We tend to be particularly unaware that we are thinking virtually all
the time. The incessant stream of thoughts flowing through our minds
leaves us very little respite for inner quiet. And we leave precious
little room for ourselves anyway just to be, without having to run
around doing things all the time. Our actions are all too frequently
driven rather than undertaken in awareness, driven by those perfectly
ordinary thoughts and impulses that run through the mind like a coursing
river, if not a waterfall. We get caught up in the torrent and it winds
up submerging our lives as it carries us to places we may not wish to go
and may not even realize we are headed for.
Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its
bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide
us rather than to tyrannize us. This process doesn't magically happen by
itself. It takes energy. We call the effort to cultivate our ability to
be in the present moment "practice" or "meditation practice."
-- Jon Kabat-Zinn, /Wherever You Go, There You Are/
From /Everyday Mind/, a /Tricycle/ book edited by Jean Smith
