The traditional goal of meditation is to arrive at a state of well-being that is imperturbable – or if perturbed easily regained. The french monk Matthew Ricard describes such happiness as “a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind”. The purpose of meditation is to recognise that you already have such a mind. That discovery, in turn, helps you to cease doing the things that produce needless confusion and suffering for yourself and others and of course most people never truly master the practice and don’t reach a condition of imperturbable happiness. The goal therefore is to have an increasingly healthy mind- that is to be moving one’s mind in the right direction.
Sam Harris from his book Waking Up.
I love that.
It is saying that no-one will ever likely reach a state of enlightenment whereby their mind is in a state of pure bliss continually. So our goal here is to practice easily regaining our state of wellbeing when it is perturbed. And our immediate goal is not to reach a state of perfect wellbeing once and for all but to get excited and focused about creating an increasingly healthy mind.
Think 4% or 5% improvement.
Day in day out we just get a little bit better. We train our monkey minds to settle down just a little bit faster. We re-gain our state of balance just a little bit sooner.
Over time the small changes/ small improvements you make to move towards a healthy state of mind will end up changing your life in huge ways over time.
So think about what small change you can make on a daily basis to move towards a healthy state of mind.
Is it meditating for 10 minutes a day?
Is it going for a walk in nature each day?
Is it reducing your alcohol consumption.
Make a goal to make a few small changes in your life to help you move towards a healthy state of mind.