By Glyn Hupalo
This year marks 20 years since the first time I sat down and meditated. It’s an unexpected and somewhat surprising milestone because up until this point in my life, I can confidently say that I have never done anything consistently for 20 years except eat, breathe and other automatic human functions required for me to stay alive. Coincidentally, the realisation that it has been 20 years came as a result of my dad informing me that he recently had to have a cherry tree in our backyard cut down. This was quite significant because it was under that very tree, one February morning, that I sat down and meditated for the first time. That’s right, I was that guy with next to no flexibility, trying to wrap myself into full lotus position and sit in complete silence for as long as I possibly could, despite the fact that all I could think about was how much my legs hurt. In my defence, back then meditation was very much an unknown, especially for an 18-year-old kid who grew up in a small Australian country town. The very little exposure I had to meditation came in the form of stereotypical images of people sitting peacefully with their legs crossed, touching their index fingers to their thumbs. At that point in time, I don’t think there was any way I could have imagined the positive impact meditation would have on my life from that day. It is for this reason I would like to celebrate my 20 year journey with a little trip down memory lane.
The Simpsons - my oldest teacher
Moments ago I mentioned I had very little exposure to meditation when I was growing up, and you might be asking yourself, “Where did a kid from a small country town get the idea to start meditating?” Great question. The answer is… it came from the source of most of my knowledge and ideas about the world at that point in my life.. The Simpsons.
You may or may not remember an episode in which Lisa becomes disenchanted with the church and decides to learn about and try out many of the major religions. After much experimentation and wise words from Richard Gere, she runs to her bedroom window and loudly proclaims, “I’m a Buddhist”. Serendipitously, this episode came on TV one night during a time when I had also been on a similar journey in search of purpose and meaning.
Time to hit the library
Two months earlier, I had finished high school and, unlike most of my friends, I had not planned for life after school. While most of them were moving away to go to university, I was only just figuring out that school wouldn’t start again next year and that I didn’t have somewhere to show up to every day that was filled with my friends and endless opportunities to socialise. It was a tough realisation for which I was severely unprepared. I honestly can’t remember exactly what it was that made me think I needed to look outside myself for answers, but I did. I went to the local library and immersed myself in books about Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam.
Being a slow reader, this process took a number of weeks by which point I was feeling a little dejected because I had learned lots of interesting information, but nothing I had read really connected with me in a way that I was hoping for. In need of comfort, I turned on The Simpsons and watched in amazement as Lisa walked the very same path as I had just walked over the past 2 months, but she took it one step further with Buddhism.
I had never considered Buddhism and can’t even be entirely sure I had ever heard of it before that moment. I remember hanging onto every word and feeling like the more the yellow characters talked about what it meant to be Buddhist, the more I felt it was exactly what I had been looking for. I was all but sold. However, instead of running to my window and shouting, “I’m a Buddhist” like Lisa did (which I am sure my neighbours would have been thrilled about), I made my way back to the local library the next day to begin the next part of my journey.
To my surprise, there were quite a few books on Buddhism in the library and I slowly worked my way through them. I started to become familiar with names like The Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Han, Ajahn Brahm and Jon Kabat-Zinn. After becoming familiar with the 8 fold path, the 4 noble truths and other Buddhist teachings, it was time to try meditating for the first time.
My first time
That brings us to the aforementioned February morning under the cherry tree in my dad’s backyard. Fortunately, being February it was quite warm, but that also meant swarms of flies were out in force with the apparent intention of trying to test my extremely undeveloped focus and patience. I won’t say it was an absolute disaster. Honestly, I feel like it went as I would expect based on the knowledge I now have about meditating. However, at the time, I didn’t have this insight and like many new meditators, I spent the entire time distracted, wondering if I was doing it right and trying to ignore physical sensations…or in my case, a plague of flies.
Despite my uninspiring first attempt, being the persistent person I am, I went back again the next day. And then the next. And then every day I could until it became too cold to sit outside. Looking back now, I would have to say that despite having very little knowledge of what I was doing at the time, I was probably the most dedicated to meditation that I have ever been. Possibly because as I read more and learned more I began to relax and go deeper within myself. The small gains were enough to keep me coming back each day until the first time I realised I had achieved a completely empty mind. It lasted all of 5 seconds before the voice in my head said, “Hey! You’ve done it!” at which point I realised I had also interrupted it. Nonetheless, the peace and clarity I experienced in that moment was something that I have chosen to return to ever since.
Meditation was always there for me
Over the next few years, I left home, left my small country town and went through lots of life changes. As this was the first time I had done many of these things, naturally there was a range of emotions that came with each experience. At first it was tough, but I soon discovered that by leaning into the knowledge I had learned from many books on Buddhism, and meditating regularly, I was able to face each new situation with strength and confidence so that I was equipped for whatever came my way.
