Some Pitfalls Along the Path
If you follow the life-long path of mindfulness practice,
the biggest potential obstacle at points along your
journey will undoubtedly be your thinking mind.
For instance, you might come to think from time to
time that you are getting somewhere, especially if you
have some satisfying moments that transcend what
you have experienced before. Then you might go
around thinking, maybe even saying, that you have
gotten somewhere, that the meditation practice
"works." The ego wants to lay claim and take credit
for this special feeling or understanding, whatever it
is. As soon as this happens, you are no longer into
meditation but into advertising. It is easy to get
caught here, using meditation practice to support the
self-inflation habit
As soon as you're caught, you cease seeing clearly.
Even a clear insight, once it is claimed by this kind of
self-serving thinking, rapidly clouds over and loses its
authenticity. So you have to remind yourself that all
colorations of "I," "me," and "mine" are just currents of
thinking that are liable to carry you away from your
own heart and the