What we talk about when we talk about meditation.

If you do decide to start meditating, there's no need to tell other people about it, or talk about why you are doing it or what it's doing for you. In fact, there is no better way to waste your nascent energy and enthusiasm for practice and thwart your efforts so they will be unable to gather momentum. Best to meditate without advertising it.

Every time you get a strong impulse to talk about meditation and how wonderful it is, or how hard it is, or what it's doing for you these days, or what it's not, or you want to convince someone else how wonderful it would be for them, just look at it as more thinking and go meditate some more. The impulse will pass and everybody will be better off - especially you.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are

From Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

Received as Daily Dharma from Tricycle.com on the 16th of January 2009