Well, I went to a lecture at the University of Colorado last night given by Dr. Joy Hirsch from Columbia University, one of the leading researchers in brain imaging with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). Before I tell you what she said about the brain and meditation techniques, let me give you the Reader's Digest version of her talk, because it's quite interesting for what she didn't say, even more than for what she did.

First, the entire premise of neuropsychology, the Great Hypothesis, is that the brain and the mind are one and the same and both, therefore, are a function of neural activity. That is, you, your feelings, your memories, your hopes and dreams, your sense of free will, and your very sense of being You is just a result of the functioning of the billions of cells that make up your brain.

This idea, amazing as it truly is, gets some people reeling. "No!" they scream, "I'm not just a biomechanical *thing*!"

I won't get into that argument now, other than to say, "What's the big deal? You don't get your panties in a twist because your fish is just a biomechanical thing. Why is it so horrific a thought when it's YOU, too?"

The next fun point (I'm actually skipping a few of the points Joy made for the sake of this article… and, hey, why do we feel compelled to call people "Doctor" just because they have a PhD or MD? I have a Masters degree, but I don't expect people to call me Master. Anyway…) came from Joy describing HOW they do research of the brain. The method is really important to understand because it shows both the power and the limitations of fMRI.

After placing someone in the fMRI, which is like having your head in the hole of a giant doughnut that makes noise like smashing garbage cans as loudly as possible, they have the subject do some task for 3-5 seconds (e.g. watch a flashing pattern on a screen, or tap their left thumb and forefinger together repeatedly, or remember verbs), and then rest for a few seconds, and then do the task for a few more seconds, and then rest… for a couple of minutes.

Here's one of the crucial points: they have to do the task for 3-5 seconds because it takes the fMRI 2 seconds to scan the entire brain.

Then the researchers look at the scans and see which part of the brain is active  during the task that isn't active during the rest phase.

Now, elegant and amazing as this is — and the physics that allows for this technology is REALLY cool — you can also begin to see the limitations, I bet. If not, let me elaborate: You can only really measure something that fits with this on/off, task/rest, experimental design.

That experimental design delivers, as best as we can achieve, real data about what the brain does under different circumstances in real-time.

ANYTHING ELSE that you do with an fMRI gets further and further out into speculation. And that's what brings us back to meditation techniques and science.

The fMRI research being done with meditators does not fit that task/rest design.

During the Q&A phase of the talk, and at a reception afterward, people kept asking Joy, "Well what does fMRI say about depression, or psychotherapy, or treating ADHD, or creativity, or…" And her response was always, "We don't really know yet, because it's hard to design an experiment that shows us in real-time the changes in the brain between 'on' and 'off'."

One student asked specifically about meditation and Joy's response was brilliantly succinct: "When they've taken some professional meditators and looked at them in the fMRI, they see a lowered metabolism in some parts of the brain. So we see that, for these meditators, something is happening when they meditate. But we don't know what or why or what it means."

But that answer wasn't good enough. The student followed up with, "So, maybe when we meditate, we're doing something beyond our brain…"

The premise he tried adding, the common "meditation is beyond the mind and brain," of course, violates the idea that mind/brain/neurons are all the same thing.

Joy was polite in simply reiterating that while something seems to happen when professional meditators are doing their meditation technique, the fMRI studies are just not able to give more information, certainly not the type that shows "science is proving what meditation teachers have been saying for centuries."

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A guy sitting on a bench, back straight (not touching the bench), with a bowl of rice and veggies in his lap and the look of someone "eating mindfully." He had a slightly out-of-focus stare as he looked into the distance while his food chilled.

This thought popped into my mind: Wow, he's missing life by trying to "be here now."

Then, this morning, my friend Brian emails me a link to a New York Times blog post questioning the value of mindfulness practice.

I loved the article, if for no other reason than, like this blog, it asks some questions about meditating that typically go un-asked.

But what blew me away were the comments (which the blog was,  sadly, taking no more of by the time I got there). There seem to be 3 kinds of comments:

1. Meditators who were thrilled to hear the thoughts they've had privately aired in public
2. Friends and family of meditators who've tried to make the same point (and now had some 3rd party validation to use as ammo). And, finally….
3. True believers who think that the premise is preposterous and the very act of suggesting meditation may not be all it's cracked up to be is insulting (or worse)

Personally, I'm writing to thank Judith Warner, the author, and invite her here for more investigation into meditating.

