Quickly to Your Spot
September 04, 2015

When you sit quietly, the mind has a chance to settle down. And when it settles down, it has a chance to see itself.

When we’re taking a short meditation like this, it’s important that you try to settle down as quickly as possible and be as firm as possible with yourself about staying settled. You’re not going to let the mind go anywhere. All too often when we have a whole hour to sit, you kind of glide down like a handglider gradually settling down. But you want to learn how to come down quickly. Where is your spot? Where is the spot where the breath can be made comfortable very quickly? Where is the spot where the mind can feel centered and at ease? Once you’re familiar with that spot, then just go right there. Get the breath right there as comfortable as you can and just really stick with it.

In other words, make the most of the time you’ve got. When you learn how to make the most out of five minutes, then you can make the most of an hour, because there’s no need to glide gradually down. Just learn how to drop external things right away

A lot of this has to do with being firm with yourself. Whatever comes up, “No. No. No. You’re going to stay right here, right here.” There may be a little struggle in the beginning, but after a while the mind will get used to this. It’ll get more and more adept at letting go quickly, rather than having to work through long drawn-out discussions. This way you can make the most of the time you’ve got here.

At the same time, you’ve got the ability to drop things in the midst of other situations. In other words, if you’re in the midst of a discussion with someone and you realize something’s coming up that you’ve got to drop, well, you drop it, breathe right into your spot. It’s like resetting the mind. When the mind has been reset like that, you don’t have to wait until you get home and close your eyes to clean things out.

I had a student one time who said at the end of the day he would come home and would have to sit down and meditate. It was like he’d been a garbage can all day, collecting everybody’s garbage, and he had to pour it out. I told him, “Try to put a hole in the bottom of the garbage can, so that no matter what anybody throws in, it goes right out immediately. Don’t carry it around. Don’t bring it home.” And this is part of that skill: Whatever comes up, you know how to say, “No! Just drop. No! Just drop it.”

This way, your concentration gets quicker, your mindfulness gets quicker, and in the course of this, sometimes some discernment will arise as well.

So when it’s a five-minute meditation, get the most out of all five minutes. Then you’ll be able to get the most out of the rest of the day as well.