How to adjust to the pace of modern life?

August 4, 2001

Hi Marianne,

This is a fascinating question. I never encountered

this problem myself. Usually such a lack of experience

would stop me from offering any advice, but in this

case, perhaps my lack of experience may suggest

something useful.

In my case, my first deep experience with meditation

occurred while walking down a New York City street

with my eyes open in the middle of the afternoon -- my

thoughts stopped. I guess this early experience just

naturally made me feel like it was easy and natural

to withdraw attention from the senses, and as the

years went by, and my meditation practice changed,

this skill (and I do think it's a skill) just naturally

continued to develop. Today it makes no difference

where I meditate or how noisy the surroundings are.

Many of my deepest experiences have occurred in noisy

places or while occupied in various ways or even

while talking over dinner with friends. I still live

in New York, and whenever I take the subway, I never

bring anything to read because it's a natural opportunity

to meditate.

What I'm describing is just an accident of the history

of my practice but I wonder perhaps if your history

is the opposite: perhaps you always

meditate in quiet circumstances with your eyes

closed. If so, maybe it would help to gradually

introduce more sense stimulation into your environment

while you meditate. If you currently keep your

eyes closed, learn to do it instead with eyes open.

Put some music on while you do it. Then work

your way up to news radio.

It's more a trick of keeping your attention focused

where you want it rather than trying to ignore

something. Since you already know where

your attention should be, I think you will find that

you adapt very fast, maybe even in a few days.

I feel a little awkward offering this advice because

it goes beyond my experience. I hate to hold myself

out as a meditation teacher of any kind because I'm

not. But I thought perhaps my experience might be

of some use to you so I offer it. If this is useless

please forgive me intruding with my own

history.

The other thing that occurs to me is the distinction

that Theravada Buddhism draws between

Vipassana (awareness) meditation and Samatha

(quietness) meditation. I suspect that your

situation resembles that of a Buddhist who has

emphasized Samatha in her practice and could

now benefit from a little more effort on the

Vipassana side. It occurs to me that you might

benefit from consulting a Theravada meditation

teacher. Those folks have done more than almost

any other tradition in analyzing the various skills

involved in meditation and figuring out how to

master them.

Best regards,

Rob

P.S. When you eventually move past this problem --

and I'm sure you will -- I would be very interested

in having you write an article about it for my