1. Progress in meditation does not mean less getting lost in thought; it means being more aware of how often you do get lost in thought.

2. Progress in meditation does not mean being less angry; it means being more aware of how often anger happens.

3. Progress in meditation does not mean being able to overpower your feelings and emotions; it means more being more aware of their experiential textures and nuances.

4. Progress in meditation does not mean better concentration; it means being more aware of your obstacles to concentration.

5. Progress in meditation does not being gentler with yourself; it means being more aware of precisely how, when and why you are hard on yourself.

6. Progress in meditation does not mean perfecting a certain technique or method; it means being more aware of how often you are actually aware, regardless of your technique or method.

7. Progress in meditation does not mean more discipline or perseverance; it means being more aware of the causes and conditions to lead to non-discipline or non-perseverance.

8. Progress in meditation does not mean more bliss and joy; it means more awareness of the times bliss and joy happen “all by themselves”; and, in turn, a deeper recognition that the path to bliss and joy is more about allowing than doing.

9. Progress in meditation does not mean less suffering; it means more awareness of the impersonality of suffering, of how “suffering is happening” rather than “I’m suffering”.

10. Progress in meditation does not mean being able to be aware of 30 phenomena per second, nor does it mean being able to be aware of 1 phenomena with microscopic precision; it means being more aware of the current state of your awareness, whether that’s a crystalline “wide-angle”, a laser-like “narrow focus”, a hazy blah or anywhere in between.

You’ve probably got the picture by now: progress in meditation is not about outcomes, results, or improving ourselves—it’s just about awareness of whatever is happening.  And, so, we come to the most important point of all:

11. Progress in meditation means trusting “auto-correct”; that is, trusting that the “progress of awareness”, maintained over months and years and decades, will naturally provide us with outcomes, results and improvements; and, even if it doesn’t, that that’s okay too.