As I finished meditating on one of the coldest mornings in Chicago this winter, to the tune of -21C, I sat back and thought about one of the basic concepts of methodology for meditating the way I do. Don’t struggle. The idea, as many who have taken the IP meditation lesson know, is to allow the stray thoughts, noise, and general chaos around you continue as it does while your own mind remains open and continually empty. Rather than fighting with yourself, wrestling your mind to be quiet, you instead allow the thoughts and noise to pass you by as if you were watching a ship on the sea from the coastline passing by.
If you’re anything like me, one thought leads to another and by the time I had arrived to my destination on my train ride to work, I had an idea. How much of our lives are spent needlessly struggling? When I was younger I was told to “pick your battle” or “choose your battles wisely.” The idea being that some battles are worth fighting and others really aren’t. How tiring, how hopeless it must feel to be in constant struggle. Surely I’m not like that, am I? I started thinking about this past week, looking at my actions and asking myself whether it was a worthwhile struggle or if I had just made extra work for myself.
Would you believe it, I spent more time struggling against small and petty things than were ever worth my time and energy. Did I really need to struggle with my laundry? How much easier would it have been if I had just accepted that it needed to be done rather than treating it like a battle of wills? Sometimes being an adult with responsibility isn’t much fun: bills, rent, groceries, work, housekeeping, and the list never ends. I get so tired sometimes that I don’t even feel like spending time with friends or doing the things I’d rather have done instead of all those adult responsibilities. The truth is, I made these things harder for myself because I struggled with doing them. I rationalized putting them off or I spent time feeling sorry for myself because they had to be done and it was the last thing I wanted to do.
Maybe my examples as a young adult still trying to get my life together and become a destructive member of society don’t resonate with you as much. I won’t tell you what you have to do, but I would encourage you to take some time and examine the past week. Look for moments where you struggled when it wasn’t necessary, where it only added stress, and make an effort to accept those moments when they come up again.
The point in learning when to struggle and when to accept is that we free ourselves from the needless burdens of pointless internal and external conflict so that we can struggle for the things that matter a great deal.
With that I wish you well and may the Force be with you, always.
