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People who try meditation and then stop often say some version of: I could not do it — my mind kept wandering.
I want to correct a misunderstanding. The wandering mind is not a failure. The wandering mind is the condition under which the practice operates.
The practice is not maintaining a clear mind. The practice is noticing that the mind has wandered and returning. The noticing and the returning — that moment of recognition and gentle redirection — is the entire exercise. Not the quiet. The return.
When you sit down and your mind wanders thirty times in ten minutes, and thirty times you notice and return — you have practiced thirty times. The person whose mind does not wander has not practiced at all; they have simply had thirty seconds of pleasant quiet.
Presence is not a state you achieve. It is a practice you keep returning to, moment by moment, with no expectation of ever being finished.
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