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I have applied this method to the game of canasta, and I have NEVER lost at canasta, not once in my entire life. By the same method you can avoid losing money in the stock market, never experience rejection by the “opposite” sex and even escape the experience of being nervous when speaking in front of a crowd, GUARANTEED!

So what is this fantastic method for never losing at canasta? Are you ready?

DON’T PLAY CANASTA!

Just think about it. If you don’t play canasta you will never ever lose at canasta. If you don’t invest in stocks you will never lose money in the stock market.

The potential of this method to avoid every possible form of disappointment is simply staggering! Speaking of disappointment, let’s look at how we can take this to the “next level.” Why waste time on these trivial frustrations when the source of all disappointment is staring you right in the face. The only reason that you have ever been disappointed is because you wanted something. If you don’t want anything then you won’t be disappointed. And what is unhappiness except an extended series of disappointments? All you need to do is stop wanting things and you will be free from unhappiness forever.

“But isn’t that wanting something,” you ask, “wanting to be free from unhappiness?”

Why do people keep trying to throw a wrench in the works? Here you try to offer people a perfectly good theory and they insist upon sabotaging it.

Admittedly, if you want to be nit-picky, there’s this logical error called “affirming the consequent.” Just because disappointment depends upon wanting something, “they” say, that it does not “necessarily follow” that wanting leads to disappointment. Bunch of Pollyannas if you ask me.

Then there’s that little matter of motivation being involuntary. Just because wanting is a part of your nature, and for that reason, something that you cannot do anything about, doesn’t mean that IF you COULD stop wanting you would be free from unhappiness. So the theory has a few problems. So what? Lots of good theories have a “few” problems.

As if the naysayers were not enough there are others that insist this is not even my idea. They attribute it to some bozo named Guantanamo Boo Duh. But this isn’t what he meant.

There’s either been a mistranslation or some misunderstanding or maybe even he didn’t know what he meant. He was talking about ATTACHMENT, that condition of being completely unwilling to take ‘no’ for an answer, the determination to take over the universe in the interest of your desire; greed, impatience, perfectionism, stuff like that.

True, if you did find some way to avoid those behaviors you would probably feel a lot better (good luck with that by the way). But those are only contingent expressions of desire. If you’re going to go around desiring things at all you still risk suffering the intolerable experience of disappointment.

My strategy is better. Just avoid desire entirely and be problem-free for the rest of your life.

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Put your attention on the object of concentration and keep it there without interruption.

Simple, right?

Well, as anyone who has tried this can tell you, No, it's not simple.

How 'bout this instruction:

Stand on your head, without falling, for 4 hours.

The instruction itself is just as simple. That's why I semi-joke that to be a meditation teacher all you need to do is nod your head knowingly and say, "Go back to your practice."

It's the execution of that instruction that's the problem.  If it's not impossible, it would take a lot of time, a lot of practice, and you would probably need some natural skill to even want to put in the time to master it, let alone to be able to do it properly.

I've seen many meditators who believe that their difficulty in doing mindfulness practice, or any other concentration-type meditation (mantra, awareness of breathing, labeling experiences, etc.) is because there is something wrong with them, or because they need some brilliant adjustment to their technique.

I can tell you that's not the case.

Keeping your attention on one thing (even if that thing is something that changes), is NOT EASY. Even in monasteries, not every monk is able to do the practice well.

And, speaking of monks, there's a reason why these techniques were developed and perfected by monks who left their family, their job, and their responsibilities behind. And there's a reason why these monks have a hard time meditating when they leave their monastery or their meditation cave. It's because the fine level of awareness that it takes to do mindfulness properly is hard-won and easily disturbed.

I find it interesting that here in the West we seem to think: "Well, sure, this meditation practice is supposed to be done for hours at a time with no distractions, but I'm sure it'll be just as effective if I do it for a few minutes in the corner of my living room."

Or, maybe the thought is: "Hey, if 10 hours a day of meditating can make BIG changes, then 20 minutes a day will make small changes… and all I need is some small changes."

Regardless, the real question should be: "Is mindfulness meditation practice, or any of the concentration practices, the best way for me to get the benefits that I want?"

Part of the problem with that question is that most people don't think to ask it. And that's because they don't even know that there are other options. For various reasons — though, mostly about about the personalities of the teachers that made these practices popular — mindfulness and concentration is all most people have heard of.

There are other options though. Other ways of meditating. Ways that aren't about being monk-lite. (That's a pun, not a typo.)

