But, the choice made, it must be held and defended during the time of meditation against all invasions from without, however insidious their encroachments, however "spiritual" their disguise.
It must be brooded upon, gazed at, seized again and again, as distractions seem to snatch it from your grasp.
A restless boredom, a dreary conviction of your own incapacity, will persistently attack you. This, too, must be resisted at swordpoint.
The first quarter of an hour thus spent in attempted meditation will be indeed, a time of warfare; which should at least convince you how unruly, how ill-educated is your attention, how miserably ineffective your will, how far away you are from the captaincy of your own soul.
~Evelyn Underhill
feature art, Edwin Howland Blashfield (1848-1936)
