The act of being still and paying attention is one of the most difficult things for a person to do.   It sounds simple enough. Don’t move around, don’t make noise, and pay attention. No big deal, right? Wrong. Huge deal. And yet, in every religious tradition, this is a basic discipline. You can call it meditation, contemplation, prayer, or whatever, but the act of being still and paying attention is as difficult as it is simple.

Be-stillA dear friend from graduate school has practiced meditation for many years, and in the midst of one of my meditation phases, I complained to him that no matter how often or how long I meditated, I had days when I just didn’t feel anything. I did not have a “good” meditation.

Mike smiled and said patiently, “John, the purpose of meditation is not to have a good meditation. The purpose of meditation is to prepare you for your day.” He went on to say that with meditation, you take the time to be still, you clear your mind as you are able, you pay attention to the moment. When you do that, you put yourself in a better position to face the day with a clear mind and an open heart.

OK, that takes the pressure off of me for being “good” at prayer or meditation. With more practice (again off and on) and from reading some material that seemed to be written just for me that I identified the first basic step to developing a clearer mind and an open heart. I had to discover what a cluttered mind and heart I had. Paying attention to the clutter is necessary before I can focus on clearing it away.

Have you been annoyed by the little text ribbons that run across the bottom of the TV screen? Sometimes they are little news flashes. Sometimes sports scores or even stock prices. How about those text boxes or pictures that show up in the corner of the screen notifying you of some other program that’s coming later. Those ribbons or text boxes are not what I want to focus on, but they are impossible to completely ignore. They take up very little screen space, but I am not able to devote my complete attention to what I want to watch.

That’s is a perfect analogy to the clutter in my mind and heart. That’s next.