In the Tibetan tradition, these practices are in the Dzogchen teachings. In Hinduism, they're in the authentic Advaita Vedanta (not to be confused with what some call Neo-Advaita, or the way Advaita has been watered down in the West). In Kabbalah, there are practices focusing on the world of Briah. I don't know enough about Christian mystical practices to point in that direction, but I'm sure there are similar techniques in that universe.  The Instant Advanced Meditation Course includes 10 practices that lead to relaxation, expanded awareness and inner peace, none of which require mindfulness meditation and all of which can be done easily and quickly. The actual practice, in fact, is easier than the instruction.

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In speaking with the thousands of meditators I know — I started meditating in 1970 at age 8 and now teach meditation all around the world — a great many of them would paraphrase Dorothy and say, "I hate meditating, but I love having meditated."

So many people I've met say they meditate not because of how they feel while they're doing it, but because of the benefits of meditation they get after having done it. Sure, sometimes it feels great while you're doing it. But not infrequently, the only way to convince yourself to put your rear end on the meditation cushion is to remind yourself that you'll feel better once you're done.

In my mind, as someone who has spent the last 10 years deeply exploring meditation once the mythology, legend, and ritual are removed, this pervasive attitude about enjoying the after-effects of meditation more than the process itself makes me wonder:

If you could get the benefits of meditation by taking a pill instead of spending hundreds, or thousands, of hours on a meditation cushion, would you do it?

In other words, which is more important, the process or the result?

I've asked this question to many long-time meditators. Some are quick to say, "Give me the pill!" Others say, "Oh, no, it's the process of meditating that's important."

To them, I follow up and ask, "Why? Why is the process so important?"

"Well," they'll say, "it's only by sitting and getting to know yourself over time that you learn all the lessons from meditation."

"But that's my point," I say. "What if you could learn all those lessons from taking a pill?"

"People try that all the time," they say. "They take drugs. But drugs don't work. The insights aren't permanent or lasting."

"I'm not talking about existing drugs; I'm talking about a hypothetical drug. A pill, heck make it a cherry flavored Gummy Bear, that, when you take it makes you fully, completely and permanently enlightened… or awakened, or peaceful, or realized, or whatever you think the goal of meditation is. And if you don't like pills, what about by pressing a button or cracking your knuckles to the rhythm of the music they play on Jeopardy?"

"Hmmm…" they ponder. "What would I do with myself, with all that time I've been spending practicing?"

"I don't know. What were you planning on doing once you reached the goal in 10 or 20 or 30 years?"

"Teach?"

"Okay, so teach."

"Teach people how to take a pill? That wouldn't be much of a class."

"Except that you would get guaranteed and instant results!"

"Hmmm…" they ponder again. "I've put a lot of time into my practice over the years. I'd hate for it to be wasted."

"That's like saying you've been struggling with a disease for years but don't want to take the brand new wonder drug that instantly cures it. You didn't have the choice before. Now you do. So, will you take it?"

As the conversation continues, what becomes clear is that some people are more attached to having the identity of being a meditator, of being on a spiritual path, than they are interested in actually getting to the end of the path and attaining the fruition of their meditation practice. Which is, of course, ironic since one of the reasons they say they meditate is to get to the end, which includes losing their attachment to any particular identity.

My reason for diving into this conversation is not to fund research for an enlightenment pill (though, if they make it, I hope it's chocolate flavored). It's to notice the question underlying "Would you take the enlightenment pill?" which is:

Given that I'm really interested in the benefits of meditation more than the practice itself, what's the best way to get those benefits?

I've found this question to be a powerful lens through which to explore meditating and meditation techniques.

If you do the same you may realize that meditation may not even be the answer! Maybe the best way to get the kind of peace-of-mind you want is by getting a massage every day, or selling all my self-help books and using the cash to live on the beach in Fiji for the rest of my life (I no longer own self-help books, but I used to have a collection that would have funded quite a long stay on a remote and inexpensive island).

Or maybe meditation is the best way, but what type of meditation? There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of variations of techniques. How do you choose?

Well, if you were picking a surgical procedure, instead of a meditation technique, you would ask the doctor to show you proof that it works, you would want to get reports from people who got successful results, and you would notice that some newer techniques are improvements over old ones. Why don't we put the same effort into examining the effectiveness of different meditation techniques at delivering the benefits of meditation that we desire?

