The Beginning of the Practice of Meditation

And what is this like at the beginning?

At this point you often wonder if the meditation is actually progressing at all. You start to consider various different ways of improving the practice. You find yourself at a complete loss as to what you should do.

After struggling and exerting themselves in this way for a while some people reach such a point of exhaustion that they consider giving up altogether. Although they have tried to practice, they cannot see any progress at all. But one should definitely not give up at this stage. Others will try "to alleviate this sense of frustration" in turning to another kind of practice. They may start to pray to the Buddha, repeat the Buddha's name, or recite some sutras. In such ways, their sense of frustration is alleviated somewhat. But actually they are just listening "to the chirping of cicadas." This does not mean that they literally go outside and listen to cicadas. It refers to their engaging in all those activities other than the practice of meditation in order to remove their feelings of frustration.

---Kusan Sunim---