Meditation. Why bother?
Everyone in the world is seeking something. Most of us are seeking happiness. It is the most important thing that keeps us going. All our goals and desires are an attempt to achieve happiness. But is happiness something that lies in the future? Or it can be achieved right now. We humans have come a long way beyond survival. Most of us don’t have to struggle for food, clothing, or shelter anymore. Now we all are seeking something beyond basic survival. Animals don’t have that luxury yet. Call it fate, they have to fight for basic survival. But we humans are not struggling anymore for basic survival. But are we happy? And what about yogis, who have left the materialistic world and are seeking god/enlightenment/knowledge in the wilderness? Are they happy? Just like the rest of us, they are also chasing something that means are not satisfied with their current life. It is through this wishful thinking to achieve all our goals, we’ll be happy and satisfied. But will we ever be? Are the richest people the happiest ones? Look around. No one is truly happy, not even the richest person. Everyone is seeking something. So how to be permanently happy?
Will money make us happy?
Think about it, in your work career, compare your happiness when you were younger and didn’t have much money, probably in college, and now when you have money to lead a good life. Are you happier now or earlier? Most of us will likely say that they were happier when they were young, carefree, and didn’t have to worry about money or relationships. Happiness isn’t directly related to happiness? It is a means to an end. But money makes life comfortable. You won’t be happy if you are sleeping hungry. So money might solve most of our problems, but it won’t truly make us happy. The happiness that comes with money is momentary. To be permanently happy, you need something else. That something is the awareness of the present moment. Let’s focus on this unimportant present moment. We all consider the present moment as a way to reach our goals. Our whole day consists of a series of this present moment. But most of the time, we aren’t aware of it. What if we become aware of this present moment? Will that change how you generally feel in life? Well, it does. Focusing on the present moment is meditation. It is not something that is only practiced by monks.
The practice
How do you meditate? Well, you start with sitting down and closing your eyes. Then you start focusing on one object. That object can be your breath, a mantra, or repeating a word in your mind. As long as you hold your focus throughout on this object, you are meditating. Being in a quiet environment will improve meditation. Quieter is the surrounding, better will be the meditation. How long should we meditate? Start small, like five minutes, put on a timer, and gradually increase the time. The most important thing in meditation is being consistent. Do it daily, no matter what. The best time to meditate is early morning or late night when the world around you is not very active. But actually, you can meditate anytime, anywhere. You might face thoughts popping up when you start meditating. Thoughts will be like, something you have to do, your To-do list. You might feel like getting up and completing the important task, but here you have to persevere. Don’t get up until your time runs out. You might feel bored during meditation. That is fine. It is your mind playing tricks on you. If you get stuck in your thoughts, just bring back your attention to your breath/focus object. Slowly the frequency of thoughts will reduce, and you will reach a state of no thoughts. When you reach that state, you will experience something you might never have experienced in your entire life.
How will you know that meditation is working? There is no wrong way or right way to meditate. You have to just do it. The benefits of meditation are that you will feel calmer, grounded, less agitated, more passionate, and more aware of your thoughts. You will deal with difficult situations calmly. You will start noticing small things that you might have ignored normally. Like a bee on a flower or the rustling on the leaves, the color of the flowers. You will be more attracted to nature and will start appreciating its beauty.
What is the end goal of meditation? Well, there is no end goal in meditation, it is just an exercise for the mind. Your mind is your best friend if you tame it or your worst enemy if you let it loose. People take great care of their bodies, but most of us don’t do anything about our minds.
A cool thing that you might experience with meditation is that if you do it right before you sleep, your dreams will be vivid, and you will get insights from it. Usually, dreams which seem random will start making sense.
Meditation need not be limited to just those fifteen or thirty minutes. You should integrate meditation into your entire day. Whenever your thoughts start racing, or you encounter a difficult situation, you focus on your breath and be aware of the present moment. You will find a way to deal with the situation. Your happiness and satisfaction will start depending upon the degree to which you are aware of the present moment. This one practice will change your life. I know it has changed mine.
If you still have questions about meditation, you can reach out to me at http://abhaysrivastav.net or any other meditator. I am in no way an expert on meditation, I still have a long way to go. I still get angry and frustrated with situations but can deal with them calmly and peacefully.
I truly believe that if everyone starts meditating, this world will become a better place to live in.
Here’s one video that I found very helpful on the topic —
There’s also this good book on meditation — http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/Mindfulness%20in%20Plain%20English_Gunaratana.pdf