It's said that the Buddha's final teaching was an admonition not to believe anything just because it's written in the scriptures or taught by a revered teacher, but to investigate and "be a light unto yourself." (I'm not sure why I used quotes, since the Buddha's teachings weren't written down until 500 years after he died, and then in a language that's been dead for centuries. But, anyway…)

I'm not going to be able to give an answer about the best way to get the benefits we expect from meditation. But I hope this raises the question in a way that makes you go "Hmmmmm…." which, by the way, is a fine mantra to use for meditating

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Scientists are researching meditation like never before.  Thanks to the advance of imaging technologies, like functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, we're able to see more about the workings of the brain than ever before.  And given the number of baby boomer scientists who've either meditated or been around meditation for the last 30 years, it's no surprise that they're making an effort to see what science can tell us about the effects and benefits of meditation.

In a recent lecture, a Buddhist monk was shown lying in the giant fMRI machine as the scientist-lecturer discussed how he produced certain gamma brain waves at a level they had never seen.  They said these brain waves were related to to feelings and thoughts of compassion.

The lecturer then said that this monk was able to attain these unusual states and skills as a result of the 40,000 hours he had spent in meditation practice.  Then the lecturer said, "Imagine what meditation could do for you!"

Well, given what he just said, there is no way to know the answer to know what meditation could do for us!

We were looking at a monk, a guy who might be the Tiger Woods of meditation. Nobody looks at Tiger Woods playing golf and thinks, "If I practice for for 20 minutes, twice a day, I could become Tiger Woods."  And yet we hear about meditators who practice for hours a day for years and decades at a time, and then we're told "If they can get these results, so can you!"

But, is the experience of a "professional meditator," who not only had the inclination to spend all of those hours in contemplative practice, but also has the psychological makeup that allowed him to survive living in a monastery and being celibate… is that really a relevant comparison for people who drive their SUVs to soccer practice to pick up the kids?

I have a number of friends who've been monks in different lineages. Notice that the key word in that last phrase is "been". They were monks and now they aren't any longer.  The kind of person who makes it through decades of monastic life is not the same kind of person as one who doesn't.

In other words, it seems more likely that monks are born and not made in the same way that someone who's drawn to being an accountant is not the same as someone who's drawn to being a race car driver.

I'm hoping that what we learn from studying the Mozarts of meditation does have some translation for those of us who are just learning to play chopsticks.  But I hope our fascination with meditation and our fervent desire to find some freedom from the difficulties we experience in our daily life doesn't lead us to making irrelevant or false comparisons. Because the only thing worse than finding no help, is having high hopes for help that are then dashed when the results don't manifest.

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On my way from Greenwich Village up to Columbia University where I was in graduate school, I could get a good 30 minutes of meditation and a little pitstop at 59th St. to change trains and grab a bagel.

My favorite New York meditation story though is this:

These to be a store on W. 16th St. called The Warlock Shop.  As you might guess from the name, it was all about witchcraft and paganism. This was before all that stuff got a hip and New Agey.

In fact, this was one of most unpleasant places in New York I had ever been in.

I found out about it thanks to a friend who had been studying mythology at Harvard who said to me one day, "Hey. You want to experience the freakiest most unpleasant place you ever been in your life?"

But here's my favorite part, five stories up at the top of this building was a Tibetan meditation center.

So while downstairs people were buying pentagrams and learning to cast spells, upstairs people were learning how to meditate ,sitting on meditation cushions, learning meditation from Tibetan masters.  It was like a spiritual retreat center in the middle of Manhattan.

And what I so loved was that both of these places were in the same building.  It was like a balancing act, or like the opposite ends of a pendulum swinging.  It was as if one wouldn't exist if the other weren't there. Of course that's not actually true, The Warlock Shop has moved on, but the Tibetan meditation center is still on the top floor.

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In fact, whether you're doing Buddhist meditation or yoga meditation,  mindfulness meditation, or even just some kind of relaxation meditation or listening to guided meditation CDs, meditation teachers typically recommend practicing every day.

When I first began a formal meditation practice in the Kriya Yoga tradition in 1972,  I was only 10 years old.  I was asked to practice for 30 minutes twice a day and two hours every weekend.  Later when I started a Buddhist meditation practice, the recommended amount of daily meditation time was two hours a day.  In fact, for some of the advanced meditation courses they wouldn't even let you participate if you hadn't been practicing for at least two hours every day for six months.

Transcendental Meditation teachers also recommend a daily practice 20 minutes in the morning 20 minutes in the evening.

Some of the meditation teachers even think that the time of day you practice is important and recommend doing your daily meditations or your prayer or meditations at sunrise and sunset.

Now, let's be realistic for a moment, shall we?

