When we start to meditate, we are put directly into contact with our mind. This probably means that we are put in touch with all the chaotic, turbulent, painful and confusing thoughts as well as pleasurable and helpful states and thought. This is the nature of mind and of our lives at times.

Mindfulness meditation is the process of embracing all of our mind states, in what Jon Kabat-Zin calls radical acceptance. From the point of view of mindfulness pain, boredom, anxiety, frustration, bliss and relaxation, are all equally valid objects of our attention. As states arise in our body and mind, we bring our kindly attention to them seeing the rich possibilities for learning, for insight and potentially for liberation. Our meditation practise is not judged on what we experience, but by trying to be appropriate to the circumstances we find our selves in. Though our mind at times may be filled with troubling thoughts and sensations we do not have to be caught up with them. We do not have to build on the thoughts with more layers of thoughts, judgements and stories.

The purpose of our meditation is not to find some blank experience of mind, to stop our thoughts or feelings. Some thing altogether more human and close to ourselves and our experience is what we come to find. We do not have to make ourselves different in the sense of forced effort, nor do we have to have to pretend something we are not. Underneath if you like or covered by veils, caused by our misunderstanding and habits and conditioning, is our pure mind.

When we sit to meditate we make friends with all of ourselves, and in this process of trying to be with ourselves in all of our experience, our pure mind, our clear awareness starts to shine through. Because we have begun to start clearing some of the veils of confusion, some of the minds tendency to keep moving to the past or future, rather than attending to the present.

If we can bring interest to our experience of mind in meditation, the whole process can become deeply satisfying, and our mind is certainly something we can get interested in.