March 11, 2014- Sharing is always beautiful

I was siting at the dealer today getting my car serviced.  I was able to resume my meditation practice that I had stopped for a short time but rather than focusing on that decided to venture onward.  I was getting some coffee in the lounge section chilling like a villain when I decided to sit in one of their nice leather lounge chairs far away from the salesmen.    I sat down to put my backpack on the floor, put my glasses away, and get into my pose.   I closed my eyes and started to concentrate on my breathing.  Probably thirty seconds into it, I heard someone say " excuse me sir, but are you going into some kind of meditative trance happy place?"  I opened my eyes and looked up into the face of one of the sale agents.  At first glance, he was very well put together, handsome, clean cut, dressed to a tee and sporting one of the best starched shirts I have seen in quite some time.   As he kept looking down towards me,  I took a better look at his face.  I could see some anxiety and concern around the eyes.. they never lie.  I asked him to sit down and tell me what was going on.  He expressed  concern over his sales quota,  issues at home, as well as some other factors.  Mainly,  he was not able to deal with the stress. I informed him that I was about to engage in mindfulness meditation which would not only help him deal with the stress but become more focused and alert.  He humorously asked me if he was needing to buy a Buddha statue and informed him that he did not need to do so.  Meditation is more of a practice of becoming more self aware of one's attunement to life.   I provided him with a brief explanation, gave him instruction and off he went.   He was honest about not being able to just " turn off" his thoughts but I told him the practice itself is  about recognizing this and moving on.