Do you have an extra 40, or even 20 minutes in your day?

Oh, I know that some of the meditation teachers will say, "Even if you don't have the extra time, by meditating you'll get the extra time."

But does that sound realistic for your lifestyle?  Sure you could try it and find out, but when I survey meditators and ask what their biggest obstacles are, the number one answer is it's very difficult for them to find the time to do their daily meditation.

I have some interesting news and I have to tell it to you in the form of a story:

For 30 years I had struggled with creating a daily meditation practice.  I realized that the amount of stress that I was creating by trying to force myself to meditate every day was greater than the amount of stress reduction and spiritual insight I was getting when I did meditate everyday.

So I gave up trying to meditate daily.  Instead, I found myself meditating every now and then and only at times that were already conducive to meditation. Times where I was already relaxed, already kind of peaceful. Where I didn't need to find spare time, but I had just a minute, or two, or five that was already set aside for me.

For example, watching TV late at night during a commercial.  Or if I was in my car at a stop sign. Or while I was waiting for my wife to try on clothes at the Nordstrom Rack sales.

After about four years, I had the thought that I should try my old meditation practice, the one I tried doing everyday.  So I walked into the meditation room, sat down on my meditation cushion and before I began, I had the thought, "Well, this probably won't be very good, because if you don't practice every day you don't get the same deep meditation." But I figured I'd give it a try anyway.

The next 60 minutes went by in a flash.  I had one of the deepest meditative experiences I've ever had.  And I don't think it was because of the particular meditation technique I was doing.  It was because I had given up the idea that I needed to practice meditation every day in order to fix or improve myself.  Without that extra pressure on myself, meditation practice was delightful and profound.

So while I understand the value of a daily meditation practice, and every now and then I give myself the goal of sitting down and meditating every day — maybe for a week or two –  I want to suggest that you pay attention to whether or not you want to meditate, because it's something that genuinely nurtures you or because it's part of your self-improvement project.  And if it's the latter, you might want to find a different way.  I'm happy to tell you what I discovered.

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And by the way, if you're engaged in any sort of meditative or spiritual practice or religious practice, I highly recommend becoming friends with someone who's a high-ranking member of that spiritual tradition or religious tradition.  Because when you have one of those friends you find out what's going on behind the scenes.  You discover things about your practice that you would never otherwise find.

For example, my friend Yeshe (I've changed his name to protect his privacy) called me one day and told me that he was resigning as head of a very large monastery. I was a little surprised by this because having that position in the monastery is a position of great import and honor.

So I asked him, "Why are you leaving?"

And he very simply answered, "Too much politics."

Not what you most would expect to hear about a monastery.

Anyway, the point is that there might be unseen or un-noticed aspects of these practices that we're engaged in, and it would be helpful to explore them.

One day I was at a workshop with Yeshe and he was asked to teach a particular Tibetan Buddhist meditation.  Many of the people in the room were beginner meditators.

So Yeshe led them through a mindfulness meditation practice from the Tibetan tradition. At the end of this 20 minute session, many participants reported that they had very pleasant experiences.  Some described their experiences with adjectives that, frankly, made me think they were exaggerating.

Finally, one woman sitting directly opposite Yeshe in the big circle in which we sat raised her hand and said with a certain kind of confessional quality and exasperation, "This just really didn't work for me, and it's always like this. My mind wanders.  I can't focus I can't concentrate if I'm trying to visualize something I can't keep the image in my mind.  I just couldn't do it."

What Yeshe said next really impressed me, because like seeing behind the scenes at the monastery. He said something that I had never heard a Tibetan monk say publicly.  It was quite revealing quite honest.

He said, "If you take most of the monks from the monastery, who meditate four to six hours a day or monks who are living in a cave in the mountaintop to meditate for many hours a day… and you brought them to America and put them in a shopping mall, they would have problems, too."

The look on relief on the woman's face was palpable, but then something else crossed her mind and she asked, "Well, what I supposed to do about it?"

What Yeshe said next, surprised and amazed me even more.  He answered, "Practice more."

I was shocked that nobody seemed to notice the contradiction in what he said.  His first answer revealed that even the "professional" meditators would have the same problem if they were living your life, and the second answer suggested that practicing more would allow you to be better than even the pros!

How could practicing "more," which for most people would be 20 minutes a day, solve a problem that would be had by monks who practice for HOURS?

I think this exchange highlights something about both the problems that people report with meditation and why they have the problems.

