Padme’s first meditation teacher, Philip Kapleau, spoke of three main reasons people enter into a meditation practice:
No matter what brings you to a meditation practice, following through on any one intention fully, will naturally integrate the other two along your path.
In order to sustain a meditation practice as a lifelong commitment, people throughout the ages have found it helpful to meditate on a regular basis. Over time, meditating for at least 10 minutes daily, contributes to mindfulness, self-awareness, and clarity.
It's important to know that a meditation practice alone can lead to continued habits that are less than loving. We need to bring curiosity and mindfulness to the rest of our lives for meditation to have the greatest benefit. We likely need to be more intentional and curious about what gets in the way of being who we want to be.
We can learn directly about what works and what doesn’t in our lives, leading us to experience more peace of mind, even in the midst of chaos. Self-discovery becomes directly connected to more awareness and more compassion for ourselves and others. We can know for ourselves that life can be a whole lot more fun than we had thought.