Meditation for Thursday 23 April 2026
There are times in our life when we struggle with meditation. It seems as much as we try the will to sit quietly and concentrate becomes arduous, even grim. My experience during these ‘dry’ times after I’ve wearied myself trying to meditate is to find substitute exercises, i.e. listening to music, staring at a candle, or chanting. If these become challenging, then taking a mindful walk or even sweeping the floor feeling the broom as we gather the dust and dirt. I have always said that mindfulness and meditation go together, hand in glove.
Meditation is the formal, internal practice and mindfulness an exterior concentration.
There is a cartoon I once saw where two monks, one old and one young, were meditating side by side.
The younger monk asks…
“is that all there is, what’s next?
To which the older monk says,
“nothing happens next, this is it.”
We don’t practice meditation in anticipation of receiving bliss but rather we practice being in the moment. It’s this that brings joy.
The joy that comes through perseverance will help us to live with greater equilibrium, with a stability and evenness, a balance. These qualities will help us to live with change as though change is life, and death.
Yes, there will be times when the going gets rough and meditation seems intolerable. These times will pass and once more meditation will become an important part of our daily routine, not just in those periods that we set aside daily to practice but much more as a way, the centre of who we are.
“We join the spokes together in a wheel
But it is the centre hole
That makes the wagon move.”
Meditation brings us to that centre.
Meditation
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