Perseverance in Our Meditations

When we sit for daily meditation, we are gaining proficiency and will eventually see the desired results. Sometimes, we may sit day after day, and it appears that we are not making progress. But seeds planted in the ground may not show their stalks for weeks.

We still need to water the seeds, even if we do not see the results right away. Persistence and perseverance are critical for us to develop spiritually. We need to put in the time for meditation daily irrespective of the results. The following story illustrates this point.

There is an Aesop’s fable about an old crow. He was wandering in the wilderness and became thirsty. He had not had anything to drink in days.  Finally, he found a jug that had a little bit of water in the bottom. The bird reached its beak into the jug to try to drink, but the beak could not touch the bottom. At first, he did not know what to do. It seemed he was not going to be able to drink the water.

Then, he had an idea. He started dropping in small pebbles, one at a time. As each pebble was dropped in, the water at the bottom rose a bit. One by one, he added more and more pebbles. For a while, it seemed useless because he still could not reach the water. But after enough pebbles were put in, the water rose up and the bird could drink it and satisfy his thirst.

This situation is similar to the time we spend in meditation. It may seem like each hour is going nowhere and we are not making progress. But we cannot see the results in the early stages. Finally, those hours of sustained, accurate meditation will suddenly accumulate and we will find we start making enormous gains in our meditation.