“In meditation leave your front door and back door open.
Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.”
A meditator once wrote that when she shuts the door, sits down, and begins to meditate, within a few seconds her thoughts come banging on her door yelling, “Let me in! Let me in!” I think most of us can relate to that story. I know I can. It seems that when I start to meditate my thoughts intensify rather than calm down, and sometimes they rage during the entire meditation session. The Buddhists have a good name for this phenomena. They call it “monkey mind.” That is what our minds do. They chatter. They think thoughts constantly.
What are we to do in meditation and contemplative prayer to deal with our thoughts? One good approach is to just notice them as they come up, smile at them, let them go, and then return back to your prayer focus. Meditation is sometimes called the “practice of continual return.” For a Christian this means returning home to an awareness of the Divine Presence, to the bosom of the God of Love. What a great deal!
I invite you to re-read the above quote from Zen teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. Enjoy it. Laugh at it and laugh at yourself. And take it to heart as you persist in your meditation practice.
~ PR
Spiritual Director