Oakville Zen Meditation
I will divide the talk into 3 parts:
1 regarding meditation itself, 2 regarding the meditator, and 3 Other causes for quitting.
A- Meditation: 4 main factors for quitting
1- The process of mindfulness-based meditation, meaning the “know-how” to meditate.
2- About its purpose: We don’t meditate:
>To relax body and mind for a few minutes each time.
>To reach happiness 365/24/7 after a few weeks of practice.
> To fix our existential l/ emotional issues, nor does it help us to escape them.
They will be here til the end. Rather meditation will help us deal with them more effectively,
but it is not a quick fix.
Rather, we meditate:
-To learn to control, in a more effective way, our restless and deceptive mind source of
suffering caused by attachment, greed, aversion, illusion, and delusion.
It is done by mindfulness-based focusing practice during meditation.
-To experience and understand the genuine reality of the current moment, and not the
mind-made fictional ones, because only the surrounding reality of the moment exists.
-To reach serenity and, eventually, Awakening by minimizing the main causes of suffering
such as attachments, greed, aversions, delusions, and illusions, also called ignorance.
3- Too demanding regarding time/space required 2 for staying still 3 for focusing on breathing
for a long period. 4 Boring, 5 falling asleep too frequently. 6 Slow/ late or no results.
4- Meditation is not a priority for me……. If so, the exit door is open.
B- Meditator: 2 main factors for quitting
1- I have unrealistic or too high expectations about my meditation:
It is related to our misunderstanding of what meditation is all about (see first paragraph)
2- I have negative judgments regarding myself:
a- I have doubts about my meditation skills, such as I cannot understand the basics
and purposes.
b- I don’t have the discipline to do it on a daily regular schedule.
c- I am too impatient as far as my progress and my achievements.
C- Other reasons for quitting:
