“Attention can be trained very naturally, with affection, just as you train a puppy. When something distracts your attention, you say “Come back” and bring it back again. With a lot of training, you can teach your mind to come running back to you when you call, just like a friendly pup.” 
― Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time: How to Find Patience, Peace, and Meaning

Just when you think you “have” it, it will get hard.

That is just “the way” it is.

Perhaps you get a rush of inspiration from the practice in the form of a light show, a big buzz, or some sort of “sense of illumination” even! Don’t worry. Don’t get attached. It’s just “the way” it is.

And, just like that, it will get hard again. Or there will be a BIG obstacle placed in your way. Like illness, or injury, or something in your life with your job/relationships/time. It’s not about the thing you must overcome, but How you do it, and That you do it! That you continue!

That is what will make ALL the difference in your life.

It’s not the meditating.

Yes, that helps. It gives you an anchor for the volatility of life, but it’s in the CONTINUITY that will keep you safe. Like a harbor. The harbor is your daily effort! It’s not the technique, or the teacher, or the program, or the…. It’s YOU! It’s YOUR effort!

And that is what is so beautiful!

We are walking together! Side by side! Step by precious step!

Sometimes, you have to go your way and I have to go mine. But, when there is constant and consistent effort, we are always synched up in the heart space!

The best thing I can do for my teacher’s efforts is to continue my own. The best thin you can do for yours is to continue your own. You see? In this way, the tradition LIVES through us. The wisdom LIVES and is SHARED through our individual efforts and spreads to the collective! We don’t ever have to worry. We are THAT! THAT we ARE!

Om Namah Shivaya!