Meditation

In the present era there is an almost obsessive tendency for human endeavour to be completely concerned with outside activities. Everything in society, from television to advertising, is orientated towards outside aspiration. Our education is such that it only commends and aims for outer success in work or business. Moreover, any tendency to introspect is regarded as abnormal.

The result is imbalance in our lives. We have no idea what is going on inside us, how our minds function and where we are going on our life’s journey. Modern life tends to create intellectual giants but emotional pygmies; instead of wisdom we encourage factual knowledge. This is one of the main reasons why there is so much mental turmoil and dissatisfaction.

Meditation helps to rectify this imbalance, so that, whilst continuing our daily life and duties, we also delve into ourselves and start to understand how we function and who we are.

Meditation encourages the growth of your total Being. First of all, you should become aware of your constant verbalising and mental chatter. In the practice of meditation, you allow this mental fuzz to dissolve. Then you can just be in the moment, in contact with of Presence. Meditation means, instead of being addicted to words, that you are in love with what IS. It is the culmination of love: love not for a single person, but for the totality of existence.

Through Meditation, we realise that the mind is an instrument; as such, we cease to be its slave. We realise that what we are is beyond the mind. We start to commune with Consciousness. This is real Meditation.

This communion is the state of Meditation. It is an expression of existence; it is not an expression of the mind.

In the practice of meditation, you become aware of the mental processes, how the mind works. The moment you become aware of the functioning of the mind, you are not totally identified with the mind. This very awareness means that you start to identify with an indefinable quality which underlies the mind.

The practice of meditation as a means of opening us up to the state of Meditation is a fundamental part of the Ashram regime and teachings.