Illusion to Reality

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.

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?