Meditation Is Not What you Think

In this time of global pandemic and all of the challenges it presents to our daily lives—from contracting the disease itself, to the loss of loved ones and friends, to the loss of jobs and income, to adjusting to extended periods of lockdown or partial lockdown and a lack of normal social interaction—the cultivation of mindfulness as a life skill and a way of being in relationship to experience, including the unwanted and the unimaginable, is more important than ever before. Among other things, it offers us a reliable lens for seeing life itself as an ongoing meditation retreat, and everything that arises a de facto part of the “curriculum” of living with integrity and embodying at least a degree of wisdom and equanimity in challenging times, especially in the face of stress, pain, illness, loss, and uncertainty. It is a way of insuring that we don’t lose our minds just when we need them the most. …