Meditation is the magic trick that most new age students believe will get them to their intention of inner peace. Every supposedly ‘conscious’ person will ask, “Do you meditate?” Well yes, I do meditate, but not as much as I once did and here’s why.
Meditation, in its purest form happens anytime you think a certain thought for more than 17 seconds. Whatever you are focusing on, you are meditating on. In the spiritual sense, meditation happens when you can clear your mind of all thoughts or when you allow your thoughts to flow freely without attaching any emotion to them.
Both of these tasks are difficult to do as we tend to allow our thoughts to dictate our emotions, which in turn influence how we react and interact in situations. In my opinion, meditation is useful simply to let you know that you do not have to be a slave to your thoughts. Your thoughts can be directed wherever you want them to be. Whatever you focus on, with emotional energy will often be magnetized into your life. Once I constructed that foundational premise I was ready to move on to exploring other philosophies.
Meditation, in my opinion, gives me a feeling of floating in space. There is no physical world. There is only thought. There is no color, no light, no goals, and no problems. There are no relationships, no worries, no bills, no deadlines- only thought.
One day I had an eerie feeling that death might be a lot like this. I imagine myself, or the lack of, floating off into space as nothing but a blast of joyful energy. Soon after I constructed that belief, I had a conversation with a friend who described sleep in the same way.
“Why do you think everyone runs home from work and immediately wants to go to sleep?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“Because they want to die to this world, they don’t want to experience it anymore.”
So my mind tied sleeping to dying and then dying to meditation and then I realized that they may all be one and the same. If they are then why would I want to spend a considerable amount of my time being DEAD while I am alive? What is so wrong with my life that I feel that I have to experience death more often than I have to?
I am guaranteed to die; at least that’s what the medical professionals say. If I am guaranteed to one day experience that joyful energy permanently, then THIS life must be a gift to me. Why am I rushing back to become a part of the energy that I came from when I should be enjoying this gift?
Some say that meditation leads to clear thinking and the ability to “hear” from God or your higher power. I understand why they say that. When you attempt to void your mind, you can relax and make better decisions that are not affected by your emotions and fears. Your negative emotions and fears are sometimes caused by the social norms that we have established or the goals we are expected to experience by a certain time. Those expectations for the development of your character or capabilities will often paralyze us, leading us to believe that something is wrong with us and fills our mind with criticisms that do not serve us. Then we need to meditate to still our minds so we can gain peace of mind.
If you simply decide that you will define your own success and minimize your comparison of your life experiences to your neighbors you may find that you are doing just fine. If you decide that who you are, even with all your idiosyncrasies, is already good enough then you won’t have to quiet your mind from critical thoughts that cause unrest in your inner being.
You don’t HAVE to be anybody great. You don’t HAVE to race to the finish line. You don’t HAVE to have the biggest house on the block to be labeled a success and you don’t have to DIE (meditate) every night in order to feel peaceful.
I say this world is a PLAYGROUND in which we were meant to enjoy. We can’t seem to enjoy it because of the ideals cast upon us by society which tells us that life isn’t pleasurable if we do not achieve certain things in a certain time frame. Who made up those rules? Why are you following them? Why do you believe you must rush back to the experience of death in order to be comforted from the ills of this life?
This world is your playground. If you think of it in terms of a board game then imagine that it is your turn to be YOU. What will you do with all the capabilities and characteristics that you possess? Do it. Or do nothing. No one is timing you. No one is watching you. No one is judging you. You are your only judge. Make the judgment that your life is already great and your evolution is happening in perfect timing.
You may not even need to ‘meditate’ tonight.
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