Instruction?

My problem with detailed meditation instructions is that by their very nature, instructions imply there are good ways and bad ways to do something. They say, this is what you should be doing, this is right, this is wrong. Instructions set up goals, just like in “real” life.I wonder if this is why so many people try meditation once and quit, feeling they’ve somehow failed?

At my old sangha, we estimated that out of five or six first-timers who came to the instruction session (followed by a sit), we saw just one of them again. For the vast majority, that one time was enough. How many times have I heard something like “Yeah, I tried meditation once, but it didn’t work for me. . . . I just couldn’t do it right. . . . My mind wouldn’t calm down”?

If a newcomer does have questions or concerns, I encourage them to try it first and ask questions after. Someone sitting for the first time can learn more about meditation in thirty real-time minutes than any experienced meditator can explain to them in that same amount of time. Because meditation isn’t about following directions down a mental highway: it’s an off-road adventure.- Barry Evans, "Less is More," Tricycle Winter 2007