We Don’t Really Want to Meditate

If we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t want to meditate, do we? Do you meditate every day? Maybe a few people do, and that’s wonderful. But most of us don’t.

We don’t really want to meditate. We want to feel better. We want to feel peaceful. We want to feel good, but without putting too much effort into it. That’s the definition of a lazy meditator. If you connect with that, then read on. 

Most of us, when we come to a cushion or chair to meditate, we’re coming with a hidden agenda. Our agenda is not to meditate. And yet we’re going to the cushion. So, there’s a hidden agenda. 

What is that hidden agenda? Just to relax. Maybe we’d like to have less anxiety. To feel a sense of peace. With maybe a little enlightenment on the side, as a by-product. And we’d prefer quick enlightenment, while doing as little as possible. 

And that is perfectly fine, actually. Because in meditation you’re trying to see your own mind – right where it’s at.

You’re trying to see where your mind is at, right at that very moment. Not where it was a few moments ago. Not where it will be a few moments from now. But where it is . . . at just that moment. 

That’s meditation. It’s very simple, actually. You don’t need to philosophize or get religious about meditation.

Meditation is simply about being present. Being where you are, and meeting your mind exactly as it is. Not meeting an improved version of your mind, or an edited version. Not a spiritualized version. 

Just this mind. Right. Now. 

Being present, meeting your mind as it is right now, is what we call meditation. And the method of meeting that mind is what we call mindfulness. 

Please don’t think I’m talking to you here. I’m basically talking to myself. All of this is good for a lazy meditator to remember. This is good for me. 

This article is based on a teaching given by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche at Nalanda West in Seattle, Washington, on April 5, 2026.