Читать книгу One-Moment Meditation - Martin Psy.D. Boroson - Страница 3

Think of all the moments we “lose”—stuck in traffic, standing in line, sitting in a boring meeting. Think of all the moments we “waste”—going to parties we don’t enjoy, working when we’re not focused, watching one more television show before bed. Then there are those “stolen moments”—the moments we grab when no one’s looking—to window shop, surf the net, or fiddle with our phones. And then there are those moments that pass by unnoticed—the moments between other moments. What if each of these moments offered us an opportunity? What if each and every moment offered us a chance to become more calm, alert, balanced and content? What if there were something simple we could do, in just a moment, that could have a profound effect on our lives?

• • •

This book was conceived in a moment.

I was meditating one morning for my usual thirty minutes, and was determined to sit still, eyes looking down, for the full thirty minutes. But this particular morning, I was restless, my mind was racing, and time seemed to be moving so slowly. I worried that I had forgotten to set the alarm, and that I might end up sitting there for hours. It certainly felt like hours. I wanted to check the clock. Many times. But I was determined to sit still, and just didn’t want to give in. Then I gave in.

I turned to the clock and discovered that I had not forgotten to set the alarm. There was one minute left. Which meant that I’d just spent twenty-nine minutes wondering if thirty minutes had passed. Discouraged, I thought, “With just a minute left, I might as well quit for today.” And then it hit me: “What’s wrong with a minute of meditation? What did I hope to experience in thirty minutes that I can’t experience in one minute?” So I decided to start again, as if from the beginning. I decided to meditate for whatever time was left. I decided to meditate for a minute . . . but make it a good one.

From that moment on, my attitude toward time began to change. I began to think less about long-term goals and more about present opportunities. I began to realize how much could be achieved in a very short time. And I began to meditate in a new way—not just sitting on my cushion each morning for thirty minutes, but briefly, all throughout my day, wherever I happened to be—on the train, at my desk, at the gym. I began to understand that the more quickly I could tap into peacefulness, and the fewer props I needed, the better. In short, I began to meditate whenever I had a moment.

• • •

Most of the time, we fail to realize the enormous potential of a moment. Perhaps this is because we think of a moment as a very short amount of time—just a few seconds—and therefore rather negligible. But the word “moment” actually comes from a Latin word that means “a particle sufficient to turn the scales.” In other words, a moment can be revolutionary. It can turn your life around. A moment is, by its very nature, momentous.

Imagine what can happen in a moment: a dam bursts, the earth quakes, a dry forest bursts into flames. In just a moment, a drunk driver speeds through a stop sign and hits your car. In just a moment, stock prices start tumbling. You never know when something that you take for granted will be gone.

But a moment can also bring healing, inspiration, and joy. In just a moment, a fantastic new idea lands, unexpectedly, in your mind. In just a moment, someone solves a problem for you, or you get a phone call from a long-lost friend. In just a moment, after years of division, a wall comes down. In just a moment, during a long illness, you simply start recovering, and no one can say exactly why.

But whether life-changing moments are happy or sad, global or personal, they remind us that ordinary life has the possibility to be extraordinary. In just a moment, ordinary life can crack open to reveal another reality that was inconceivable the moment before. In other words, dramatic change doesn’t require a lot of time: it only takes a moment.

I have helped many individuals and organizations through processes of major change. And although these processes can take time, when the breakthroughs do happen, they happen suddenly, in a moment. No one can predict when they will happen or what they will be. But the best condition for having a breakthrough is when the people involved are truly present in the present moment, and open to its possibility. In other words, they are open to the radical possibility that no matter what their plans, habits, or expectations might be, this moment offers the potential for significant change.

• • •

This book will help you notice the moment, understand the moment, appreciate the moment, be in the moment, and tap the enormous potential of a moment. And it won’t take a lot of time. The first exercise requires no more than one or two minutes each day—guaranteed. As you progress, this exercise actually gets shorter and shorter, taking less and less time, until you can do it in just a moment.

