“What are the benefits of practicing meditation?” a newcomer asked at a recent Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center orientation to an evening of mindfulness and meditation. Later, I thought of an answering question to understand better where the speaker was coming from, “What are you wanting from the practice. What is it you are longing for?”

When I first started coming to Still Water meditation evenings in Silver Spring, MD, I was already meditating but was longing for a deeper sense of community support around my practice, an affirmation of belonging to a larger whole. I had no idea what that might look like. I definitely did not consider myself an early morning person, and had no interest in the morning meditation groups. But a friend talked me into trying one in Takoma Park. It was a stretch, but I started to go once a week. Things changed when I decided to go to a week-long retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery last summer led by Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and author, Thich Nhat Hanh.

I started going regularly to three or four morning sits a week as a steady way to “get in shape” for the Blue Cliff retreat. People had told me that participants get up at 5am there every morning, and I didn’t want to be exhausted.
The morning groups i was attending in this area are not as early but at first, I always felt grumpy and sleepy getting up to practice. I learned how to welcome and be with a lot of internal resistance the whole time I was sitting! Over time the resistance began to dissipate so that even after I attended the retreat, I continued to sit regularly in the morning with a group or on my own.

Since then, I notice that while I still have ‘up’ and ‘down’ days, I enjoy watching the quality of the morning light shift as the seasons change. I feel quietly excited to be with my fellow practitioners and more open to their presence. Even when I practice alone now, I feel a deep sense of being connected with my community, not only people who meditate, but also, my larger community. I am recognizing that I have received much of what I was longing for originally, even though it has come in a different form than I imagined.

I invite you to share your insights about your personal benefits and discoveries from mindfulness practice or another practice/activity which has helped you feel part of your larger community. If you are new to your practice, what is it you are longing for as you begin this journey?  If you are a regular practitioner, what would you have liked someone to tell you when you were new? What’s changed in the quality of your life experience?