Meditate on This!

 Criticism, a form of negative judgment, is absolutely out of our fellowship picture. The practice of tolerance is a part of recovery.  It aids spiritual progress and helps us to control our emotions.  We do not believe that tolerance of improper situations makes good sense.  God gave us intelligence to determine between good and bad; therefore, we find as much harm in being tolerant of wrong thought or action as we find in intolerance of the right things.

I have tried from time to time to explain the mechanics of meditation to people who aren't currently meditating. I'm not sure I'm qualified to do this. I'm pretty sure I'm not qualified to do this. There is no way I'm qualified to do this. The looks on their faces! It's one of those things that it's best to just make a start in whatever way you can and see what happens. Most of my failed converts tend to think of meditation as replacing bad thoughts with good ones. Or driving all thoughts out of your mind and existing in kind of a thinking void. There's a lot of effort involved, a lot of concentrating and forcing the thinking into a template. In my experience the best way is to pay attention to my breath and watch what comes scrolling across the kyron of my mind, with no judgement or force. To say: "Huh. Look at that thought. I'll be doggoned such a thought" and then trying to refocus on the breathing. The harder I try to "do it right" the stupider it becomes. I like to use the analogy of beginning to train for a marathon after ten years of smoking cigarettes. The mind is not going to give up control willingly. The lungs aren't going to bounce back on the first day but going from no exercise to some exercise is beneficial as is the effort trying to quiet a screaming, gibbering mind by exhaling slowly and completely five times in a row. The improvement isn't dramatic but something happens that's good for me.

I think it's best to look up the definition of this esoteric and confusing practice after an esoteric and confusing attempt to explain what it is . . .

Meditation: A practice that entails focusing or clearing your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques (The Cleveland Clinic); a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and to detach from reflexive, discursive thinking (Wikipedia); a profound and extended contemplation or reflection in order to achieve focused attention or an otherwise altered state of consciousness (American Psychological Association and see how the medical establishment tends to complicate the hell out of everything?); a means of transforming the mind (The Buddhist Center and see how the Buddhists keep it as simple as possible?).

Some schools emphasize meditating on a text. Some on repeating a chanted word. Some on simply trying to be calm and clear in one's thinking. So the point is that no one really knows how to do it or explain it but it works! It really does!