Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, I'm going to talk about one thing that we should look out for in our meditation practice. So this is a technique that comes from the meditation teacher, Joseph Goldstein. He has noted how in our meditation practices, we often come into the practice with some form of an agenda. We're meditating in order to get rid of stress.

We're meditating in order to change some sort of internal experience or meditating in order to stop the mind from thinking. And it's this tough balance because on one level, we are meditating for these purposes. We're trying to find a certain kind of peace. We do have an agenda for why we're doing the practice. Otherwise we wouldn't do the practice at all.

But the paradox of meditation is that once we're there, we actually have to let go of trying to get anywhere other than more here. That is how we understand the nature of the present moment more deeply. And that's how we work with the different experiences that are arising without trying to push them away or get someplace else. So it is this interesting paradox. And what Joseph talks about is specifically labeling that quality of mind, the in order to mind.

The in order to mind, which I really like. Right? This is again, the mind that's going, okay, I'm doing this in order to feel a certain way. I'm doing this in order to stop my mind from thinking. And I think it's just helpful to keep in our awareness while we're meditating to see how this can creep up for us. It's like, we're here, we're maybe focusing on the breath or some other practice that we're doing, but are we really here with curious, non-judgmental awareness, embracing the truth of what is arising in each moment? Or are we doing this with a little bit of an agenda? We're doing this interview in order to get rid of that or push that away or feel this thing.

The trap of that is we then create an oppositional relationship to what is here. And that actually creates more tension rather than greater spaciousness, ease or peace. So as you're going about your meditation practice, just keep this in your awareness, that in order to mind. You can label it when it arises. Oh, that's the in order to mind, or you can just know it with soft awareness.

It's like, Oh, there it is. And this should help you track it and then come back into, can I just be with what's here right now without an agenda. Just bringing curiosity to it. Thank you for your practice. Let's settle in for today's meditation.