Well, they often do know why, but it is hard to face in themselves as they genuinely like/love the concepts and results of meditation. But, their day—the breakdown into the moments and minutes of their day—has really not been looked at as a continual flow of observation: sensual, mental and psychic. Rather, their day is a continual flow of reactionary or static thinking that is shaped by the rapid pace and press of life, and consumerism, that most of us think of as bringing fulfillment. An ego that is daily sculpted by this kind of thinking and desire force, will gradually resist meditation (and I have heard all kinds of reasons and justifications) and, with regrets, stop.

Beginners in meditation, or more advanced practitioners desiring to return to meditation, are benefited greatly by understanding meditation not as a practice that is adopted as if it is different from our natural selves, but as a practice that rises out of our natural and normal states of observation.

Observation is the foundation of meditation, the easy and achievable starting point toward a complete experience of the beginning levels to more advanced levels of meditation. Meditation itself—a starting understanding is a relaxed state of mind that has a continuity of observation—is a natural condition of our mind, both in its human and intuitive/universal expressions.

So, meditation can be distilled down to an observing openness that continues for a few seconds, or for a few minutes or up to hours. Being enthralled in a good book is a state of meditation as you are concentrating enough to read the book, yet are also observing the story of the book over a length of time. I often compare the process of reading to beginning meditation. I read every day—both for study and betterment and for entertainment, and discovered long ago the conditions of engaged reading reflect the early states of meditation.

That is why when reading an engaging book, where our consciousness is naturally in an elementary state of meditation, time slows or even stops, and we are almost totally unaware of our body. If fact, we are much more in a mental state than a body state.

The practice of "observing meditation" can be applied to any simple interlude that allows you to really settle into the observing process, and bring some sense of sensual, bodily or mental enjoyment to you. Upon waking up—turning off the alarm, and being flooded by thoughts of plans and worry—stop and feel the smooth, cottony warmth of the sheets and blankets wrapping around your body. Allow your mind to relax into feeling the comforting fabric, its texture and temperature, folds and hollows. This is a state of relaxed mindfulness, rather than fixed concentration. Concentration really comes out of relaxation (which is why most scientific breakthroughs don't come out of conscious logical thinking but from dreams or daydreams or relaxed times when the subconscious and intuition can break through the crusty surface of our normal rational consciousness).

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