After all, if you really aren't trying to get anywhere else in this moment, patience takes care of itself.

It's very important as a beginner that you understand right from the start that meditation is about befriending your thinking, about holding it gently in awareness, no matter what is on your mind in a particular moment. It is not about shutting off your thoughts or changing them in any way.

As you begin befriending your breath, you see immediately that unawareness is everywhere.

Meditation is a way of being, not a technique. Meditation is not about trying to get anywhere else. It is about allowing yourself to be exactly where you are and as you are, and the world to be exactly as it is in this moment, as well.

in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.

TRY: Asking yourself in this moment, "Am I awake?," "Where is my mind right now?

no place to go, nothing to do, nothing to attain.

The entirety of our mind, on the other hand, is by its very nature deep, vast, intrinsically still and quiet, like the depths of the ocean.

It is not that mindfulness is the "answer" to all life's problems. Rather, it is that all life's problems can be seen more clearly through the lens of a clear mind.

What does happen as we intentionally pay attention to our breathing is that we realize pretty quickly that we are

Even the tiniest manifestation of mindfulness in any moment might give rise to an intuition or insight that could be hugely transforming.

It's not a matter of letting go—you would if you could. Instead of Let it go, we should probably say Let it be.