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Author: [[Pema Chödrön]] Full Title: Meditation Category: #books So if you ask why we meditate, I would say it’s so we can become more flexible and tolerant to the present moment. So meditation helps us cultivate this feeling of no big deal, not as a cynical statement, but as a statement of humor and flexibility. You’ve seen it all, and seeing it all allows you to love it all. So perhaps you only have ten minutes that you can commit to meditation. Just ten minutes can help you come to your senses or slow down enough that your natural intelligence, or what I call basic goodness—the part of you that knows what the right action at any given time might be—can click in. The idea isn’t to just plunk down and start your timer and block out everything that you’ve brought with you. So first, have some sense of where you’re at. Ask yourself the questions: What am I feeling physically? What is my mood? What is the quality of my mind? So step one in getting settled is to check in with yourself. Tibetan Buddhism, in particular, is about being awake to whatever is arising. I thought that word really captured the feeling of what we’re doing with the breath in meditation, because “allowing” has such a gentle and nonclinging feel. There can be a sense that while the breath goes out, you become part of the vast, open space around you. It’s a very spacious and allowing feeling.

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Meditation by Pema Chödrön presents wisdom from the contemplative traditions.

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