Episode 196
Nothing is Hard, Nothing is Easy
If you have never meditated, then you might think the idea of sitting and observing your own thoughts for 10 minutes is extremely difficult – perhaps even insurmountable. We are so used to struggling, that to set some time aside to be free of struggle seems impossible.
The time spent seated isn’t all that different for an experienced meditator or a novice. Perhaps the one with more practice maintains his focus for a few more seconds, or even minutes, but once again he loses focus and is lost in thought. The experience is very similar, but the story around the experience can be quite different.
The novice tells himself that his thoughts are intolerable, that if he loses focus that is a failure, that if he is a failure that is an existential problem. The experienced meditator is aware that thoughts will pass, that losing focus is a part of the process, that if one falls all one need do is stand once more.
All we must do, all we can ever do and all we ever need to do, is bring our attention to the present moment and act accordingly.
Hosts & Guests
Kurt Robinson
Resources
Transcript
Today I’d like to talk about the idea the idea that nothing is difficult but nothing is easy either.
When I talk to people about meditation I say what you need to do is find a quiet place, sit down in a comfortable position and let your thoughts pass.
Or try to focus on the breath, maybe focus on the different parts of the breath like what’s going on in nostrils, just outside, naval cavities down into lungs.
When thoughts start to wander or the mind starts to divert its attention to something else when you notice it you simply bring it back.
They say to me Kurt, it’s so hard!
Really, this is hard?
There’s nothing hard about it. I said to my friend Paulie the other day even as an experienced meditator its the same thing for me.
My intention might stay longer on the breath, maybe I can maintain it for 10 seconds or even minutes. Its exactly the same thing. It’s not like it somehow gets easier with time.
The hard time about this is the story that we tell ourselves, the story that is difficult to sit down for a few minutes to take time out and pay attention to what’s going on.
That’s the difficult thing, that’s what makes it difficult.
Just like with going to the gym if I pick up the weight and do some squats I will maybe succeed in finishing the set, or maybe I fail. What happens is I return it or ungracefully drop it. Then I wait and begin again.
The next gym day I do it again. There’s nothing really hard about this process with meditation, I might joke about it a little.
People think that sitting down and letting go, ceasing to struggle is something difficult. Letting go of preoccupations, letting go of duties.
Saying to yourself these 5-20 minutes I have nothing to think about, nothing to worry about, nothing so important that I need interrupt these moments with myself trying to experience the divine. That’s difficult?
To let go of struggling? If it really is difficult it might indicate exactly how valuable this practice is. Is it hard to stop struggling? Then one might need practice.
In the Way of the Samurai it says that one might not need ever master the present moment. If you master the present moment that’s all there is, there’s nothing more. Master and deal with what’s in front of you with observation and discernment, presence. You will handle it with whatever resources you have in that moment.
There is nothing more, there is nothing difficult, nor is there anything easy.
Thank you for listening, thank you for retaining your presence and practicing meditation and sitting for those few minutes to let go of the struggle.
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