Namaste

My husband and I were talking about meditation while discussing someone we know. This person is very outgoing and all outward focused - what is happening around him is all he knows. This guy is someone who is floating through life without meaning or substance. It's frustrating to be around someone that isn't OK with just being quiet - he always has to be talking because, I'm assuming here, that if there's silence, his mind spins out of control. The reason he came up in our converstation is because we were discussing the benefits of meditation. It's something so many people poo-poo because it is not a manly or cool thing to do. But if you have ever meditated, you understand the whole premise is about turning everything - EVERYTHING off and just being where you are. The sounds aren't horns honking, dogs barking or heaters turning on, they are just sounds and they float through you without names or reasons, they just are.

But meditation doesn't have to happen while in lotus position. Meditation, when approached correctly, can happen anywhere. I know of people that meditate while they travel on a subway or airplane, I prefer to sit in lotus position but my husband, without realizing it, meditates while on his motorcycle. This sounds dangerous but stay with me: Meditation is about being in the moment and processing information that is coming at you and instantly releasing it. While on his motorcycle he is constantly surveying the road, the weather conditions, the traffic, flying debris - all of it at once. He is pulling in everything happening to him as he drives by and just as quickly, releases it and moves on to the next image. He cannot be thinking about what happened at work today or about where he wants to go on vacation. He's thinking about the road. The road is his breath and he is following it with each inhalation and exhalation. The person that leaves for an evening ride is not the person that comes back - he's calm, centered, quieted and content.