We start to meditate because we want to achieve something.

That is good. We want more peace, lower blood pressure, become more awake, be more aware of our inner thoughts, or enhance our mental power. These are all good goals. Past practice has taught meditators that these goals are indeed possible. Actually for the regular meditator, it becomes the new normal.

For beginners all that is needed is to get a practice – and begin. In the beginning the progress may only seem to be little by little. But when “flowering” in meditation is allowed to be natural – and not forced, even small event can be very beautiful – and empowering. Past mistakes have a way of dissolving when the simple fragrance of past efforts begin to waft outwards.

Can nature “speak” to us?

Yes, of course it can. With a still mind and a quiet ego, all of nature may speak to us, even those things that seem beyond creation. To advanced meditators (and not so advanced) all of life and creation has energy. We seek to know it through science, but we can also learn by just being present in the moment.

I like to meditate in my private quarters or with a small group in a quiet place. The wind and the shifting light usually forces me to go deeper before I can truely enter meditation. But I can meditate here without any effort.

All you hikers, it is waiting out there. It is a still place. It is a beautiful place.

If you ever need  to understand hardship, quiet persistance, and the will to live:  look at this Sierra Juniper. 

This tree was ancient when George Washington crossed the Delaware River.

The quote is from Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”

These are good words for meditators – and anyone else who wants to achieve while maintaining balance. I know. This balance-thing is tricky.

There is a proverb that says, “He who wants to rule the world should first grow a small garden.”

Based upon experience, that act will teach a lot, including humility.

I keep this flowering apricot as a deep lessons. It is old. It is scarred. Some portions are dead. It has dieback. Yet in all these years, it has been the first to bloom. When all other dreams and trees lay dormant, it shows me the possibility each year.

From something almost grotesque comes beauty. Each year it never fails to receive my stillness and appreciation. And each year, I remember what it whispers, “I am living. I am dying. I am living. I am dying. I am living.” 

I find wisdom and peace in that. It is not negative at all. It is all about reaching for the beauty still to be found, no matter how gnarled I become.  It is a perfect voice coming through nature.

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This list which you do, also has a guide within it. If you achieve the goals you set for yourself (or most), you feel successful and great. But there is also a gift in this list if you keep failing to achieve anything (or just a few items). It may mean something very important:

1.  You don’t really want those things you put on the list. You may put them down because you have an idealized (not a realistic) view of yourself.

2.  Your goals are walking you down a road you should not be on. Deep down you know that these goals will not lead to your greater self.

3.  And, the biggest of all: You are afraid to go for it, because it would change you too much. People around you would have to look at you differently. And, that is scary.

So here you go:  Make 7-10 specific goals. (I shall be a gift to the world and love God more, is too vague – and it is not measurable). The more specific you make them, the more likely you are to achieve them.

They don’t all have to be too serious.  One year, when my life was unbelievable busy, one of my goals were: Go down to the beach and enjoy one sunset each month.

I missed it by one. But if I had not written it down, I am sure I would not have enjoyed the journey of the setting sun for that year. It was the year I discovered that the winter-sun sets over the San Bruno Mountains – and the high summer-sun sets way up, near Mount Tamalpais. I became part of the rhythm of our nature that year.

You might think, “This is too hard. I might as well give up now.”

But if we think about it critically: The mere fact that we want to journey into our greater selves, already puts us on the narrow road. Very few people make that decision. It seems that the world wants everything but awareness.

Think about it. There are very few who take the time to look. That is why you are already on a special journey as soon as you begin. Cheer up. You are one of the few.

What I like as a meditator is probably the same thing all people like who have become really good at their practice.

I like, as I enter meditation, that I am not my title, my checkbook balance, my job title, my reputation, nor even my name.

 Stillness is reached for, instead of the rush of the world – and within that place of the mind, I seek the “greater me, the more aware me. Stripped bare, I have no pretenses there.