Here And Now

This theme song conjures up some of my earliest TV cartoon show memories. I still remember the words to this song from, what, 50 years ago? We had a big old boxy GE black-and-white TV. We'd plop ourselves down in front of it early on Saturday morning and stay there until lunchtime.

When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It's a bit like saying, "If I jog, I'll be a much better person." "If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person." "If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person"... 

But loving-kindness - maitri - toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to change ourselves. Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest. 

   - Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness