One thing that can damage our meditation practice is thinking about success.

In the West, we live in a goal-oriented society. Ambition, success, achievement are part of the everyday stuff of our life. It is not surprising, therefore, that when confronted with the practice of meditation, we think of it too in terms of success and failure, and usually conclude that we are a failure at meditation.

But meditation is essentially goal-less. It has no "point" -- it's done simply for its own sake. We suspect we will somehow feel better if we do it, but we will not get very far if we meditate for two or three days and then, seeing no concrete result, conclude that we are doing it "wrong" and stop meditating altogether.

If a newcomer told us that she wasn't getting anything out of the first three Steps of the Program when she'd only been working at them for a few days, we'd probably suggest that she persist for a little more time and not worry so much about the results. That's good advice for us to take when we first begin to meditate. Don't worry about "success" -- just do it.