I asked a couple of questions of Fr. John Cowan, teacher of meditation and author of Taking Jesus Seriously: Buddhist Meditation for Christians:
My Question:
I sometimes meditate outside in the cold, in a hotel lobby, in the grocery store parking lot or walking to my car. I seem to be able to observe my automatic responses much better when I am surrounded by distractions. I go outside in cold weather and sit on a bench and just get fascinated with the difference between suffering and pain. (pain comes when your nose turns
black and falls off, but suffering comes when you prefer it stays on)
The trouble comes when I practice without distractions. In the
prescribed fashion, I have a spot I go to where I am uninterrupted and while I sometimes have good sessions there, I more often find myself literally floating around the room upside down with just static in my brain. Aside from he occasional nose itch, there is nothing to anchor me. Am I avoiding the hard work by seeking out distractions and working with them? I really have some interesting insights when sitting in a hotel lobby, watching myself worry if the bellhop is going to throw me out.
His Answer:
I sincerely hope you are not "literally" floating upside down.
You say there is nothing to anchor you? How about the breath? If you are like me I keep forgetting the importance of going back to it. If you can focus on the breath that may solve this. If not maybe sitting in a room without distraction is not your cup of tea. It's cold outside. In your experiments please do not freeze your nose off. Or get arrested. If you do, don't tell them you know me or that I told you to do that. However, the idea was to be able to watch the mind during ordinary life, so the sitting in the quiet room should be second to what you seem to be able to do.
My Question:
You refer twice in the book to meditation going awry. Towards the beginning: "If you have trouble in life, be careful that you are not setting yourself up to be a doormat.." (not exact words) and towards the end: "Delusions can be powerful and tricky...." How can I know the difference? Of course I have trouble with life. How can I tell if the "path" is leading me down a rathole of delusion? can you point me to something that defines these hazards a little more?
His Answer:
Are you able to live and enjoy ordinary life? If not that would be a hint that something is problematic. The point of the exercise is to become aware of thoughts and feelings and outside reality from a quiet place inside. If that is the direction it is going that is the direction I am pointing. One guy's definition of nirvana is loving awareness of samsara. The kingdom of heaven is loving awareness of the kingdom of this earth. I suppose there are all kinds of delusions but the delusion I most fear for others is that they are in some special place. The Buddha describes the good meditator as being aware of the breath and of the body as body and the mind as mind.
Samsara seems to be the hindu word for the broken and ever changing material world.
For me, the term "special place" is the feeling that you are escaping through meditation to somewhere where the air is thin and no evil dare encroach.
8:33:00 AM 
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