Meditation remains elusive for many of those who seek the peace and quite nature they hold inside. With the constant bombardment of stimulus from the external world at every moment, it sets us up to zone out and not be present throughout our day. We do this just to be able to maintain a level of sanity, so we are not swept up with all the subtle and not so subtle nuisances that are going on around us. We are plugged in 24x7. While we may think that we are sleeping, we are actually dreaming and processing that which, we ignored during the course of the day or month or year.
Then we go into meditation and we seek solitude from the day's activity, thus hoping that it will give way to rejuvenation and peace that we so desperately seek through out our day but never are able to maintain. Some people do active meditation by doing an activity whether running, hiking, walking, yoga, Pilates, tai chi, or cleaning the house. They hope this will help them work out the stress of the day and to bring about a renewal in energy and emotional comfort. Some people do this consciously, many more do it unconsciously just knowing that sometimes the work out helps them to feel better.
Yet others will seek the solitude by a different means such as passive meditation. Where they are not physically doing anything but settling in. Some people surround themselves with a variety of scenes, such as candles, incense, oils, nature, music, or sage. They do this to help them create an outside environment they feel will help support their inward relaxation and journey for the meditation.
However, in today's society in this alternative realm, we are being taught about the art of meditation. In doing so the art of mediation truly has become more of a mental exercise for some and just a temporary reprieve for the struggles of life. For others, it has become a struggle to get rid of the unwanted thoughts and emotions that have been laying claim to their very existence. They have become extremely focused on emptying the mind from thoughts, emotions and stress. However in doing so, they create a struggle with that which they desire to get rid of thus in the end feeding that stressful energy which will not all them to relax.
From my search I have very rarely witnessed people who truly teach what meditation is truly about. It is about feeling your inner sanctuary that is your haven for being centered while you live your life. It is about remembering and creating a reference point for you to refer back to inside yourself when you are actively participating in this reality. Thus allowing you to embrace and cultivate that feeling more than just during a 30 minute meditation but through out your whole day.
I say this because many techniques that I have read about do not truly show what the art of meditation is capable of when it comes to thoughts and emotions. Many techniques will talk about pushing thoughts out or focusing on your breath or creating your sacred place in you mind and going there. Forcing people to work with their mind and relying on external props to help them maintain or achieve a meditational state.
I can just imagine sitting in a meeting that was stressful and say please wait while I get into my sacred place or start doing slow heavy breathing process to relax myself down.
Don't get me wrong these are a good starter points but it is only a temporary fix to what truly needs to be addressed.
Life is always providing you with ample experiences to be pulled out of yourself, to attach yourself to reality instead of your own beingness. And when you attach to the outside world and other people's reality you are no longer making a choice that is good for you and the reality as a whole. You are making a choice based off of a social consciousness that has evolved for thousands if not millions of years. A consciousness that has gotten so intertwined with a variety of not so good influences leading the way.
And we as a society have forgotten to question. We have forgotten to listen to our own innate wisdom. Instead we listen to others we project the thoughts and morality that has been passed down through generation after generation with out objection or questioning. Mindlessly following that which is seen, because it is easier in the end then to trust what we know to be true.
The same can be said for the art of meditation. We have been blindly following those who we feel have the answers and who have attained some form of spiritual enlightenment.
For me I wanted to believe and be able to do what the "masters" said. I realized that it was not for me. The more I tried the worse my meditation got.
Then slowly I began to realize that stress, thoughts and emotions where not the enemy. They were in fact the key to liberation. Not fighting with them and instead allowing them to be. I allowed them their voice while I sat and allowed them to course through my very existence. Watching them pulsate through me, like the tide in the ocean, and witnessing and feeling them from a different perspective.
I embraced the perspective that placed no judgment of right or wrong and just allowed them to be as they truly were. By allowing myself to let go of the social and moral consciousness that I had so embraced, this gave way to allowing myself to feel the emotions, thoughts, and stress with as pure lens as possible. With the reins about how to handle or view or act with the unwanted and wanted experiences of myself, it allowed me to feel a more raw, unadulterated, and pure form of that which wanted a voice. Realizing, that the thoughts, emotions and stress themselves were not the enemy rather they showed me where I was off kilter and what I was creating not just around me but inside myself.
It showed me what I truly was embracing and believed that I was. I started to come to a conclusion that I am not my thoughts, emotions, or stress. I am not even the sum of all the morality that I had taken on and that which led me to my triumphs and down falls. I am something completely different from that which I see in this world and see within myself.
Realizing this allowed me to become a witness to my own thoughts and emotions during different times of the day and during different types of experiences.
Witnessing, who would have ever thought one could witness there own very nature. I embraced the fact that I could witness, as an observer from a third party point of view, the emotions, thoughts and words that were coming through me and being actively thrown out into reality for the world to see or for me to just feel.
Thus the art of meditation is not about witnessing the world but witnessing yourself in this world as you partake in its delights.
So, when sitting down to meditate, allow everything to have a voice inside you. Sit still be quite yet let what ever is there be felt and float on by like the wind through leaves, while you remain anchored down to the earth. There is no need to push the emotions, thoughts and stresses away. Let them have there day with you by observing and feeling this time instead of partaking in their expression through mental or physical actions.
Don't worry if you are inundated with thoughts, emotions, and stress when you start. Just like the damn is to the river your morality and social consciousness has been to your being. It hasn't allowed these emotions, thoughts and stresses to pass through. Thus, by becoming the observer you have opened up the damn to allow the built up emotions, thoughts and stress to come through and leave.
Your goal is not to stop the thoughts, emotions or stress in meditation, your goal is to become a witness to them. Feel your own inner sanctuary without relying on outside mental means or repressing that which you don't want. Allow it to come through even amongst all the chaos that is presented in the meditation or throughout the day.
It will take time and practice and soon the river will run smoothly through you. As you do new insights and question may arise about your own nature. You might want to make note of these afterwards and jot down any thoughts you had about it.
Once you start to become a witness to them then you will start your next phase of development, which is re-molding that which you are in human form and how you interact in this world.
We honor all major credit cards
