Month: July 2012

When one embarks into meditation for whatever reasons or purpose one has in mind, one is unknowingly putting herself into a new mental concept that will bring about a field of unchartered experiences. Just as medication can brings about different results to the body, various kinds of meditation techniques too can and will draw in different mental results to the meditator. One has to bear in mind that since meditation involves transforming the consciousness, one has to be brought into awareness of the long term effect and implication on the mind.

The mind is intangible and non-form and occupies the entire moment to moment experiences of our lives, hence anything that is introduced to it will have a direct implication to the way one looks at life. It changes the perception of life, sometimes entirely. Thus what one receives from a guru, a guide or a teacher would be the yardstick of ascertaining the direction of the consciousness takes. If one does not have the discerning power of questioning or ascertaining what is appropriate to his or her mind, one is embarking into an unknown territory of what may come up from the practice. It may seems like scary information to many, but the fact is that if meditation is for mental training and nothing more than that, our characters and identities would be deeply influence by the training, depending on how much effort is being put to it. It may either magnify or transcend what is already in the mind in terms of perception, feelings and consciousness. Besides, since there is a deep connection of the mind with the body, whatever effect the mind takes will also involve the body makeup to a great extent.

Coming into meditation is like purchasing a house for long term stay. Since house is where one constantly stays in, the nature of the house would have a direct influence on the owner. It was said that an easy way to gauge a person’s  character is to look at the house setup in terms of shape and cleaniness of it.  It tells much about who or what the person is. The nature of the mind is what tells us about the person. When we explore the character traits of another, we are, to a certain extend, knowing the mind of the person. How we view them also tells much about our mind. Hence, the meditation effect done to our mind, will either bring about ignorance or wisdom to our lives. It will be difficult to gauge that but one thing can be sure – if the practice brings about more self righteousness, more grasping and stresses, one has to review whether the technique is being misunderstood or the training itself is not appropriate to the specific mind, at least for the moment.

Thus it is a valid good practice to first checkout and review the type of meditation training one is interested and its effect it takes by enquiring and reviewing with long term practitioners of that particular training. Again bear in mind it can be a subjective evaluation since each of us have different minds and inclinations, the result of the practice too will vary from one individual to another. There are many types of meditation practises in the “market” and one just needs all the guidances and blessings and good judgments to take on the training, which hopefully, will fulfill the dire need of one’s needs and also improves the quality of living, of relationship with the world and beyond, and of perception.

One last note to bring to mind is the path the consciousness takes. Whatever direction it matures into, cannot just be undone overnight. Of course if the practice yields good result there is nothing to be undone except to bring the practice into full gear. The investment of the practice is not without risk taking, more so when one takes it on without proper guidance and observation of a skilled guide or teacher. Thus it is either wisdom that will carry you safely further or ignorance creating havoc in the process. All best regards!

Do you remember those moments where you got agitated with someone’s behavior and rationalizing in your head what an idiot he is? Or when you were really upset with the way your mother-in-law goes about talking about you behind your back? Or when someone whom you loved is late for an important appointment you have made? Or when someone bumped into your space carelessly without even saying a word of sorry? These being the moments when you just could not understand why their demeanor can be so irritating.

But the fact of the matter is that we are irritated because we just can’t understand why they are so mean, so dumb, so careless, etc, etc. The truth is that the problem lies not in their act, but in our rational mind of trying to understand another. The issue can be resolved impeccably by noticing what is is just what is – that what you encountered are merely events or situations that happens exactly as it is. In other words if you have just accepted what is as merely what happened, without trying to figure out why, you have made peace with yourself. It is as simple as seeing each issue with acceptance of exactness and it cannot be otherwise since they have already passed and gone, though it may be a fraction of a moment ago – it is still a passed moment.