One thing that's highlighted is how common certain problems are. That they're so common is highly suggestive that, perhaps, there's a flaw in the methodology, not the application of the method.

Another highlighted issue is the notion that doing more of something that isn't working will somehow make it work.

I'd like the conversation about meditation and these issues to be more visible, both among the "professionals" (meditation teachers), and those who just want to meditate.

Maybe this would lead to a new set of solutions or, maybe, we would just notice a glitch in the fundamental beliefs that we have about meditation and how one improves as a meditator or integrates meditation into daily life. Maybe this would lead to more honest and realistic expectations.

Maybe this alone would actually improve the quality of our meditation practice.  I suggest this, both philosophically and also because this is what happened in my life; When I started investigating these fundamental ideas that motivated my practice, and the technique itself, I stopped practicing the way I had been for 30 years. This led to a whole new way of thinking about meditation and meditation practice that delivered reliably more consistent results for me. And when I shared what I found with others, they reported the same.

I look forward to where the conversation continues to take us.

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It won't make you more calm and peaceful.  It won't eliminate stress.  It won't cure you of diseases.  It won't make you more spiritually advanced.  It won't make you better at your job or your sport or your hobby.  It won't give you magical powers.  It won't help you make more money. And it definitely won't make you enlightened

There, I said it. Now, how you feelin'?

If you've been meditating for years, trust me I'm already prepared for your response.  I'm ready to hear you tell me how meditation instruction changed your life, got rid of your stubborn itch, and gave you the ability to pull locomotive with your teeth.

And if you haven't meditated before, you're probably having one of two reactions.  Either some agitation, because you were ready to go to some meditation classes, expecting to get any or all of those benefits, which would improve your life… and besides, you've heard from experts, both scientists and famous meditators,  that meditation is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and who is this Sashen guy to disagree with them, anyway?

Or, maybe you feel tremendous relief when you saw that meditation might not be helpful and called your spiritual travel agent to cancel your meditation retreat vacation.  You may have recognized that meditation was really just adding another thing to your already overfull to-do list, and getting yourself another self-improvement project might cause more stress than it would eliminate.

Okay, let me fess up.  I don't actually believe what I wrote in the first paragraph, but I also don't believe in the opposite.  Where does that leave me? I don't believe all the hype about meditation.

Now this is an odd thing to hear from a guy who teaches meditation, and something called Advanced Meditation, at that. But I'd like to be clear, and help you have the opportunity to explore with some clarity rather than a bunch of concepts that could interfere with your practice.

The simplest thing I can say is this: if you've never meditated before, you have no idea what meditation can or will do for you.

You can listen to other people's experiences, you can read books, you can believe what some meditation teacher tells you, you can imagine what the future will be like after you're able to sit peacefully in a cross-legged position, floating 6 inches above your meditation cushion.  But the reality is you have no way of predicting the future.  You just don't know.

And this is really good news, because meditation is an experiment.  An inner, personal experiment. And like all experiments, you can only get real authentic results if you take simple reproducible steps and look honestly at the results.  If you walk in with a bunch of expectations or hopes or predictions, just like in an actual science experiment, this could give you bad or no results. Or you might get wonderful results that you misinterpret and discount because of your pre-existing concepts.

Now for those of you who have meditated before, you've also got be honest.  There is really no way to honestly say what the effects of meditation have been in your life. And that's true simply because you don't have an identical twin living in an identical parallel universe who's done everything that you've done except for meditate. As scientists would say, "you don't have a control to compare to."

I can see why it's easy for people to say that some of the qualities they think I have came about as a result of my meditation practice.  But when I look carefully, I don't see it that way. For all I know, I just happen to be the kind of guy whose life would end up this exact same way even if, instead of meditating, I engaged in a rigorous practice of video games and pinball and used bubble gum collecting.  May be simple maturity would have given me the kind of insights or perspective that many might claim come from an investigation of the mind.

But I think this is good news too, because to cling to the position that meditation is the cause of many — or even any — of the good things in my life sets up expectations for my practice and my life that can interfere with both. Let me give you an example.

I've seen people get angry or depressed because life situations prevented them from engaging in their 20 minute twice-a-day meditation practice.  Maybe just maybe, if they didn't believe they needed meditation in order to deal with their stressful situation  — and didn't therefore find himself fighting with the reality that didn't allow them that time –  they would've had more spaciousness and openness and creativity and acceptance of life. And the irony of course is:  Isn't that why they were practicing meditation to begin with?

Let me know how your meditative experiment goes.

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