[kjanyeaz1]

When the Buddha awakened, he was sitting on a cushion of grass under a tree in a forest. There was nothing particularly sacred around him; he was not doing anything but looking at his mind. All that he had was his experience in life and his understanding of how to work with his mind. His only other possessions were his determination and his confidence that he could deal with whatever occurred in his mind and transform it into a path of awakening.

I have often told students to go outside and meditate—sit on a park bench, breathe in the fresh air, look up in the sky! It is so beautiful. Many find this difficult, though, because they think they are not in a “practice atmosphere.” They are without their shrine, their Buddha, their cushions and their meditation bibles. When it comes to practicing at home, it does not occur to them that they can sit on the chair passed down from their grandmother or a pillow they bought from IKEA. They think, “I need a Japanese zafu or a Tibetan gomden, the standardized ones with the correct dimensions from an official meditation supplier. Without these, I cannot meditate!”

I think this is an important point. As Aj.Chah taught, The Noble Eight Fold Path is walked in every experience not just when we are sat in a Wat or in front of a shrine at home



It is important to have a quiet place to practice, expecially at the start of the practice. However real practice begins when you can meditate and practice the Noble Eight Fold Path in any situation. That can be on a bus to work, shopping for food, on retreat or on the death bed



I have noticed that in my own practice I was at first attached to certain conditions in order to meditate. I had to have a quiet area in a certain place. Then one day there was music playing somewhere else. At first I thought that it was disturbing me and so I couldnt meditate but then I realized the problem. There was attachment to silence. The music was just there just as the silence is just there usually. It was me making the problem not the music. After that I can meditate in most places now