I was thinking over the weekend about our habit of building abstractions and structures on top of things. For example you can buy meditation products, from CDs to incense to statues and more, some of it at great expense. Very interesting and some of the statues are very nice pieces of work, no argument. But do we really need all these trappings? In my view, the answer is ‘no’, in many cases the structures and trappings that we put round our activities can cloud our purpose, it’s as if we’re trying to bribe the universe into giving us success without realising that we’re getting in our own way!
I use meditation as an example, but I have no doubt that anyone can think of their own example or will certainly happen across one. Take meditation, in my case I’m beginning to work with zazen now, but in general I’ve found that what matters is your approach to it both before and during your practice. The effort to make a regular habit of it, combined with even a small amount of basic guidance from an experienced instructor is worth more than all the robes, CDs and incense in the world and will make a great deal more difference.
Meditation should be a simple affair, but I’ve seen meditation exercises in which you actually have to remember what to do next, it should be a thing of simplicity but we’ve strayed off and made it (as with many other things) into something that’s needlessly complex. When you think of your own example, I don’t doubt you’ll see the same.
Personally, I think the simple approach yields greater benefits.
Leave a Reply