Friends of the Spirit

  Tonight, I was involved in a planning meeting for our upcoming introductory meditation class. We started to talk about whether or not we should schedule follow up classes, at which point I started to reflect on what has attracted me to the meditation group in the first place. I have to say that there are two things that keep me coming back to meditation in general, and group meditation practice in particular. The first is simple curiosity, much akin to that of a researcher or explorer. Meditation is an always uncharted and forever boundless place to explore one's life and depths. But the other aspect of it has to do with the warmth and openness of friends who are exploring this kind of thing together. I am greatly appreciative of this second part, and I start to realize how crucial it is to create a group space where people can cultivate and foster a mutual sense of curiosity about practice.
   I am also aware of how delicate this balance can be, between engaging and even challenging group participants, and allowing the participants their own unique ways into the practice. It is not always so easy to sustain such a balance, but I think the rule of thumb is not to make meditation into a stepping stone for something supposedly 'more religious' or spiritual. It needs to have its own foundation, so that people are not feeling pressured to fit it into a bigger framework that may seem unfamiliar to them. This requires an attitude of, again, beginner's mind, as well as a respect for what we don't know, rather than a mindset which is always so confident on what it does know. I believe that this kind of tentative approach is really working for me in the group practice space, and it's what I definitely want to continue to sustain going forward.