When I wrote about meditation in an earlier post, I didn’t mention the many possible Obstacles to keep you from your modest goal of becoming an enlightened forest monk by the middle of next week. Cripes, you’re just sitting there, aren’t you? How hard can that be?

Very hard, unless you read this to the end. If you listen to me I guarantee you will have the necessary equipment to overcome the obstacles and persist in your meditation until it becomes an addiction. Won’t that be nice?

You can proceed without my help, too. At the next corner you may come face to face with the Teacher who has been seeking none other than you all of your life. You will recognize Her/Him by a certain sense of generosity and Love, perhaps a glow, perhaps a smile, perhaps a hundred dollar bill. Just make certain that you’ve collided with a genuine guru and not a genuine hustler.

If you don’t feel like waiting around to meet up with that perfect teacher being, you can keep reading here with no surprise offer at the end to purchase enlightenment or any other Spiritual Things.

My suggestions apply to any of the many various meditation methods you may have chosen, no matter where you are or what you think or what you do. You’re probably wrong about everything anyway, at least pertaining to meditation, and dog training. Most of us are.

After a few minutes into a meditation you might realize that your (insert any body part) really hurts and you want to quit. Or you might develop a God-Almighty Itch that will not go away and you may want to quit, because you know that you’re supposed to be able to ignore the itch but you can’t ignore it because not only the itch but the thought of your itch now occupies your entire consciousness.

Gorilla maintains meditation while scratching an itch. You can too. Image courtesy of Steven Straiton (ST33VO) via Flickr.

If it’s not the itch or the ache, it’s the persistent random thoughts. You never knew there was so much space inside your head and that there were so many thoughts banging around in there like too many chattering monkeys in a steel cage.

And so on, until you feel like quitting and you may very well quit for the day, the week, or forever. I wouldn’t blame you, but remember you’ve got the chance to develop a full-blown blissful addiction here, without resorting to drugs, legal or illegal, so hang with me.

Remember this, if the above-mentioned obstacles don’t kick in, others will. You can blame the obstacles, known or unknown, on your spouse, your parents, or your public school education if you’d like but that won’t make any difference.

You can overcome the obstacles by accepting them in all their forms and manifestations.

Patiently wait for Part II, next time, and if Spirit is willing I’ll tell you what I’ve done so far to arrive at an indeterminate, undefinable stage somewhere in the universe on my own inward journey.