A group of language teachers were surprised to be told by their tutor that their "homework" after their first lecture was to teach themselves to juggle.

At the second lesson, the tutor asked them how they did. Every language teacher had tried a different approach. Several read books on juggling. One had a friend who could juggle and talked to her. Another had tried juggling two objects and then moved on to three.

Then the tutor asked them how many of them had learned without dropping anything or making any other mistake. Of course, no one had.

Here are two important lessons about learning. The first is that we all learn in a different way. The second is that we only learn by making mistakes.

We find that these two lessons also apply to learning how to meditate ....