With this approach, you will be able to refresh and recharge yourself many times throughout the day. You will learn to experience deep stillness (which is your nature) in the midst of activity (which is also your nature). You will understand time in a new way, and learn ways to transform a day that feels crowded and rushed into one that feels spacious and full of opportunity.

As you practice these techniques, and your understanding of this philosophy deepens, you will approach what could be called mastery of the moment. Mastery, in this case, does not mean dominating the moment or taking control of it. Nor does it mean submitting to the moment or letting it control you. It simply means being at peace in the moment—that there is no tension between you and whatever is happening right now.

I have taught this technique in lectures and workshops, on the radio, in leadership seminars, and in on-the-job training sessions, and have seen how it can benefit people in many different ways. If you are new to meditation, this technique gives you a straightforward method that will fit in easily with your life as it is. If you have tried meditation and “failed,” this technique gives you a way to try again—a way that focuses not on long-term success but on short-term opportunity. And if you believe that you are just “too busy to meditate,” this approach takes away that excuse: everyone has a moment to spare.

Although this book was written with beginners in mind, it was also written for advanced beginners. (Advanced beginners are people so advanced that they are always willing to begin again.) So even if you are experienced at mediation, I hope that you will be open to this approach. You might well find that it helps you to refresh and reinvigorate your existing practice, or to integrate that practice into the challenges of everyday life. And if you are one of those experienced meditators who get hung up on “how long you can sit still without thinking” (a kind of meditation machismo), this approach will remind you to take everything—even meditation—one moment at a time.

• • •

Is it really possible to meditate in a moment?

Many people do see mediation as an endurance test: the longer they can sit still, being peaceful, the more spiritual they are. Many people also believe that meditation must be practiced in a serene and beautiful retreat—far removed from everyday life. They have these beliefs, no doubt, because so much of our spiritual heritage has been handed down by monks, nuns, hermits, and prophets—people who renounced ordinary life to spend years and years in silent contemplation.

But times are changing, and our understanding of meditation is, too. Scientific research is confirming that the benefits of meditation are not just esoteric or “spiritual,” but quite practical, too. Laboratory experiments and psychological studies have shown that meditation can improve our mood, decrease anxiety, alleviate depression, lower blood pressure, strengthen the immune system, and promote optimism and resilience.

Today, more and more people believe that the benefits of meditation should be available to us when we need them, and that the practice of meditation should be do-able everywhere—whether we’re stuck in traffic, starting a business, or changing a diaper. Many people today also want to bring meditation, or meditative principles, into their relationships, their parenting, and their work, and see a need for more meditative approaches in politics, business decisions, and public conversations. Surely the more quickly we can be peaceful, and the fewer props we need, the better. So let me tell you why I believe that it is not only possible to meditate in a moment, but essential that we do.

We all fantasize, from time to time, about being peaceful in some other time or place. We imagine being peaceful in the future—at the end of the day, on the weekend, after the kids grow up, when we retire. Or we imagine being peaceful somewhere else—in church, in a park, on that deserted beach. But each time we do this, we fail to meet the moment that is here. We let ourselves off the hook. This is an especially self-defeating form of procrastination, for the moment in which we most need to be peaceful is the very moment in which it is not so easy to be peaceful.

Also, whenever we think that peacefulness takes a lot of time, or will come only in the future, we are focusing on becoming peaceful rather than being peaceful. We are keeping ourselves in a state of “wanting,” and this state of wanting is, by definition, not a state of being or “having.” So if you believe that you must meditate for a long time in order to become peaceful, you are creating more stress for yourself. It’s like throwing a ball out in front of you, then racing to catch it, and then if you do catch it, immediately throwing it out in front of you again—while also complaining that you never ever have a ball.

On a deeper level, if our sense of contentment is dependent on circumstances, then it is vulnerable to a change of circumstances. If we are only content because life is going well, we will not be content when life is going badly. That’s just not a very stable or deep kind of contentment. True contentment transcends the “ups and downs” of life. It embraces life as it is now, with all of its imperfections. In other words, the only way to be really peaceful is to be fully content with what’s happening now—even if, sometimes, it isn’t peaceful.

