"I miss the comfort in being sad." Lyrics to Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle, by Nirvana.
Bit_pattern, anything worth having requires time, effort, and a painstaking process of self-growth. In this day and age of one-week weight loss programs and Easy Mac, I can be quick to lose sight that nothing, absolutely nothing, is handed to me. If I want money, I have to work. If I want things, I have to make money, so I have to work. If I want happiness, I have to practice taming my mind. It's not an overnight matter: I did not get into drugs and alcohol overnight. As insane and on fire with desires as I was using, it's irrational to believe this will be lifted from me just because I don't intoxicate myself anymore. This is the delusion.
It is absolutely amazing that I can be sitting here on the couch and become instantaneously overwhelmed with sadness because my mind jumped back in the past five years to a depressing event. I would argue with anyone that time travel exists: my mind does it every day. Takes me back to a week ago, a year ago, ten years ago, a memory of when I was a kid. Then, if I am unconscious, I start living in that memory and can harp on the feelings that arise in this moment from it. Absolutely powerful and amazing, the mind. The most powerful thing known to man in the universe. Look around you: entire cities constructed from minds.
So, I hope you understand the magnitude of what you are dealing with. Don't let that be an overwhelming thought but rather a comforting one. Knowing this, you can then be OK when your mind doesn't allow for a satisfying meditation session. Why do you think Buddhist monks practice their entire lives? Because it's an ever-conscious and ever-growing practice. You will arrive but you cannot quit before you have even started. Practice, practice, practice.
I encourage you to simply sit cross-legged, close your eyes, and just be. Focus on the breath. You will have many thoughts in your mind; just let them pass. Whatever thought it is, good, bad, evil, lustful, whatever, just let it pass. There is nothing that is right or wrong to think. If you're like me, you have had some gnarly thoughts over the years. That's how on-fire my mind is. Self-doubt is part of the process of self-discovery.
For most of us, enlightenment does not come suddenly, but little by little, as we begin to understand more about ourselves and the world around us. Finding enlightenment is like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and knowing that one day, you will merge into it. It will happen, if you practice, don't strain, and be here now.
"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced." -- James Baldwin