“Meditation does not come easily. A beautiful tree grows slowly. One must wait for the blossom, the ripening of the fruit and the ultimate taste. The blossom of meditation is an expressible peace that permeates the entire being. Its fruit…is indescribable.” -Swami Vishnu-devananda
Ask yourself this: How many times during the day are you still? In silence? Or not involved in doing something? I think most of us would answer hardly ever. We spend most of our time as human doings when we are human beings. What happened to just being? When I find myself talking to people about meditation and our weekly group meeting, the most common response is, “Well, I would like to be doing meditation, but I am just not good at it.” My reply is something like: “I have been meditating for years…and I’m still not good at it!” Meditation is about learning how to balance determination and ease. It is about committing to sitting down when your mind is swirling, and being kind to yourself when your mind seems beyond your control. You often hear it referred to as a “meditation practice”. It is just that…practice. It is true that the more you meditate the easier it is to settle your mind. But the truth is that it takes practice. It is not something that you can do once and receive its full benefits but rather a continually unraveling experience. Living in our instant gratification culture, it can be easy to loose sight of things of this nature. Often, we lack the patience and commitment to invest in such things because their worth and value aren’t quite tangible. The benefits of this practice are revealed over time like the peeling away of layers of an onion. It may seem subtle and fleeting at first. But over time it becomes richer and more long lasting. There was a scientific experiment done with children and their ability to delay gratification (self discipline) and found that those kids who could delay their rewards were most successful in life.* In relation to this when looking at meditation, it is the long term benefits that can be life changing. Even though it may seem hard and that you are unable to do it properly, every time you try you are one step closer to a greater sense of inner peace. Here is a concrete example of how meditation works: When we sit down to meditate, what happens? Most likely we notice a stream of thoughts that come, go, and overlap. These seem chaotic and not under our control. In daily life, when we are busy doing, these thoughts are also streaming. But because we don’t have time to notice or deal with them, they can become stored in our subconscious. Most of what gets stored are things we don’t want to deal with such as stressors, unexpressed emotions (anger, sadness, guilt) and traumas. In meditation, one is just sitting and breathing with no other intention than to just be. This is the key! When we are not distracted/occupied by our life and environment our thoughts arise… we acknowledge them…and we let them go. They do not need to be stored and dealt with later. Often times in meditation I find myself becoming distracted by a particular issue until I can let it go. After sitting and experiencing this a number of times, you will begin to look forward to it. This can help a lot with relieving stress, sleep disorders, ADHD, and also moving through other emotional or physical discomforts. Meditation is one of those things that you cannot describe totally because it is different for each person. What we will each gain and struggle with is unique. During the weekly meditation group at the Pittsburgh Center for Complementary Health and Healing, we set aside time at the end of each meeting for open discussion and questions. I hope you will join us sometime. For questions about the group, meditation or to RSVP a free meditation introduction, you can contact me at (412) 242-4220. The upcoming 2010 introductions will be on:
- Jan 4
- Feb 8
- Mar 8
- Apr 5
- May 3
- and Jun 7.
*There is an amusing (and short) lecture about the details of the experiment which involved marshmallows... It is very funny! You can watch it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html.
“The yogis developed their minds to be their servant, not their master. They did this through meditation. First the body must be stilled. In that stillness, the mind will begin to jump about. At this point, the practices of proper posture, inner concentration, and focus on the breath and/or mantra are essential. A person who has the patience to allow the mind to go through whatever antics it will, while remaining firmly planted, will experience something. That “something” is different for each one, but it will be, in some way or another, a reawakening of the self. With this new awareness comes inner change, then outer change. Through the meditative mind, the human takes his or her rightful place as the master of the house. By simply letting thoughts pass by, and not dumping them into the subconscious mind, where they can resurface at any emotional trigger, the mind is cleansed. The person is literally renewed.” -Shakta Kaur Khalsa