Larry Rosenberg
June 1, 2026
(Excerpt from The World Exists to Set Us Free by Larry Rosenberg with Madeline Drexler)
Meditation is a gem for the human race. It’s not a luxury item. I don’t narrowly mean vipassana—insight meditation—or any of the other wonderful forms that exist. I mean just setting aside time in silence to be with yourself exclusively. It’s not narcissistic pampering or self-indulgence unless you’re intending it that way. Don’t even use the word meditation. Just sit silently for a certain amount of time each day, where the only job you have is to be with yourself and be in touch.
Continuity is more important than sitting a lot one day and then letting four days go by and forgetting all about it. Keep that flame going every day. It’s a mnemonic device that reminds you how important awareness is. Start the day off by sitting. Even days when you literally have no time, you can usually find five minutes. If you know that meditation is valuable and you have a sense of what that value is, then you will look at your life and find ways to reorganize it so that contemplative time is protected. It takes real intention.
Some days you won’t feel like sitting. Some days you will feel resistance. You may wonder: Why meditate? Why bother with all of this? What’s the point? Don’t march yourself at gunpoint onto your cushion. It’s not cod liver oil. It’s you taking care of yourself, setting aside time where the only thing you have to do is attend to how it is for you to be alive at that moment. On this path, I don’t think we can simulate urgency. It’s like falling in love or getting a joke—sometimes we genuinely don’t have it.
On the other hand, we have many, many minds. If you only sit when you feel like it, you’re only going to get to know the mind that likes to sit. One piece of advice that was given to me very early on by a Korean Zen master—Seung Sahn Sunim, may he rest in peace—was “Keep the mind that decided to practice.” Of all the different minds, stay with that one. In the Tibetan traition, there are ways of lighting a fire under your behind. Reflecting on how short life is and how precious the human birth is—and how it is slipping through our fingers. Out of that can come a rush of energy: I can’t afford to dillydally. In the teachings of the Buddha, there’s no ambiguity about the purpose of meditation. He said it’s about one thing and one thing only: the elimination of suffering and sorrow from the human condition.