How do I know? Well, because I'm a perfectionist myself, of course!
To be clear, this is not one of those things where I say that we should have meager, moderate goals. That maybe the attainments of deep meditators might be good for monks and nuns, but not for modern people. Oh, no, not that at all.
I, personally, have been taught that for some of us, the lifestyle of a householder or working person is actually the perfect way to gain deep realizations of goodness, truth, and beauty. It's not necessarily helpful to say that we should lower our standards about what's possible.
In this vein, for a long time, I was very frustrated by some of the Zen training slogans I'd hear, like one that says "Nothing Special". We can use this in meditation as a way of creating some distance from the thoughts we usually identify with as our self. Sometimes, though, I was confused because heard teachers using this slogan in a way that turns out to seem almost nihilistic when I'd take the logic to its conclusion - saying something like - "meditation may change you for the better, or it may not, just try not to be too concerned about it!" I didn't find it especially motivating to be told I should do this thing that may or may not have an effect. My Western mind was trained that every good thing should have a good advertisement to promote it. But here these meditators are just saying that their method is "nothing special."
For me, I didn't want to spend my time sitting in an uncomfortable pose, counting my breaths if it wasn't going to actually benefit my life in some way! I know lots of fun things to do that don't especially benefit me, why wouldn't I just do those? Why learn to meditate?!
But then, upon reflection, upon tasting (in my own small way) some of the fruits of meditation, I've come to see how much potency there is in a training slogan like "nothing special."
Another phrase I more recently learned from a teacher was this: "To go fast is to go slow." Meaning, sometimes the quickest way to accomplish something is actually to take a moderate pace and just go step by step. This starts to shine a light on the meaning of some of these other training phrases. That they might be for people who are trying to achieve a lot in their meditation, and by this causing undo stress to their body and mind. These type of instructions are why in traditional meditation systems, you'd always have a mentor working with you directly - because some people need to be slowed down, while others need a gentle kick in the posterior to get moving!
So this little blog today is not so much for those who aren't sure about whether meditation has many benefits, or can't seem to motivate yourself to practice. For you, by all means raise your standards! But for those who are convinced of the efficacy of your inner practice, another problem can arise. Sometimes people get very concerned about what's the best way to meditate! What's the fastest method to get results? What will be the most powerful?!
And I can reveal the secret to you right here - that if you want the most potent meditation and the fastest results, you must lower your standards.
In this case, what this means is that any time you are busy being concerned with whether your meditation is "good enough" or "the right one to progress quickly" or the like, you are activating a kind of grasping in the mind.
In the classics of yoga it is said that this grasping will actually distort the inner energies of the body and make it harder to sink into deep states of meditation. So when we apply slogans like this Zen saying "nothing special", "to go fast is to go slow," or even "lower your standards," we can combat this type of grasping and energy distortion.
Really, all the gains of meditation seem to relate to coming down and getting very grounded where you are. This is the source of all power and potency - coming down to the truth of this moment, getting real. Any actions that we take from a motivation that it's going to be better somewhere else, that where we are is not the perfect place to start, are somewhat misinformed and will tend to unbalance us. We try to reach out farther than our roots go down, and this makes us top heavy.
It's not that we can be lazy if we want to be happy. Discipline seems to be one of the best conditions for a fulfilling existence. But we can have discipline in a way that is somewhat frenetic, or even manic, or we can have it in a way that is relaxed and grounded.
Even the Bible teaches this type of meditation, when it says "Be still, and know that I am God"
That's the most important thing to do, get to this place of stillness - and then, knowledge of Reality - however you choose to refer to it can dawn. But if we are running around trying hard to know "God" sometimes that very trying pushes what we want even farther away.
We live in a "more is better" culture, but it truly seems that sometimes in the realm of inner cultivation "less can be more" - because when we have this type of inner stillness, we have the power of the Subtle. When we are grounded and quiet in this moment, we may not even need hours and hours of meditation - we can turn our quiet mind toward an uplifting object and experience insight - we can experience opening and change. The subtle shifts we make in our minds can have a profound effect, depending on the quality of our presence.
Consuming too much spiritually can give us a kind of meditative indigestion just as consuming too much food give us indigestion in our stomachs. But just as eating moderately and simply can empower the health of our physical body, meditating or practicing in a humble, moderate, and simple way can empower our mind and spirit.
Like an old analogy states "drop by drop, the bucket is filled" we can practice humbly but consistently and seemingly all by themselves we will see amazing and wholesome experiences arise within.
What if we could lower our standards enough to truly come down to what is happening right now, let that settle our minds, and then start from there?
