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Living in a Body

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-9:40

Episode 68 -- Taking It as It Comes

Hal Walker

Oct 07, 2023

Hi. Welcome to Living in a Body. I hope you’ll introduce yourself in the comments. I’d love to know who’s out there. Press the PLAY button above to hear the podcast version of this publication. (10 minutes) Thank you!

Easy

"Easy?"

That's the simple question that my meditation teacher greeted me with as I opened my eyes after my first 10 minute experience of Transcendental Meditation. I responded, "Yes, it was easy." She said, "Well good. Then you're meditating correctly."

In case you haven't heard, recently I've been practicing Transcendental Meditation. It's called TM for short. A few weeks ago, in an act of reaching out for some brotherly love, I called up my friend Chris Martin of Coldplay. I shared with him again some of the details of my continuing struggle with chronic illness. In our brief conversation, Chris jumped right into helping mode. He let me know that Transcendental Meditation had changed his life and that if I were interested, he'd arrange for a teacher to come to my house for four days in a row to show me how to do it. Chris spoke about the vastness of the inner life that's possible even when you're stuck in bed all day. I have a feeling that Chris Martin has never been stuck in bed all day for days on end, but I believe him anyway. I'm interested in the inner life and I was open to his suggestion.

The next day I got a call from Chris' meditation teacher, Bob Roth who hooked me up with a teacher in Canton named Zanna. Just as Chris had said, she came to my house for four days in a row to pass on the instruction. Zanna gave me my own personal mantra, she performed a simple ceremony in my living room and she taught me this very specific technique for meditation. Zanna has been teaching TM for 40 years and I so appreciated her kind presence and her clear instruction. For the last two weeks, I've been practicing it twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. I like it. It's easy.

In fact, one of the things I like most about TM is how easy it is. It was easy to learn and it's easy to practice. It turns out that one of the main factors in determining if you're meditating correctly is whether or not it's easy. If it's easy, you're probably doing it right. There's very little trying involved. They say don't try to concentrate, don't try to reach for some specific outcome and don't try to stop thinking. The practice is just a relaxed and easy repetition of the mantra. I like the part of the instruction that tells me just to "take it as it comes."

As I've been meditating, it's been helpful for me to keep referring to the simple question, "Is it Easy?" The reminder seems to relax my whole being. My body smiles and says, "Oh yeah. This is supposed to be easy. Where am I trying too hard?" It's a good reminder that whatever wild adventures are going on in this busy brain of mine, it's just as it should be. Nothing needs to change. I just keep repeating the mantra. I hold it tenderly as if it were an easy friend. Then over and over again, I find myself in some far off realm of the thinking world. But with no effort at all, I simply return to the mantra. In a life that at times seems incredibly difficult, I love how easy this meditation practice is.

It makes me think that I could ask this question in other areas of my life. “Is it easy?” They say if it's easy, I’m doing it right. Does that mean that if it's hard, I'm doing it wrong? Maybe so. At least for today, I'm willing to go along with that conjecture. It's an interesting one. Where am I trying too hard? Where can I ease up on the effort? What am I fighting? And what would happen if I just take it as it comes. Maybe my life is a whole lot easier than I’ve been telling everyone it is.

Episode 67 was called "The Hard Class." It was my impassioned cry to let the world know how hard my life is. Somehow, I find comfort in letting you in on the struggle. Just to remind you, I'm living in a body stricken with a nasty version of myalgic ensephalo-fuckin’-myelitis. At 57, the last two years have been the most challenging years of my life. I'm dealing with profound discomfort, frightening limitation and zero prognosis. Certainly, this is not the life that I signed up for. I so badly want my old life back. I want to be running all over Ohio playing ping pong, teaching the harmonica and pleasing audiences with my musical charm. Instead, I'm over here on South Chestnut Street facing the most challenging questions that life has to ask. Transcendental Meditation encourages me to “take it as it comes.” If I'm honest, to some extent, I haven't been doing that. I often find myself fighting what is.

I don't have all my thinking on this subject figured out yet, but I'm glad to be sharing it with you now. Maybe it's naive to think that life could be a whole lot easier with a simple change of perspective. There's no doubt that everything’s a little bit harder living with chronic illness, but is the difficulty my own making? Could it be my lack of acceptance that makes it so hard? Possibly so. M. Scott Peck writes, "Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult — once we truly understand and accept it — then life is no longer difficult." Huh. Interesting…

It's 5:30 now on Friday afternoon in Ohio and it's time for my meditation practice. I look forward to an easy 20 minutes of sitting quietly on my front porch. I'm so grateful for the ease with which this writing has flowed out of me in the last few hours. I’d been struggling with it all week. It's been fun connecting with you this afternoon. And I love this easy weather we've been having in Kent. Truly, it’s been stunning. The leaves are changing, the sun's been shining and the temperature has been sitting right at my favorite of all temperatures. It’s been perfect. I gotta admit that I'm scared of the hard winter days ahead. Pretty soon, we'll be closing the windows and turning the heat on. But I think I'm just gonna take it easy. I think I'll just put an easy smile on my face and take it as it comes. I’ll let you know how that works out. Are you interested in joining me?

My sponsor often ends our morning phone calls with a gentle warmth that I truly appreciate. He says, "Easy does it, Hal." I have a feeling I know what he means. Easy does it. That's my blessing for you today. It's the beginning of October and the fact of the matter is it doesn't get a whole lot better than this. This is the moment we've been waiting for. So, I invite you. Enjoy living in that body of yours. Who knows how much longer we have here with each other. I hope you have a great Saturday. Thanks so much for reading. Easy does it. I'm sending warm wishes. ❤️ Hal