A famous Zen mantra is that you ought to practice “as if your hair is on fire”. The hope, of course, is to instill a sense of urgency in the student.

However, there is an insight here as well: Meditators including myself often think that they first need to accumulate a certain number of hours of practice before earning enlightenment.

This is not how meditation works. While practice can help improve concentration, it’s not what is actually needed for deeper consciousness. Deeper consciousness arises through true openness and intent.

Openness and intent are not practiced, they are qualities that are either here in this very moment or they are not.

If there is no urgency, we divert our attention to distractions and fantasies. If the house is on fire, we will try to save some parts of ourselves. If our hair is on fire, there is nothing left to save and all attention is on the project at hand.