When you go outside on a beautiful day, do you step into the sunlight and try to enjoy the warmth, or isn’t the enjoyment inherent in the experience? Similarly, when you see a falcon fly amongst the trees, land, shake its tail, and then survey its domain… or a great buck with its massive horns, broad chest, and strong neck… do you try to feel the nobility of these creatures? Or isn’t that feeling just part of the whole moment that you yourself have become one with?

In the same way, real meditation is effortless. It is the fulfillment of relationship, not the attempt on our part to create one. Our being itself is meditating; it is naturally one with everything occurring in the moment. Our thoughts and feelings are all a natural part of the whole.

All of the preparatory work we do to develop our attention is to help us be in the moment where life is unfolding. By contrast, it is the propensity of our present mind to always be wandering around “out there,” somewhere in thought. This tendency is so ingrained, it even prevails while we’re meditating. Instead of just being in the moment, consciously experiencing whatever the moment brings, our yoyo mind is busy running back and forth — looking for something within which it can come to a rest. Real meditation is the end of seeking, not a means to an imagined peace.