Quality Time
October 19, 2023

When you meditate for a short period like this, the fact that there’s less quantity means you have to ramp up the quality. You’re really on top of your mind. You put it with the breath and you make sure it stays. There’s a tendency when you have an hour or more to meditate to think, well, the mind can gradually settle down like a hang glider coming down from the top of a cliff, gradually coming down. Because you don’t know what to do with the mind that’s still.

Well here you’re going to get some practice. Get the mind with the breath and keep it right there. One of the most important lessons in the meditation is how to keep the mind still and resist the temptations to tell yourself, “This is getting boring, nothing’s happening—maybe I need to do some insight.” Just keep the mind still. Whatever thoughts come in, let them evaporate off the edges of your awareness. You don’t have to get involved with them. If you get involved with them, they pull you in, pull you in, and you’ve left your meditation.

So they can be there at the edge, but you don’t have to pay any attention to them. They can tell you how wonderful they are, how interesting they are, how important they are—whatever arguments the mind gives to itself that it has to think. You have to learn how to say, “No, no, no,” all the way down the line. The only thinking you’re going to do right now is about how to make the breath comfortable and how to keep it comfortable. That way, the fact that this is a short meditation doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be good, and it doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be effective. It can be effective. As Ajasn Lee says, you can have bushels and bushels of newsprint, but they’re nothing compared to one little dollar bill, because the dollar bill has been invested with meaning.

So invest your breath with meaning right now, this little bit of time—because you’re here to meditate. And of course, from the Buddha’s perspective, even if we sit for hours, it’s just a little bit of time. Think about all the eons and eons that we’ve been wandering around, sometimes doing good things, sometimes doing bad things. When you think about that, it should direct you right back to the breath. Because you realize that there are dangers in wandering around like that. You want to stay home. Home is where it’s safe. So make this a good home, a home where it’s comfortable to be.

And keep watch. Make sure you don’t go slipping out. As for things outside that may want to come in, the fact that you’re not paying any attention to them is enough to keep them at bay.