However, striving for success usually gets in the way. As soon as we try to get something else, or be somewhere else, we move into desire or aversion, rather than accepting the reality of how and where we are. This creates trouble. We try to work out how to get calm, or get rid of negativity, or force insight to come. We start pushing for results. Peace can come with practice, but only when we stop trying to hold on to, avoid, or resist what’s already happening. Peace comes only if we practice it as the method. That means letting go of struggle, and making friends with reality. This is why I love the reminder “Abandon all hope of fruition,” which comes from a set of mind-training instructions developed by Atisha, an eleventh century Tibetan meditation teacher. I find its message of seeming doom funny—the joke in meditation is that we get somewhere by not trying to get anywhere. It invites us to set no targets, and to let go of judging ourselves constantly against some invented measure from the past or the future. If you’re seeking peace, it will come when you stop measuring everything, including meditation, against an arbitrary yardstick. This letting go of judging our practice is precisely what’s trained in mindfulness of breathing. It’s wonderfully simple. Just notice and follow the breath as it’s happening right now. Let everything be as it is, and when you notice that the mind has wandered, gently come back to the breath. Just keep practicing this, and let the results take care of themselves.
