularly. I’ve been to Buddhist teaching sessions, read books on meditation and listened to audiotapes. Yes, I even dug up my old tape deck to do so. I’ve always wanted to get into a steady routine, but never actually did. Was it a lack of time, dedication, or attention? No. It was because meditation, as it exists in the public eye, is whack. Yes, whack.

The idea of meditation has mutated far beyond its sensible boundaries. The scientifically-confirmed capabilities of meditation are being obfuscated by cheap products, miracle claims, and cult-like visualizations. No wonder it only has fringe status in western cultures.

So what if you want the benefits without the baloney. How do you get meditating without looking like you’ve fallen for a fad?

The Problem

The word meditation summons certain images in the mind of the public. This happened by no one singular event, but rather the countless occurrences of thousands of years. Consider the public perception of meditation against its root purpose:

Public Perception of Meditation	Actual Meditation
gongs incense lotus flowers yoga and Lululemon pants weekend “serenity” workshops otherwise normal people chanting “ohm”, or as they know it, “”	introspection contemplation mental discipline

While there’s nothing wrong with the elements that make up the public perception, they definitely work to marginalize the practice.

To further complicate matters, there are countless unique interpretations of meditation. Behold a dramatically abbreviated list of styles:

• Clinically Standardized Meditation
• Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy
• Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction
• Qi Gong
• Relaxation Response
• Tai Chi
• Transcendental Meditation
• Vipassana
• Yoga
• Zen Buddhist Meditation

And each of the abovementioned incarnations all have several sub-interpretations, gurus, products, workshops, DVDs, audio and print books. Amazingly, meditation somehow manages to feels esoteric and commercial all at the same time.

The Solution

K.I.S.S.

With the overwhelming amount of options available, the best place to start is anywhere. All the styles and books are pretty much the same to a beginner.

Find some reputable literature on the topic (Amazon helps you find highly reviewed and popular books very easily). Don’t think spending money on some workshop or product will bring you enlightenment. You can start for free with a borrowed book from the library. And there’s no need to sit on the floor of a temple; at home in a chair is the best place to start.

Yet, with all the forms of meditation and the accompanying selection of literature, you might be tempted to just go at it alone. I don’t recommend it. There’s too much to learn.

The most level-headed, clinically sterile meditation resource I’ve ever come across are Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn’s Mindfulness Meditation books, such as Wherever You Go There You Are (for everyday meditation) and Full Catastrophe Living (for dealing with stress, pain and illness). His work eschews the imagery and ritual we typically associate with meditation, choosing to focus solely on the medical aspects.

After one of the Buddhist sessions I attended several years back, I asked the monk, part sincerely, part to entertain my girlfriend, how quickly I could become enlightened. He told me, quite seriously, “at least three years, full-time.” From what I thought was a silly question, I got some, ahem, enlightening insight: meditation is no small undertaking. It demands a significant lifestyle change, not just a few sessions.

Maybe that’s why meditation is so resisted: people don’t want to dedicate themselves to becoming a cliché. We still want to be ourselves, just a little less stressed and in better mental control. The good news is that you can have the best of both worlds. You can be better and still stay yourself. Just start somewhere, anywhere, and remember what meditation really is, not just what it looks like on TV.