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<\/a>This week we get to discuss a wonderful topic: bringing joy to our meditation<\/span> and meditation to our joy<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\nThis is great because meditation, and indeed life itself, can be a source of countless joys. Indeed for most of us it is. Life is <\/span>good.<\/p>\n But it can also be filled with such pain and sorrow. And often-times it is our sorrows and pains that dominate our meditation experiences.<\/span> I heard one Tibetan Buddhist\u2019s story of an American woman who went to India in search of enlightenment, but after just a few days in isolated retreat near Dharamsala<\/a> she came out screaming, deeply afflicted by what she saw: her own mind.<\/p>\n We \u2013 or most of us at least \u2013 spend a huge amount of time and effort pushing away unpleasant experiences in our lives, repressing <\/span>events and memories that cause us pain. But in meditation we do the opposite, we allow anything that wants to come up to come up<\/span>. In our metta bhavana we simply practice greeting our memories and thoughts and feelings with an open and loving heart. We don\u2019t run away. We don\u2019t distract ourselves. We don\u2019t lose ourselves in fantasy.<\/p>\n We begin like scientists watching over an experiment: carefully we set the conditions and then we just await the results. And we never reject <\/span>the results. In this way we loosen the grip that our mind or thoughts or expectations can hold us in. We open to a space of greater freedom, greater flexibility and openness. This openness, when we experience it, should make us smile.<\/span> Because with the difficult feelings the openness allows us to reach beyond them and to let them pass more easily. And with the pleasurable feelings with openness we can experience them so much more deeply and fully than if we were to cling to them.<\/p>\n This is how we find joy in our meditation. Even when it is hard, when negative thoughts rush up or boredom or lack of energy plague us, we can still have some little moments of openness, when we are just here. And how <\/span>beautiful <\/span>that is.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.polytechnique.edu\/pages\/1\/36\/51.jpg\")
<\/a>What good would that be? A scientist also does not judge <\/span>the results: good and bad. Our mind is our laboratory. Observe what comes up.<\/span> And notice that if it is a painful thought, you may want to say it is bad, but just note \u201cpain\u201d and allow it to pass. The same with pleasurable thoughts. Perhaps you react, simply out of habit. You catch yourself indulging in a pleasant fantasy or daydream. Just note that too, \u201cdaydream\u201d and move on.<\/p>\n
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