Meditation. It’s an important part of our spiritual practice. It is better to sit every day and be utterly unable to control our thoughts than to skip our meditation altogether. When we sit to meditate we must remember that MEDITATION IS NOT ANOTHER ACTIVITY. It is a non-activity. In the US we live in a culture that prioritizes activities that produce results. We cannot come to our meditation with that kind of attitude. We might sit down for a certain time, make our seat comfortable, take some deep breaths, pull out our mala/rosary and start counting. If we don’t adjust our thought process to simply BE beforehand, all these actions are interpreted by the mind as more activity. We are still in action mode and we wonder why we can’t seem to ‘control our thoughts’. Another activity-I have to control my thoughts. No. We need to learn to ignore them and slowly a deeper kind of consciousness begins to manifest on its own. We don’t have to produce it; it is already there. The Self/God is not somewhere else; it is always present. All we have to do is ‘enter the silence’ of our own essential nature. That’s where we encounter the Divine. It’s not about how long we meditate or how many mantras we recite. It is about that deep presence that can be touched only when mind is not buzzing away in activity mode. Yes, we might repeat a mantra or use some kind of visualization but we should look at those activities as a doorway into the mystery, the doorway between ourselves and the Divine. If meditation is frustrating, before you sit down remember: no activity, no results, JUST BE.