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Meditation

When Shakespeare said through Macbeth that “To The Last syllable of recorded time… life was no more than a walking shadow - a poor actor - who goes through all the emotions in one hour on the stage and then bows out. It was a story told by an idiot, full of noise and passion, but means nothing.” Probably, he did not meditate.

The funny irony of how we should think of life is that one is not what one is thinking of. And meditation helps us see through this as it gives us the ability to control and use the mind so we can discriminate the self and the physical and emotional bodies. We all know this is hard because the identification with the mental body is very strong that is why to become detached from it we must push well beyond the mind's analytical and discriminative powers so that ultimately we can see one's personal life in an impersonal way. Therefore, in Shakespeare’s metaphor, through meditation we move from the position of being the central actor in the play to being an observer of the play who can use his character to aid the bigger unfolding plan. Along the way, we decentralize ourselves, forget our own personalities and be able to see past our boxes to eventually become world servers and of genuine use. Our detachment from leads to attachment to Soul and decentralization leads to the inclusive group conscious view. Through meditation we become dispassionate, in the sense that we will relinquish of concern for our personal self so we can have more compassion and love for bigger things.

Though commonly hear, meditation is a big word which can do wonders to us in a big way. Through a sustained meditative effort, we are lead to four elements, first control over the controls and then discrimination, detachment and dispassion. In this state, we will begin to look out on the structure of the relationships which make up our personal lives and see them in a different light. You might think from this that meditation removes us from the world or makes our personal life go away. That is why some people resist it. But the truth is, it merely changes the way we perceive so that world becomes from a place where we draw our pleasure and meaning to an arena into which we can bring light, love, joy. In the macro scale, mediation will lead to world peace.

According to the Bahá'í Faith, 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote that: "Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries. In that state man abstracts himself: in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves." Meditation is also is found in Christian spirituality, like the "meditations on the sufferings of Christ", as well as in Western philosophy, like Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, a set of six mental exercises which analyze the nature of reality. In general, experienced practitioners can say that "If you meditate, you give your attention to one thing, and do not think about anything else, usually as a religious activity or as way of calming or relaxing your mind." 

The purest Eastern definition of 'meditation' means not thinking but focusing consciousness on the cosmic whole.  George Gurdjieff calls this thinking about "the all and the everything" without thought, judgment, or distraction. The English word meditation comes from the Latin meditatio, meaning every type of physical or intellectual exercise. This then later evolved into the more specific meaning of "contemplation." However, in contrast to other forms of concentration, meditation aims to prevent thoughts in a natural way. By deeply relaxing the body, the mind is kept completely "blank" with no thoughts for a few seconds or a few hours, depending on your skill. Through this, the purity of the mind is achieved which is essential to the Higher Self where there are no impurities.

A worked at meditative effort will ultimately quiet the mental body and bring it more and more under your control. In consequences, you’ll find out that you can suddenly do everything that you need to do because you will master being selective in how you use your time and simply accomplish more in a shorter time. In fact, boredom is an indicator of a lack of control over the mind and that we are flying blind, having a mindless emotional elemental or a self-centered personality. It is through sustained meditation that there is direction to the life will take. To meditate, do not sit quietly with your eyes closed in darkness because your brain will signal this to start shutting itself down for sleep.  This pleasant experience is being in a state hypnosis, not meditation at all, and does you little more good than taking a nap. Meditation really means that you are relaxed but your consciousness is fully and intensely awake so you must meditate with your eyes closed or open slightly with the room brightly lit so light can still pass through your eyelids. 

All these can help you reach the Higher Self to concentrate on the source of the "inner sound", leading to the "inner light", which is  a nucleus of the Higher Self. When we get closer to our Higher Self, the inner light becomes much brighter than the Sun. When we are more connected to this inner light, then we are allowed to join in a bliss that cannot be described in any human language and which can only be achieved by purity of the mind during meditation and intensively concentrating on the "inner sound" and "inner light". Truth is, meditation calls in light and one fine day you will experience this accumulation of light as a flash-like phenomenon of a ten thousand watt floodlight. Perseverance in meditation gradually turns up the light and the increasing light restructures one's life for this light will be all pervasive. To get here, there are a few techniques for meditation, primarily which is the so-called "mantra".

Mantra is composed of a few words or sounds. and is repeated mentally to help us achieve a "blank" state of mind. It also helps us achieve a rhythm, because without it there will be no meditation. A mantra has no sacred "meaning" but regardless of its content, a mantra greatly assists us in achieving a meditative blank mind. It must be very simple which will become very familiar to us and will be used to replace any thought that may come to our mind. Soon enough we will learn to associate the mantra with a calm meditative state so that even if we are agitated, a thought of mantra brings an immediate calm. That is why changing mantras is not considered useful and it should be kept private.

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