Can
Meditation Be Fun?
by
Alan Watts
 What
we call meditation or contemplation -- for
want of a better word -- is really supposed to
be fun. I have some difficulty in conveying
this idea because most people take anything to
do with religion seriously -- and you must
understand that I am not a serious person. I
may be sincere, but never serious, because I
don't think the universe is serious.
And
the trouble comes into the world largely
because various beings take themselves
seriously, instead of playfully. After all,
you must become serious if you think that
something is desperately important, but you
will only think that something is desperately
important if you are afraid of losing it. In
one way, however, if you fear losing
something, it isn't really worth having. There
are people who live in dread, and then drag on
living because they are afraid to die. They
will probably teach their children to do the
same, and their children will in turn teach
their own children to live that way. And so it
goes on and on.
But
let me ask you, if you were God, would you be
serious? Would you want people to treat you as
if you were serious? Would you want to be
prayed to? Think of all the awful things that
people say in their prayers. Would you want to
listen to that all the time? Would you
encourage it? No, not if you were God.
In
the same way, meditation is different from the
sort of things that people are supposed to
take seriously. It doesn't have any purpose,
and when you talk about practicing meditation,
it's not like practicing tennis or playing the
piano, which one does in order to attain a
certain perfection. You practice music to
become better at it, maybe even with the idea
that you may someday go on stage and perform.
But you don't practice meditation that way,
because if you do, you are not meditating.
THE
PRACTICE OF MEDITATION
The
only way you can talk about practice in the
context of meditation is to use the word
practice in the same way as when somebody says
that they practice medicine. That is their way
of life, their vocation, and they do it nearly
every day. Perhaps they do it the same way,
day after day -- and that's fine for
meditation too, because in meditation there is
no right way and there is no idea of time.
In
practicing and learning things, time is
usually of the essence. We try to do it as
fast as possible, and even find a faster way
of learning how to do things. In meditation a
faster way of learning is of no importance
whatsoever, because one's focus is always on
the present. And although growth may occur in
the process, it is growth in the same way that
a plant grows.
THE
ESSENTIAL PROCESS
This
is the beginning of meditation. You don't know
what you're supposed to do, so what can you
do? Well, if you don't know what you're
supposed to do, you watch. You simply watch
what is going on.
When
somebody plays music, you listen. You just
follow those sounds, and eventually you
understand the music. The point can't be
explained in words because music is not words,
but after listening for a while, you
understand the point of it, and that point is
the music itself.
In
exactly the same way, you can listen to all
experiences, because all experiences of any
kind are vibrations coming at you. As a matter
of fact, you are these vibrations, and if you
really feel what is happening, the awareness
you have of you and of everything else is all
the same. It's a sound, a vibration, all kinds
of vibrations on different bands of the
spectrum. Sight vibrations, emotion
vibrations, touch vibrations, sound vibrations
-- all these things come together and are
woven, all the senses are woven, and you are a
pattern in the weaving, and that pattern is
the picture of what you now feel. This is
always going on, whether you pay attention to
it or not.
Now
instead of asking what you should do about it,
you experience it, because who knows what to
do about it? To know what to do about this you
would have to know everything, and if you
don't, then the only way to begin is to watch.
Watch
what's going on. Watch not only what's going
on outside, but what's going on inside. Treat
your own thoughts, your own reactions, your
own emotions about what's going on outside as
if those inside reactions were also outside
things. But you are just watching. Just follow
along, and simply observe how they go.
Now,
you may say that this is difficult, and that
you are bored by watching what is going on.
But if you sit quite still, you are simply
observing what is happening: all the sounds
outside, all the different shapes and lights
in front of your eyes, all the feelings on
your skin, inside your skin, belly rumbles,
thoughts going on inside your head -- chatter,
chatter, chatter. "I ought to be writing
a letter to so-and-so.... I should have done
this" -- all this bilge is going on, but
you just watch it.
You
say to yourself, "But this is
boring". Now watch that too. What kind of
a funny feeling is it that makes you say it's
boring? Where is it? Where do you feel it?
"I should be doing something else
instead." What's that feeling? What part
of your body is it in? Is it in your head, is
it in your belly, is it in the soles of your
feet? Where is it? The feeling of boredom can
be very interesting if you look into it.
Simply
watch everything going on without attempting
to change it in any way, without judging it,
without calling it good or bad. Just watch it.
That is the essential process of meditation.
Read
and/or share comments about this article.
 This
article is excerpted from Still
The Mind: An Introduction to Meditation,
by Alan Watts, ©2000. Reprinted with
permission of the publisher, New World
Library, Novato, CA 98989. www.newworldlibrary.com.
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