(This post has been published in Elephant Journal. Pretty cool! Read that here.)

“The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing.”

— Shunryu Suzuki

Before beginning your next asana, workout or bout on a meditation cushion, I’d invite you to consider …

Bottom line: why am I here?

May this question engulf, engage and challenge what notions we have of progress.

It’s such a simple question at face value, no? It is simple, certainly, to lose sight of its importance, or of even asking at all.

It’s more measurable, and probably a little easier to focus on the numbers in our reps and sets, our alignment in trikonasana, our body-fat percentages, the roundness of our mudras in meditation.

Why am I here? Why practice these movements of body and mind in the first place? What’s the point?

Let us not be so quick to answer.

Our answers provide us a direction and sense of progress, and for that we can be grateful. But direction and progress don’t answer our question.

Why am I here?

Why devote ourselves to a practice, not in general but this practice, the one happening right now, today? We can’t bring an ounce of proper alignment, one of our record-breaking double-unders or any clarity of thought to the grave. So why do it?

When the workout is done, how do I lift my water bottle? By what ease, alignment and awakeness do I get in and out of the car? How do I treat the next stranger I come across?

Why am I here? 

What is the most important thing?