Meditation 108: A Guide to Meditating for the Infant Practitioner

By Ethan Indigo Smith

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

“How do I walk?” If you can imagine asking this as child then you can imagine asking, “how do I meditate?” as an adult. We were practically all greeted with smiles and joy as we learned how to walk and developed our muscles in order to walk. And one should meet the question, “how do I meditate?’ and take those first steps with the same joy, as if an infant taking his first steps.

How would you properly explain walking to an infant? Ok, remember, no hands. Stay upright. Lift one foot, set it forward, follow it with the other and follow it and then repeat. Be careful to watch where you are stepping because you can fall or stub your toe. Keep your toes up too so you don’t trip… 

And then what? Eventually, the infant must learn to embody this skill through experience. The infant must step forward on his or her own accord and invariably, there will be some falling. But those little falls, as shocking as they may be for one who has never fallen before, are best met with joyful laughter.

Meditation is invariably the same – we learn by taking on a practice…