This was not always the case and there were many periods in which life was too much to handle and my meditation practice disappeared, but it always reappeared and helped me through the tough times. After discovering that when things were tough I would stop meditating, but when I started again things would become easier to manage, I decided I needed a way to remind myself that meditation is always there to help me through any situation.
What better way to be reminded of something than to tattoo it on your arm. It took me some time to decide what this reminder would look like, but eventually I settled on getting the Buddhist prayer Om Mani Padme Hum tattooed on the inside of my bicep as it was hidden yet visible when I needed it.
Learning to meditate pre-YouTube
Up until this point, everything I knew about meditation was learned from books. YouTube was not yet a thing and there were very few Buddhist temples or meditation centres where I lived. This meant that my practice consisted solely of sitting and either counting breaths or repeating various mantras and prayers. I had read about walking meditation but had never really tried it. I was satisfied with my practice and on the days that time permitted, I would sit for up to an hour just counting my breath. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon a 6-week meditation course that I was able to grow my practice.
Over the 6 weeks of the course, myself and 5 others met at a wellness centre twice a week to learn various types of meditation. Each session was 2 hours long and focused on a specific type of meditation. The teacher was fantastic. He would explain the ins and outs of the practice, take questions, allow us an extended guided period to meditate using the practice we had just learned, and then have a debrief afterwards to allow us to share our experiences. I enjoyed and connected with each of the new practices I had learned, but was most attracted to listening meditation. I’m not sure what it was about this form of meditation, because at first I found it extremely difficult to hear things without labelling them, but the moment I realised I was able to shut off that voice that labels everything, I was easily able to achieve a focus that I had only ever experienced a few times before. I was hooked and listening meditation replaced my trusty breath counting practice for quite a while and is still one of my go-to meditations now.
Another amazing benefit of taking the course was that I had never practised using guided meditation before. Remember, no YouTube, limited technology and little access to materials. It was the first time someone had verbally guided me through a meditation, providing me with prompts and directions. It was a revolution that quite luckily became more and more accessible as the years passed. Before I knew it, there were websites, apps and downloadable audio files that provided access to countless guided meditations. This propelled my practice into a whole new dimension as I was now able to share my practice with anyone and everyone.
Kids love meditation too
It was around this time that I had also begun working as a full-time teacher and decided that I would teach my students to meditate. Selfishly, I did it because I wanted to be able to have moments of peace throughout the day. However, my students came to love it as much as I did.
It is at this point that I have to give credit to a meditation website called Smiling Mind for doing all the heavy lifting for me when it came to teaching my students how to meditate. Even in the early days of the website it had some amazing guided meditations that used kid-friendly language. My students soon began to request that we meditate each day rather than me having to ask them to. Every day after lunch without fail we would stop for 5 minutes to do ‘The Bubble Journey’, or a body scan, and quite honestly, my students gained so much from those 5 minutes each day.
Other teachers would ask me about it as well. Not just so their classes could meditate each day too, but so they themselves could learn to meditate as well. It surprised me how little people knew about meditation back then because by that point I was 10 years deep into my journey. I was always happy to talk about and teach meditation to whoever was interested and always pointed them in the direction of the Smiling Mind website and eventually the Smiling Mind app. As I changed schools and eventually countries, using Smiling Mind to bring meditation into my classroom became my thing. By the end of my teaching career I was being asked to give presentations and training on meditation to the entire school staff.
Compared to when I first started doing it in my first year of teaching, it became increasingly easier. Between 2015 and 2023 meditation, and more so Mindfulness, became mainstream. Something that people once thought I was strange for doing was everywhere and most people I came across had some idea about it and had tried it themselves.
Finding my own meditation style
The funny thing about increased awareness and the opportunity to teach others is that I lost touch with my own practice in a way. Sure, I was provided with opportunities to meditate on a daily basis, but it was always catered to someone else's tastes. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Bubble Journey, but I found that over the years,one of the things that kept me coming back each day was making changes and growing my practice. By mixing my daily meditation with other people’s practices I wasn’t making time for my own practice. I wasn’t growing and sadly felt I was going through the motions a little.
This all changed in the past 6 months when I decided to quit teaching after 10 long years and pursue a career in coaching and counselling. I relied heavily on meditation to help me process the transition away from teaching and into studying at university again after a 10-year break. I am extremely grateful I was able to spend time reevaluating my practice and my connection with meditation again, because in all honesty I don’t want to imagine my life without some form of meditation practice. And thankfully, I won’t have to as there is a big place for me to use meditation with my future coaching and counselling clients.
Now we have arrived at the end of this little reminiscing session, I feel proud to see the growth and evolution of my meditation journey. It is my sincerest hope that meditation continues to become more mainstream and is taken up by as many people as possible. With the amount of amazing resources easily accessible from all your devices, today is the perfect day for you to sit, possibly for the first time, and start or continue your own meditation journey.
I’d love to hear about your meditation journey whether you’ve been meditating for 20 years or 2 weeks. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram and let’s chat.
Comments