"A tiger catches a mouse with his whole strength." is quoted by Shunryu Suzuki in Not Always So (he attributes it to Tatsugami Roshi), and this quote got me thinking that meditation is a concerted effort. Funny … as an outside observer, It appears quite peaceful, restful … almost sleepy, but you can't read a single thing about meditation that begins with the words, just relax. Of course, while reading my website, I'm sure you can hear in the back of your mind, "You're getting sleepy..."

But I digress.

Granted, being tense in the body while meditating isn't going to help, but being focused in mind is the first key.

And let's add yet another ironic perception here … we are to focus on breathing. Yet another hypnotic device. But once again, the breathing isn't supposed to be forced-- the mind just needs to be concentrated on it. I know, easier said than done.

One last quote from Suzuki that has been following me around lately:

When you live completely in each moment, without expecting anything, you have no idea of time … Without any idea of time, your practice goes on and on. Moment after moment you become you yourself. This practice is not so easy. You may not be able to continue it for even one period of meditation. You will need to make a big effort. Then you can practice extending this feeling moment after moment. Eventually it will extend to your everyday life.

This mental concentration puts us in another state, and the second key is to extend this state into the rest of our life. I often wish that I could spend a couple of years in a monastery and practice this with a more concerted effort, but I actually think that the effort at working on "extending our meditation" into our hectic, cell-phone, baby crying days would certainly be more useful.