MEDITATION - IT'S VERY GOOD FOR YOU

I have written a number of articles on MEDITATION and its importance to our lives - Many people I meet and discuss this subject with  seem to have an aversion to the concept of meditation - when I say "aversion" I don't mean in a bad way, but rather in a dismissive attitude - similar to "that wouldn't work for me" - without even trying it!!

Meditation is about many things, but primarily it is about bringing peace to your busy mind. For those of you that have read my blogs, I revert time and again to the topic of our MIND. 

When you are able to turn the mind inward, and be in the essential nature of mind, then there’s such a sense of groundedness; a sense of peace, relaxation, ease, freedom, contentment and happiness, born from within. You come into touch with yourself, your mind and heart open, and it’s almost like the love within you, which might have been blocked, is brought out and comes to love you. We need to taste and experience this more and more.

We are fragmented into so many different aspects. We don't know who we really are, or what aspects of ourselves we should identify with or believe in. So many contradictory voices, dictates, and feelings fight for control over our inner lives that we find ourselves scattered everywhere, in all directions, leaving nobody at home.

How do you define MIND? Is it the brain? No, how can it be? - The brain is a physical thing? You can't touch, smell or see your mind can you? Yet MIND is everything and everywhere in our lives - from the moment you wake you think thoughts - when asleep your mind conjures those dreams that transport you to the heaven's and hells of your own making - so its hardly surprising that you find it difficult to get to sleep!!

Learning to control your mind by making it peaceful and calm is the art of achieving happiness and helping you to get that peaceful, restful sleep we all need and crave. How to achieve this? By MINDFUL MEDITATION and the realisation that you can control your mind - your mind must not and should not control you.

The simple truth is that very few of us have much control of our thoughts - we are dominated by everyday life - by ambitions, fears, worries, loves, desires, jealousies, hatreds, anger, ignorance, power and just about every conceivable emotion and feeling our super active minds can come up with and this affects us when we lay on that pillow.

Meditation is the process of quietening the mind and giving your mind a rest from the barrage of thoughts it is consumed with day in and day out (throw in the nights as well) - but not only that - it also begins the process of helping you to achieve HAPPINESS.

Meditation allows us to re-charge and re-direct our thoughts into the incredible path of peace and love.

Here are the words of a wonderful master of meditation - Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. I have had the deep honour of meeting Ringu Tulku and hearing his teachings - this gentle, kind, compassionate and wise teacher gives his wisdom to all of us to enable us to find peace and happiness in our day to day lives:

Ringo said: So, practically, if we are doing sitting meditation, we relax our body. Try to let all tensions go because we don’t want them.   Relax our body from our toes to our head, to the brain, to the eyes.   Relax. Wherever there is tension, we try to relax. Relax our eyes. Relax our face muscles, our mouth, neck, shoulders and internal organs. Relax our feet, our hands. We really relax our whole body. And bring our mind into the body so that I feel the body. I am here. I am now, in my body. I feel the relax-ness of my body, I see with my eyes, I hear what I hear with my ears, I feel with my body, I smell with my nose. So I am here now, in this very moment. I am not there in yesterday, I am not there in tomorrow, I am here in my body now, this moment.

My mind is also relaxed. I am not dealing with all the problems from yesterday, I am not dealing with the problems of tomorrow, I am not even dealing with the problems of the last hour or minute or the next hour or minute. I am just here, now.

Only seeing what I am seeing, now. Only hearing what I am hearing, now. Not holding on to anybody or anything, just being.

I am not meditating. I am not doing anything, I am just being. Clear, open, not fighting against anything, not closing anything, not trying to wish away anything, not trying to get anything. Just here, natural.

Maybe a thought comes, it doesn’t matter. You hear something, it doesn’t matter. You see something, it doesn’t matter. Whatever you see, it’s okay. Don’t make a story of it.  You hear something, that’s okay. Sometimes a bird sings. Then you think, “Oh, the bird is singing. It’s disturbing me. It has to sing as soon as I start to meditate!” You don’t have to think like that. You let the sound come and go and if it continuously comes, continuously let it come, and let it go.

With thoughts it is the same. When a thought comes, it’s ok. If a thought comes, don’t concentrate on the thought, just be in the present moment. And then, if too many thoughts come, allow your mind to be aware of your breathing. You are feeling that you are breathing in. You are breathing in and then you are feeling that you are breathing out. You are not thinking about it, you are just doing it; you are feeling it. If too many thoughts and too many things are going on in your mind then just lightly focus on that breathing because that is what is happening now.

You are not trying to push away thoughts. You are just letting them go, because you are more focused on what is happening now.

You may remember something that happened yesterday. You don’t go through it too much, you just remember breathing now. 

If you are a little bit more advanced, then you can even look at that thought.

The thought is not a story; it’s just a thought coming up. There is nowhere that it comes from; there is nowhere it goes away to. As soon as it arises, it changes. It goes. Another thought comes. And actually that’s your mind. There is nothing called one mind. It’s the stringing of thoughts and emotions and arisings. It’s not one thing.

And all these thoughts and emotions and sensations that arise in your mind are yourself, your mind. It’s not coming at you. It’s not coming to affect you. That is me, that is my mind.   So, therefore, I don’t have to be afraid of that. I don’t have to be afraid of my fear as well, because that’s also myself. Anger, upset, is myself, it’s my own manifestation. So there is no need get rid of it, there’s no need to follow it, there is no need to be afraid of it, there’s no need to feel bad, or good. I just allow it to be and then, like the waves coming and going, it dissolves itself. There is nothing outside my mind.

So whatever comes, nice experiences, not nice experiences, they come and they go. And I have to allow them to come and allow them to go. Not holding on to anything, whether good or bad. Even good and bad is just a concept.

If I can enjoy myself in all these thoughts and emotions, if I can just relax in my thoughts and emotions, if nothing is happening, it’s very nice. It’s peaceful; it’s joyful. If thoughts and emotions are coming, it’s very nice. It comes and it goes and I just relax in it. I don’t own it, I don’t grab it, I don’t build a story on it, I just be…. and relax.

If you are trying to meditate for a session, keep an alarm clock. Don’t say, “I want to meditate for five minutes” and look at your watch 50 times. When the time is ended, the alarm clock will come and you might jump out of it! But don’t jump out of it.

Enjoy it. Make friends with your meditation. Think that this is time off. Sometimes you get time off from work, but you don’t get time off from your mind. You don’t get time off from your thoughts and emotions. This is the only time you can get time off from your thoughts and emotions. So it is real time off. Look forward to that time off. It’s not only that you don’t have to work but you don’t have to think also. It’s the greatest pleasure.

Dear readers - please try meditating - it will bring you peace and happiness - thanks for reading