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Oct 15, 2014, 01:26 PM
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I've been involved with the idea of meditation since I was a teenager... which is a l-o-n-g... time ago!  And over the course of all those years I've read quite a few books on the subject. Most of them I no longer own. I don't even remember their titles or their authors' names at this point. 
However, every so often, some little tidbit I read in some book pops back into my thoughts for some reason. Yesterday I recalled reading, in one of the books I read years ago: if you haven't cried during your meditation practice,  then your real meditation practice has yet to begin... 
I sometimes think the mindfulness movement has put so much emphasis on the idea of focusing on the present moment, of being here now, that allot of the real power of the meditation process is being lost. I posted a Thread in the Spirituality forum this morning offering the following quote from the Buddhist nun Ani Pema Chödrön. I said that I consider this quote to contain the essence of what Ani Pema's teachings are all about. The rest is "supporting material":
STAY PRESENT, WITHOUT SECURITY
Instead of asking ourselves, “How can I find security and happiness?” we could ask ourselves, “Can I touch the center of my pain? Can I sit with suffering, both yours and mine, without trying to make it go away? Can I stay present to the ache of loss or disgrace—disappointment in all its many forms—and let it open me?” This is the trick.
Namaste 
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