2/11/14 Be curious. Be interested. Allow yourself to pay close attention, but don't demand or force it. Admit and embrace that you DON’T know what meditation is about. Be open to learning, for that is your only goal. You never know what you'll find, or how it will feel. Be abstract with your attempts to focus on the breath. Realize that you are not making yourself breathe. You were breathing before you started meditation. You will continue to breathe after meditation. You are breathing during meditation, Even when your focus has been distracted. Observe your distractions closely with loving curiosity. Embrace the process of losing focus to find focus. Replace anxiety, frustration, and impatience, With trust, determination, and relinquishment, By gently directing your mind as often as needed. Note that negative feelings are not as pressing or permanent as they seem, And that attaching yourself to them is the same thing as feeling them. If you can see them as they are, they will leave on their own. Be thankful and present in every moment, Even in those when you are distracted. See that your anxiety is only possible Because you have already lost focus on the present. Even though negative feelings appear to describe the present moment, They exist only as the absence of proper focus on the moment. Their very occurrence indicates a shift in the brain away from mindful presence. Use this to observe your experience without judgement or criticism. You are not your thoughts. You are not your feelings. Every single tiny and fleeting experience of the mind has something to teach you, And the first is that you are not in control of what you just experienced. Accept your distractions as already being in the past, And detach yourself from feeling obligated to them. The only thing that is real is this moment. Be an eager student of your own mind. Be relentless in your practice of compassion: Both internally and externally. Admit and embrace that you DON’T know what meditation is about.