Meditation: The Art of Life and Experience of Light

                 Now that you have been studying and meditating some of your friends may be curious when you mention that you are learning these techniques.  Some may support you effort.  Some will only listen to you.  A few will ask:  “Why do you meditate?  What is this Oriental way of sitting, closing your eyes and not being active?”  Sometimes it becomes difficult for you to answer their question.  To formulate a response or to give them some insight, you must know why you are practicing meditation.

             If your reason and purpose become clear, you will continue the journey, and naturallyyou will convince your friends with your living, with your experience and with your positive behavior.  But if you don’t know why you are practicing meditation, then it becomes a fad.  Everybody seems to be practicing or talking about meditation.  You may try, not because of your conviction, understanding or purpose, but because you have heard and read about it and you want to join the procession.  If that is the case, then your practice of meditation is not going to last very long.  It is not going to helop you because you are not convinced from inside.  It is not going to bring a positive change in you life because you have not understood the purpose of meditation.

             First we get a glimpse of the ideas behind meditation.  Then we go further into the practice of meditation.  When we experience meditation, the changes in our lives will stirs the curiosity in friends.  Our conviction may cause a change in their lives.  Then they may help another friend as one lamp brings light to another lamp.  In this way the process of peace, happiness and growth goes on increasing in a circle of contribution. 

            First, let us see what benefits we get from meditation.  Our life now is full of tensions, which have come from all directions.  We grow up under pressure, which builds like pyramid, When we are young, the pressure comes from our parents and our teachers.  We were compelled to read books, to sit for our examinations, to receive credits and make our grades.  Even before school, we felt pressure from our parents and society.  Generally they used a negative approach.  Rather than teaching by their own example, they would say:  “Don’t do this, don’t do that.”  Our energy would not remain quiet for long, and when we acted independently we were often rebuked. 

            The tension between your inner energy and the direction you received from the world was built in your childhood.  As you grow, your feeling and energy seek to communicate.  You try to find some partner, some friend, some comrade with whom you can converse and exchange feelings.  In this quest you will find some partner, some friend, some comrade with whom you can converse and exchange feelings.  In this quest you will find a tug-of-war of jealousy and competition for affection.  The mind, instead of communicating, becomes a watchdog.  “With whom is my friend now?”  It asks.  Inside you experience jealousy, competition and a burning sensation when you know that your friend is a friend to somebody else.  You are not able to live comfortable, but you are not able to let it go.  In this conflict the pressure builds. 

            When you are a little older, you begin the search for employment and decide how to earn your living.  There also, competition and pressure are created.  Before you go for an audition or job interview, you know how much tension you build inside.  When you fail at an interview you become depressed.  You start rejecting and neglecting yourself, thinking.  “I am worthless.”  Instead of seeing the situation as it is, you start blaming yourself.  You start seeing worthlessness in yourself and you go so far down that psychological tension builds up in you.  Old sayings of your childhood and old thoughts come to your mind.  Yes, your father or mother told you that you are nothing or your teacher or neighbor criticized you.  Because you did not get the job, you start believing that these old thoughts were right, that you are wrong, and you begin to doubt your self-worth. 

            These are all the psychological, emoitional and social tensions that accumulate around your consciousness.  When you reach adulthood, you have additional problems and anxiety from your spouse and your children.  You feel obligated to keep your family happy.  You always have to be at your best to see that they enjoy a happy mood.  If you don’t there is friction and demands from your children or from your partner.  Then you have your emotional needs to gratify, to release all this accumulation of tension.  Your brain and mind are working under this constant tension.

             Our brain is composed of fine tiny neves which are bearing intense pressure.  The tension is like a wrestler or boxer, jumping and bouncing on a baby’s stomach.  You can imagine what would happen.  This is the situation for our brain nerves.  Still, we survive.  The biggest miracle is that we withstand the pressures created by present conditions.

             Many people don’t recognize that they have problems.  They can hide their neurotic emotions and attitudes with money, parties, meetings, eating and running from activity to activity as a kind of drug.  There are so many ways to cover yourself.  Yet the neurotic attitude remains underneath.  The aim of meditation is to cure this underlying neurotic attitude.

             How do we cure ourselves?  The first step is to calm yourself.  If is the same as using the brake on your car.  You know there is a puncture in the tire, and it is unsafe to continue.  You take your car aside to see which tire has the puncture.  Many drivers don’t notice until an accident takes place, until they are hospitalized.  They may have a heart attack, high blood   pressure, diabetes or ulcers.  They go on running until one day their doctor diagnoses the physical manifestation of their doctor diagnoses the physical manifestation of their inner condition.  From where did the ulcer come?  The person did not notice the puncture until it became an ulcer, causing a severe accident.

             In the same way you sometimes see that something is uneven in you.  Observe whether your body is calm or anxious.  If you are calm, your breathing will be flowing naturally and you will be able to relax.  But if you are not calm, you will feel restless even while you are sleeping.  You will roll and toss in bed.  Why don’t you enjoy your sleep?  All of nature’s creatures enjoy sleep with the exception of people.  Your lack of that simple enjoyment indicates something is wrong.  The evening hours are meant for quiet, night is meant for rest.  At night when you don’t rest, this indicates that something is accumulated in your body.  Your bed is filled with accumulated tension. 

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