Meditating in Chaos

I did not wake up early today, and so I did not get to meditate before the kids woke up. In fact I had to put off my meditation until after breakfast and the kids were loud. Really LOUD. During that 30 minutes there was playing, and fighting, and scolding, and accidents, and bleeding, and all manner of chaos. Afterward my wife asked me how I could possibly meditate during such chaos. There is in fact a secret to it.

Obviously, it’s best if you can find a beautiful quiet place to meditate, someplace next to running water and nothing but the breeze through the leaves to disturb you. That is not always possible though, and honestly if that is the ONLY place you can meditate you are lacking an essential skill. I learned to meditate in Philadelphia, and yeah I meditated in my bedroom and at the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia, but I also meditated in the atriums on the groundfloors of skyscrapers where I temped. I meditated in city parks, on streetcorners, and on the busy riverside of Penn’s Landing. If you can’t pull it together to have a decent meditation in chaos, than are you really able to meditate amidst serenity? Or are you just chilling out?

The secret is simple. You only hear peoples voices and sense their movement through your own brain, ergo there is nothing to cut through but your own thoughts. Do you really think that the kids screaming or people chattering is less difficult to let go of than your lifetime of patterns and mechanistic thoughts? It’s not. It’s just an opportunity to project your distractions on to others.

Start by turning your attention to the ear that you hear the sound through most. Follow it with your mind, from the perception of the sound to the feeling of frustration. Once you follow it with the mind, YOU OWN IT. It is no different than any other distraction. Focus on the breath, the mantra, or just enter into contemplation. Will you get distracted? Yes, just like you would from mental distractions that start from inside. Just release without judging and return to the meditation.

When you master this, your meditation will improve. You will not be “chilling out spiritually” but actually confronting and controlling the mind.