Often when I go to retreats or teach meditation, the common complain from people is how they can’t meditate.
Some find meditation hard as its about being quiet. Others find the stillness daunting in their action oriented life. Their need to “DO” overpowers their need to meditate. Others say, they can’t focus and the list of reasons is endless.
Implicit in all these statements is a belief structure about who we are and also what meditation is. Implicit in these statements is the fixed “I”
For a moment, lets think that the “I” isn’t limited to..
A certain “type”
A preconceived notion
An unalterable self
A fixed point
A definition
An unchanging identity
Associations
Desires
A certain kind of behavior
A perfection
And we dissociate our idea of self as we have been taught, we start to expand into something bigger.
Let’s say for a moment that meditation isn’t limited to…
Sitting still
Sitting in the lotus
Breathing a certain way
Reciting a mantra
Visualization something
Having a guru
Being in a special place
Being in a special time
Having an insight
Being bright in a halo
Much like the allegory of caves, lets not just look at the wall in front of us. Lets try and look at the beyond and redefine our vision of what meditation is and who we are.
May be the idea of our self is defined by:
Our observation
By the world
By who “we” think we are
May be we can change our observation and let ourselves be:
Changeable
Not fixed
Not defined by anything or anybody
Unlimited
Expandable into the universe
A small part of the big picture
And as we delve further, may be meditation simply is:
Being in the moment
Being accepting towards an experience
Being Non judgemental
Feeling your feelings
Loving Kindness
Meeting your own self lovingly and intimately
Being a passive observer to the flow of thoughts
Non reaction
Seeing outside the self
Seeing the true nature of reality
Being one with the universe
Dropping the ego
Being the cosmic dance
Dropping all your preconceived notions
Finding perfection in the imperfections
And then beyond all this:
That its okie to make mistakes
To be able to loose yourself to find the way back again
It’s okay to be wrong
Its okay to fall asleep as you delve inwards
Its okay to be not be still
Its okay to be restless
Its okay to be torn apart
Its okay to feel joyful
Its okay to say that its okay to whatever it is
Everything is just okay
Because nothing is permanent and all we need to do is to simply observe it, with a passive eye. What will arise will also end. It will simply pass through you.
You are simply untangling what tangled you and bound you and kept you away from limitlessness.
Meditation exists within you. It exists in the here and now, in wherever you are. Its anchored to your very existence. Its like that heavy body bending the space around you and letting you stay on ground. You may call it gravity but the fact is that it hugs you and holds you and never let you go astray. It is the true nature of the self. Its hard coded in your DNA so get to work.
There is lots that needs to be thrown out, lots that is holding you back, lots that no longer serves you. Declutter that space and let there be an emptiness.
To say “I can’t meditate” because of so and so, is like saying…
I can’t breathe
I can’t see
I can’t hear
I can’t feel
I can’t think
I can’t be with a friend
“I can’t be”.
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