Tricycle | Awake in the World

11 Sit with others

“Find others to sit with. Sometimes showing up for others is easier than showing up for yourself.” —Tricycle editor and publisher James Shaheen

12 Make the right decision

“Every practitioner I know who has been able to continue to practice for years has had to deal with their resistance to sitting. It seems that when we hurl ourselves in a particular direction with vigor and intention, we are also creating a shadow of resistance at the same time. This matter is resolved over time by the decisions we make in the immediate situation: do we watch TV or sit? Do we schedule a date with a friend during our usual sitting time? Do we skip our sangha night when our parents visit or do we ask them to join us (or excuse us)? Deciding to sit over and over again through every possible seduction establishes the vigor of our intention.” —Russian River Zendo teacher Darlene Cohen

13 Experiment with the breath
“My teacher Than Geoff has always reminded me that when the mind is fighting the meditation, ask it, 'What kind of breath would feel really good right now?’ It tricks you into experimenting with the breath, and usually the breath becomes interesting enough and pleasurable enough that concentration can settle in.” —Tricycle contributing editor Mary Talbot

14 Drink coffee

“Some people say that it was actually Buddhist monks who discovered coffee. The story goes that they were wandering around in the forest somewhere when they came across the beans. They started chewing them and thought, 'These are great. we can use this energy for our meditation practice.’ If you are going to get up in the morning and sit, it doesn’t have to be first thing. Get up and have a cup of coffee if it helps. It’s when you start taking out the newspaper and doing other stuff that you lose the freshness of mind you have when you first wake up. But if you can have coffee without turning on your cell phone, go for it.” —Downtown Meditation Community teacher Peter Doobinin

15 Sit because you need to

“I’d say to meditators pretty much what Rilke said to poets: don’t do it unless you have to! In my little experience, any other motivation than necessity demeans meditation to a conceit, another tool for ego-consolidation of one form or another. Not for nothing is the first point of the Big B: There is SUFFERING. That’s the one and only actual gate.” —Contributing editor Eliot Fintushel

16 Don’t cheat

“If you’re counting the breaths, for example, don’t let it be Enron style. An honest accounting works wonders for the spiritual bottom line.” —Contributing editor Mark Magill

17 Tune up by reading something you love

“I don’t mean a text that you’re studying—you don’t want to encourage the mind to cogitate. Near the place where you like to sit, keep a little selection of readings that inspire happiness or quiet; they can be from any tradition. Recently I’ve had by my side Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude, the Avadhuta Gita, and a folder of short poems and quotations from past issues of Tricycle and other sources. For a session when the mind is really stirred up, here’s a wonderful quote to put it in pause mode, from the mind training teachings in The Great Path of Awakening:

When I am in this kind of mood
My mat is by far the best place to be.
This present mental state is fine.
Moreover, by putting up with this unpleasantness,
I won’t be born in the hell realms. How wonderful!
I won’t be baked or roasted. How wonderful!”

—Tricycle copyeditor Karen Ready

18 Check in before you start

“Once you sit down, in addition to doing a quick scan of your body for tension, take a moment to look at your heart and mind before you 'start’ officially. Sure, maybe you just rolled out of bed, but what is your mood like—annoyed? Excited (or anxious) at the prospect of a new day? Is your brain still in slo-mo, or was it jolted into a panic by the alarm clock? It can be good to notice where you’re at before you start counting breaths.” —Associate editor Andrew Merz

19 Have faith

“Seek the support of a Power Beyond the Self. Dogen says, 'Throw body and mind into the house of Buddha, so that all is done by Buddha.' If we rely only upon our own resources in trying to develop a meditation practice, we will quickly exhaust ourselves. It is important to know that the Buddha himself supports us in all kinds of ways, some easy to recognize (through the teaching passed down from master to disciple, for instance), and some not. Some of those supports become visible to us only when we believe in the Buddha. Belief in Buddhahood as a Power Beyond the Self can encourage us when nothing else seems to work. That statue on your altar isn’t just a decorating idea.” —Contributing editor Clark Strand

20 Don’t push

“There’s an old Zen saying, 'When you sit Buddha, you kill Buddha.’ Whatever else it might mean about blowing away preconceptions or that kind of thing, it always stuck with me as a very friendly reminder not to try too hard, or push too hard, don’t try to be a Buddha when you’re sitting.” —Tricycle webmaster Philip Ryan

21 End carefully

“When you end your meditation, be very careful with how you open your eyes. Try to maintain your center inside rather than letting it flow outside. Then, maintaining your center, get up from the cushion and keep the center inside as long as you can. As my teacher Ajaan Fuang instructed: 'When you start out sitting in meditation, it takes a long time for the mind to settle down, but as soon as the session is over you get right up and throw it away. It’s like climbing a ladder slowly, step by step, to the second floor, and then jumping out the window.’” —Metta Forest Monastery Abbot Thanissaro Bhikkhu