Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

by Katherine May

I spent years feeling secretly ashamed that my meditation was forever slipping. I was not devoted enough. I lacked discipline. I was unable to organise myself into doing something that I knew was good for me. It was a long time before it occurred to me that the whole system might just have been designed for men—the kind who had their meals cooked for them and their children quietly removed from their company so that they could pursue their lofty spiritual goals. I thought back to my training and remembered our teacher telling us how he’d left his wife and children to go to India and study with the Maharishi. He learned a lot about himself there, he said. He sat alone in a cave for months and wrestled with his soul. It was hard, but ultimately worth it. He could never have made such breakthroughs without giving meditation his full commitment. Next to me, a woman raised her hand. “How did your wife manage?” she asked. “Well, I’m sure it was tough for her,” he said. “But she knew it was important to me.”