An Active Meditation

Each act we do can become a meditation. Walking, sitting, breathing. There is an intention with the word meditation. I intend to still my mind so that I can find emptiness. I intend to still my mind to banish from it desire. 

I intend to still my mind so that I may find union with the source. It does not matter much what the formal intention is. Because at the base of all mediation is the stilling of the mind. 

I find that I can best achieve a still mind when my hands are busy. For me, simple acts that require no thought are meditation. I still my mind through washing dishes, or pulling weeds. The best meditation I have ever found is stilling my mind and being fully in and of the moment through embroidery. Each stitch is a breathing exercise. Breath in, begin a stitch, breath out, end a stitch. 

This is a simple practice. In all my years of meditation practice it is perhaps the simplest for me. A focus on the task at hand stills the busy cycle of thoughts. It gives me a chance to slip out of the self and into the now.