True Meditation

True Meditation by Elfspear

There is a lot of interest in forms of ‘meditation’ by people using or espousing the ‘Law of Attraction’ where certain kinds of ‘meditation’ are utilised to help us feel and visualise our desires as a precursor to manifesting them. I myself am a great fan of the Law of Attraction – it is fun, useful and highly rewarding to manifest our heart’s desires. A lot has also been said about the benefits of meditation in bringing us states of calm, confidence, focus, love, etc...

While some or even all these things may be true, I believe using meditation to achieve these personal, ego-based ends is short-selling the practice and yourself, and misses the real 'prize'.

Certainly as you practice meditation, feelings of calm, love, rapture and bliss will arise, and of course all these things are wonderful.

But as you simply sit, being here and now, breathing gently and allowing thoughts and feelings to arise and pass away, you will also become aware of many negative things - painful experiences from your past, fear, anger, jealousy, guilt - all the unwanted stuff you've pushed into the dark recesses of your mind are illuminated in excruciating detail. No-one really wants to experience these things. No-one want to sit and face these things over and over again, with no escape, nowhere to run to and no distractions. Why would anyone freely dedicate themselves to such a practice?

The wonderful thing is that by merely letting these things come up in your awareness without becoming attached to them, simply allowing them to be there without judgement, without grasping them or trying to push them away you find that they will naturally dissipate. For all things that arise naturally pass away (only our habitual thought-patterns keep us locked in to these unpleasant states). It is then that joy and bliss arise, which in themselves are wonderful ‘rewards’ but we must be careful not to become too attached to these feelings either. While there is nothing wrong with enjoying these beautiful states, like all things that arise, they will also pass away, and attachment to them amounts to what Chogyam Trungpa called the 'Golden Chain of spirituality'.

We can become so fixated on being in these states that when change happens (and change does happen – that is the only constant n this Universe!) we become upset, distressed, depressed, confused… and before we know it we’re right back where we began!

The beauty of true meditation is that as we go through these cycles again and again, we start to see the futility of identifying with ANY state, ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. All ‘things’ (objects, feelings, thoughts, sounds, ideas) are seen to be unreal in the sense that they have no enduring form.

So as we continue to practice, we stop identifying with ANYTHING transitory, and ultimately this is seen to include anything we imagine to be 'ourself'. This idea can be terrifying to the ‘ego’, which has spent lifetimes building up layers of illusion to convince everyone that you're a ‘somebody’ but when we pass beyond it, we see with the 'eye of God' - we know directly that for from being a mere ‘someone’ or ‘something’ we are everything, the whole Universe, beyond birth and death, containing but not limited to joy, pain, love, light, suffering and bliss.

And this realisation blows away any such idea as personal gain or ‘personal fulfilment’ whatever that might be!

And so by all means, follow your dreams, have fun creating a beautiful, exciting, prosperous, love-ful life. If this makes you happy and keeps you content, if it works for you, stick with it – it’s a wonderful way to live.

Just bear in the back of your mind, if ever you become tired or dissatisfied or bored with it all, if ever you come to a point where you just can’t shake taht feeling that there’s something more, something you’re missing… there is – your own divinity!

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