But the trouble is that the mind or consciousness is not that wise to see that what is, is simply what is, irrelevant whether you cry, shout or curse over it. Of course there is nothing wrong with it as it is a way of venting our frustration instead of keeping it to heart. But yet, the matter of fact is that we are not acknowledging reality and to justify our aversion or resentment is only to reinforce the illusion of wrongness of our misperception, thinking that there is such a thing as “should” or “should not have happened” thwarted mentality.

When we try to question the person’s motive instead of addressing our upset, we are not seeing the simplicity of acceptance and how it can just end where it begins. In fact it is our problematic mentality of imagining what the person should or should not do that affects our happiness in this moment. Each imagination or questioning another are merely a deluded way of addressing the issue since our rationalization comes from the level of our perplexity and not beyond. To have an answer at the level of our ignorance is to only breed further ignorance.

In fact it is common sense to notice that it is easier to accept a situation rather than rationalizing the situation for hours. Though that is what our heart truly knows, yet the ego part of us demands a righteous settlement of the hurt experienced. Not to realize that it is impossible to understand someone when understanding ourselves is not even a priority. Logically, how could it be possible to understand someone when we don’t even understand where or how our emotion comes to be? It will be a kinder approach when we take into awareness that what we need from any situation or event is our attitude – our attitude matters a lot to our peace. It is our misguided attitude that makes others wrong. It is also our thwarted mentality of seeing wrongness that makes our righteousness justifiable. Yet we do not realize what we are doing is simply paving our path to deeper ignorance. Do you see the importance of integrity in our home, the mind?

My friend recently commented that she is loving her new found life where she is freed from her past habits of calculative spending, freakish control over events, and manipulative scheming to be safe. She is becoming more conscious of her mind, more ready to surrender and more able to trust deeply. She also notice there is a deeper integrity to respond to situations instead of the habitual defensive reaction that she used to do in the past.

It is very difficult to understand or even perceive how could it be possible to surrender entirely and trust all will be taken off.  Many of us comes from learned perception of the need to strive, to control and to get what we want, and to go against that principle is unimaginable and incomprehensible. Yet if one were to realize all those principles were mere learned perceptions rather than ultimate reality, one could not help but to find ways to slowly break that notion and find new ways of living.

Consider that all our thoughts, speech or actions are motivated from perceptions of deep seated ideas unknown to us. And when we are not aware that they are merely ideas reinforced over years of beliefs, we will never question its validity and open up to a potential way of living life differently. One may dispute that the reality is such that everyone is doing the same hence it is an empirical truth and also that when one goes against that norm, repercussion is inevitable as always. That is exactly what ignorance does to perception – reinforcing what it experience from the past without further exploration why it cannot be otherwise.

One of the main reason to this is that we are never thought to address the cause but instead to change the effect. We try to change life by changing what we are doing, yet if our mindset is not change, what we do differently will not have a different effect in our lives. We have not been told and given the right information that the life we lived now has much to do with our mind, our consciousness, our perception. We have not been shown and hence not realized that we are constantly motivated by what is within our mind. Many a times our mind is motivated by fear instead of love. Whether it is fear or love, both are merely ideas deriving from perceptions. It is not that, one is better than the other. What we do not realize is that each has implication of varied experience of opposing degrees. Fear attracts lack and love attracts abundance. One is about depreciation, the other is about appreciation.When we come from the perspective of fear, probably unknown to us, we have no choice but to experience lack. Lack or fear are merely results of ideas we have never questioned in the first place. When we don’t notice this reality and vehemently tries to change what is outside through frustration or stress, we are merely going against our ideas instead of transcending them. Whenever we go against the mind, we are reinforcing what is within as nothing within the mind can be pushed away except to be noticed and realized. Only through realization can we see the folly of our beliefs and hence open up to change. Change of perception leads to change of action; it doesn’t work on reverse order. We can’t change the effect except from realizing the cause. Without the cause(s), effects cannot take place.

Imagine what can happen when your inner cause is love, motivated by wisdom. A world of difference awaits you as you are merely experiencing what is within the mind.