I received two meditation supplies catalogs in the mail today, a combined total of 173 pages of meditation products. Things that will improve my spiritual practice, speed me along the path to enlightenment, and generally make it abundantly clear to anyone who enters my household that I am a meditator.

Page after page of meditation cushions, meditation statues, meditation timers, Japanese sitting benches, Buddhist and Hindu gods and goddesses, meditation shawls, clothing, decorations, and everything you could possibly squeeze into a meditation room.

As I was taking these catalogs and placing them mindfully into the recycling bin, which happens to be next to my bookshelves, I happened to glance at a copy of Sri Aurobindo's "Adventures in Consciousness."

Aurobindo is considered one of the great spiritual masters, and he attained his awakening while in prison, mostly living in solitary confinement in a tiny cell without any of the props and accouterments listed in his catalogs. Not one.

Meditating is sometimes not easy. Knees and backs and necks can hurt. Attentiveness is often replaced with a nap. The body can get hot, and the body can get cold.

And when we have the idea that any of these phenomenon are a problem, as soon as someone suggests that there is a solution (and it looks like a crescent-shaped meditation cushion instead of the familiar round shape), well then guess what? We have just turned our typical consumerism into spiritual consumerism.

Instead of identifying ourselves with Izod or Nike or Polo, it's Shambala or Buddhacraft or Ziji. If we get the right stuff "out there", if we decorate our meditation room — or make a meditation room if we need one — and fill it with the perfect meditation supplies, the most comfortable meditation cushion, a meditation shawl made with the silk of virgin caterpillars, meditation statues filled with magic writing that attracts ethereal energy into our feng shui-optimized home, and sit down for 20 minutes twice a day (calculated with a meditation timer that instead of an alarm alerts us to the time with a mild vibration of our second chakra)… then clearly, it's just a matter of time (assuming we're doing the correct practice), and we'll transcend our desire for all of this stuff.

Next Post: Find the perfect meditation cushion

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