Doing It Right

Do you notice that to change the way you look at something, you have to gear yourself with new information? For example, if you think the sun actually moves from east to west, no matter how much a person argues with you that what you are seeing is not exactly true, you will not buy into his words so long as proof is not in hand. For what you experience is always true and right to you and for you until proven otherwise, whether through your own personal understanding and realization or by another’s convincing explanation.

Similarly, to change your attitude you can’t change it overnight by simply wanting it immediately. Yes, there are exceptional cases where the reality sets in instantly and you can see obvious change pretty immediately, yet if one were to notice the mind closely before the process, there are many supportive conditions prior before hand that leads to that culmination. And because of that an obvious change in one person may not necessary be possible for another as the change is not as important as the causes that leads to it, which may not be similarly present to another. It is presumptuous to assume that what we can do, others can do too. We are all of different setup and hence to recognize that brings about wisdom and compassion for another.

In the ultimate sense, we are all coming from a common nature of the mind, yet in that commonality, many variation of charateristics come into being. Even within one family a recognizable variation can be observed, what more to mention the community or society at large. What is important to notice is how each mind works and that can only be possible when we have understood and realize the nature of our own mind deeply. Mind has its own path to mean, specific conditioning will lead to specific result. The nature of mind is not random of unpredictability. It is only so when we don’t full comprehend how the whole mechanics of the mind works. Thus meditation helps in that process. Even that, only specific meditation practice can serve that end. Vipassana, or also commonly known as Insight Meditation, is a good start to that journey of understanding, realization and awakening.

The question to ask when we want to practice meditation is what is it that we will like to achieve from it. Not any kind of meditation suits anyone, and not any kind of meditation leads to the goal that we want. For example, within the Buddhist tradition there are already more than 40 variations of meditative practices for different nature of minds, for different temperament. Hence to get a honest gauge of our temperament and also our needs helps to direct the path of improving the quality of our mind through meditation. Else there are potential of certain meditation that may aggravate what is latent within our mind. Hence a skilled meditation teacher is necessary.

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