In the wonderfully succinct words of the spiritual teacher Krishnamurti, “It’s now or never.” This doesn’t mean that if you aren’t feeling peaceful now, you will never feel peaceful. It just means that contentment is only possible when you are not throwing that ball into the future. It is only possible in the present tense (or rather, the present not-tensed). When you are truly present in the present, your mind is not concerned with wanting things to be different than they are—and that is contentment.

Since contentment can only be found now, in the present moment, this also means that it doesn’t take any time at all. It doesn’t happen over time: it happens in a moment. So you don’t have to go on a retreat or quit your job or find “twenty minutes, twice a day” in order to become peaceful. Peace is always available. It is offering itself to you now, now, and now again, wherever you are. But you aren’t aware of it because, well, you’re too busy doing other things, like trying to become peaceful (or reading this book).

So think of my approach as just going straight to the point. If being peaceful is possible now, and is only possible now, then you might as well get right to it. But please know that I don’t intend this approach to replace any other form of meditation or prayer, any path of self-discovery, or any of the excellent self-help or leadership books available today. It’s just that whatever path you choose, whatever help you seek, if you don’t learn to master the moment, then your chance of success is limited. But if you do learn to master the moment, well, then there’s nothing stopping you.

• • •

At the heart of this book is the moment. But because a moment is quite elusive, and can seem to go by so quickly, you might have trouble finding it. That’s why, in Part 1, Basic Training, you will begin with something easier to get your head around: a minute. (A minute is like a moment with handles on either side. You know where it begins and ends, so it’s easier to grasp.) With the first exercise in this book, The Basic Minute, you will learn how to experience stillness in just a minute.

Part 2, Intermediate Training, then shows you how to make The Basic Minute more versatile. It becomes a tool that you can use wherever you are, no matter what is happening, even in an emergency. Part 3, The Moment in Time, is more philosophical. It explores our perceptions of time and the nature of time, showing you just how flexible time can be. Part 4, Advanced Training, then teaches you how to reduce the length of a Basic Minute step by step, until you can experience its benefits in almost a moment. Part 5, Meeting the Moment, explores the deeper meaning of a moment, and gives you examples of some extraordinary ones. In Part 6, Very Advanced Training, you will learn how to experience stillness all around you, all the time, in everything you do. Part 7, The Miracle of the Moment, gives you several flexible and playful techniques that will help you tap the miraculous potential of each moment. And finally, in Part 8, Mastering the Moment, you will be challenged to take one last little leap into mastery.

Although the chapters in this book are short, they are highly concentrated—so please don’t gulp them down. (If you do, you might get spiritual indigestion, a common condition caused by reading too many big ideas without assimilating them.) The best way to read this book is slowly. Read a chapter, chew it over, then read it again. Practice the exercises. Live with them. When you’ve digested them fully and are hungry for more, go on to the next chapter.

You may, however, prefer to read the book all the way through first, to get an overview. That’s fine, too. But let me just caution you that if you do rush ahead to the end, you might not understand it fully. That’s because the way I describe and define a moment deepens as the book progresses. Each chapter is written with the assumption that you’ve changed a bit since practicing the exercises in the previous chapter. In other words, the end of this book is written for a different you.

Do make a serious commitment to practicing these exercises seriously, but please don’t take too them seriously. Approach them as play rather than penance, and feel free to adapt them to suit your life. There’s just no telling what will work for you. Or when.

There is so much about the moment, and the nature of time, that is mysterious and paradoxical and impossible to explain or even understand. Not everything in this book will make sense to you all the time; sometimes it doesn’t make sense to me. So you may want to put this book away for a while and then come back to it, sometime later, for another dip. You might see it completely differently.

In the spirit of simplicity, I have avoided using citations and studies and religious language and diagrams and flow-charts and tables and cross-cultural comparisons. Just try the exercises for yourself. You won’t need to quit your job, get a babysitter, or even find a cabin by the pond. You won’t need to buy any special clothing. You won’t need to keep a journal. You won’t need to join a group, get any unusual equipment, reorganize your office, download a program, or buy an instructional DVD from my website. All you need is here—right where you are.