27 Dec Meditation Cleans The Mind
To meditate is probably one of the biggest challenges of the modern human being: to do nothing, to just observe, to just be, to sit down and be still, to settle down and observe. Sit, be still, and don’t react to the external or internal stimuli. The biggest challenges can be the simplest things at the same time: to just be, be here and now, completely present, and in the present moment.
We must learn to use our minds as an instrument, and not as our unique “I”. We keep thinking that we are our minds; that we cannot change. We allow our minds to take over, telling us constantly about how good or miserable we are, making judgments about this or that, projecting to the future, remembering the past over and over.
But, actually, our minds are nothing but an instrument. The mind is like the wild animal that we need to learn to tame. In the beginning, it is difficult to have control over the mind. The wild mind wants to run, jump, scream, to be quiet again, and specifically wants to tell you: “You can’t do this, you can’t tame me, I’m the boss” or “This is silly, you are wasting your time. We have so many things to do and think about!” Oh the mind – so like the small child that doesn’t want to take his bath everyday.
We really need to train it in order to do a “cleaning” every day. In the same way that we take a shower each morning, and we feel much better afterwards and for exactly the same reasons that we clean our teeth after a meal, we need to clean our minds and our thoughts every day. This practice, cleaning our minds, is what we call meditation. And by doing this, we start to walk the path towards deeper meditation and a calmer mind.
Meditation will help us to become aware of the kind of thoughts that we have, and in this way, we are more able to select the ones that we would like to keep, to grow, to empower; and also select the ones that are not useful anymore. Meditation will help us to bring peace to our lives, to make space for our real being, to connect deeper with our intuition, and help us to heal our selves. On the physical level, the emotional level, and the mental level, by being still, observing the feelings in our bodies, our emotions, and our minds, meditation will help us to heal and forgive ourselves and others.
The intuition that we have, and that we can develop even more, is simply amazing. We just need to listen, to stop our minds of the constant nonsense talk, and listen. Listen beyond hearing. Listen beyond the mind. Allow the brain muscle to relax in the bliss of nothingness. Allow your soul to become one with all around you, to melt into the infinite wisdom of the universe, to be in the state of deep internal calmness.
To be able to achieve this state of bliss can take time. It will always be much easier with the guidance of an experienced meditator or teacher. Just being in the same room with someone that has a strong meditation practice will help you to achieve a deeper state of meditation. This is one of the reasons we continue to meet with teachers, gurus, or other meditators: we support and guide each other. If you want to tame your wild beast, you should always try to learn from the best wild beast tamer! To do it alone will always be much more difficult, especially at the beginning. For most people, its best to find some meditation classes and some guidance. This will make the process much easier!
The practice of meditation will change your life. Even a short meditation of 10 to 15 minutes each day will bring a powerful shift in the way that you are with yourself, with your partner and friends, with your problems, and even with your joy. You can try for a month. Just one month of 10 to 15 minutes of daily meditation will bring so many benefits to your life that you won’t want to stop! It becomes a habit like taking a shower, but this is a shower for your mind!
And, in the same way that it is good to do a deeper cleaning of your body from time to time (a scrub, a steam bath, or a good workout), it is also important to do a deeper meditation from time to time. I would say that all of us should do at least one silent meditation retreat per year, even if just a short one. To learn to be in silence, without telephone or internet connection, meditating, going inwards, is a powerful, healthy habit. If you haven’t tried it yet, I invite you to consider it. Perhaps as a beginner, not a 10-day Vipassana retreat, which might be too difficult or discouraging, but rather try a weekend meditation retreat of 3 or 4 days. The effects will last for months and the magic of discovering the self is indescribable.
The effects of meditation are seen during your daily life. It is through meditation that we can start to find answers to our questions. We will see our problems from different perspectives and find solutions more easily. We can find the roots of our pains and find the source of our joy.
“Meditation is an adventure, adventure into the unknown, the greatest adventure the human mind can take. Meditation is just to be, not doing anything, no action, no thought, no emotion. You just are and it is a sheer delight. From where does this delight come when you are not doing anything? It comes from nowhere, or it comes from everywhere. It is uncaused, because existence is made of the stuff called joy.” ~ Osho