The Gym Analogy
What I’ve told people is to imagine a world where muscle is “it”.
Muscle is The Answer. Muscle is enlightenment. Muscle is what deep down every person strives for. So in that world, there are those that realize muscle is the answer, and they’ve found it.
So they write books about the wonders of muscle. They gives lectures, and teachings, and write books about what muscle does and how/why it is the answer: Be Here Muscle! Just Be Muscle! Muscle Now! The Way of Muscle!
But hardly any of these books and teachings say: Go to the gym, pick up a ten pound weight. Do 15 reps, 3 sets. They all just simply say something along the lines of: Be Muscle! Positive Thinking for Muscle!
What I’ve found in meditation is so much of what we read about being present, about non-duality, about being calm, about “positive” thinking, etc. Those are all the results, or can be the results, of putting the time in.
The gym analogy also works in regards to daily practice. If I just sit down and let my mind go about its way as it normally does throughout the day, I have to ask myself: “Just exactly what am I doing? Why am I doing this?”
It’d be like going to the gym and just kind of meandering around. Maybe picking up a one pound weight, picking my nose, sitting on a machine, and not really pushing. Just being there for an hour and saying: “I did it!”
Meditation – just like going to the gym – takes focus, direction, commitment, and honesty with yourself.