11: meditating on the subway
i used to think that meditation was all about sitting silently in a cave-like setting and achieving nirvana through pure stillness or something like that.
but the deeper i studied people with 5, 10, 20 years of meditation, the more i realized the core skill of meditation is being able to find equanimity in the chaos of life... not escaping life.
one sangha i practice with is in the mission district in sf, and regularly there are people screaming and cars honking outside.
i used to get really annoyed when people would interrupt my sits, but lately it's becoming clear that noticing the interruptions without reacting to it IS ITSELF the essence of meditation.
so more recently i've been doing "illegal" things while listening to guided meditations, like walking through the park or eating my dinner or observing people on the new york metro.
and i've gotta say, it's a lot more fun.