… continued from part 1

When we think of meditation, we think peace. Surely, all these people, spending years and years in silence and meditation, must be peaceful? Well, maybe not. I wouldn’t necessarily call my tryst with meditation ‘peaceful’, and I have reason to believe that I am not alone. What I write below is not by any means detailed information about meditation – I merely recount the trips and the traps I’ve observed so far.

What is Meditation? 
A google search on meditation will bring up hundreds of guided visualisations. Guided visualisations are great as a preparatory tool for meditation, but they are not meditation at all. Any system that uses the mind cannot really be meditation. It is, however, a great starting point – and it helps one feel peaceful – one carrot that most spiritual aspirants spend their lives chasing.

There are many spiritual paths and people might define meditation differently. To me, meditation is being more present in the body, and in the moment.

One of the most effective methods I have found, is body awareness. All stresses are stored in the body. Becoming more deeply present in the physical body brings to our awareness the stresses in our body, and we can eventually let them go.

What I’ve Learned
One of the first things I understood was that almost no spiritual aspirant is on the path for enlightenment. We are all in it because our sense of self has been damaged in some way, and we think that ‘getting enlightened’ will somehow redeem us. Anyhow, something happens in life that turns a mind that is usually focused outside, inwards.

The first experience is usually peace. The outer world brings too many distractions, too many triggers, and when one first turns inwards, there is a very nice peace – it is like closing the curtain on the chaos of the world.

When you enter a dark room after a walk in bright sunshine, the first reaction is usually relief, and darkness. Peace. Then your eyes readjust, and you see the mess inside. That’s when the journey really begins.

The Darkness

The trip: One starts coming face to face with the darkest aspects of oneself, and this is far from pleasant. Most people start meditating to become a ‘better’ person, and when they see aspects of themselves that they’ve hated in others, they want to fix everything. It takes a while to realise that this is also just the mind playing games, and to transcend it.

The trap: When you begin to ‘see’ more, it is not just your own flaws, but also those of others that become more visible. If one hasn’t worked enough in the heart, then one can be swept up by the mind, becoming very judgmental, condescending and afraid of all the ‘negative’ people.

So if you feel that you are progressing spiritually and your family is being left behind, your mind is using ‘spiritual growth’ as an excuse to make yourself look bigger than other people. Working with the heart will take you to a more accepting space, and allow you to see God in the ones around you.

The Noise

As you start going deeper into meditation, you could start feeling that you are not meditating at all. The mind goes crazy, thinking thought after thought, and if you have developed enough awareness, you could be very frustrated at the constant running.

And then comes a day when we realise that the frustration was also just a figment of the mind. Beware the mind commenting on the mind commenting on the mind. Take a step back, watch that thought, that is not you, either.

It’s Not All About the Upper Chakras

There seems to be this misconception that an open third eye is a sign of a spiritual person. If someone can talk to the angels, heal other people, predict the future or travel astrally, then it is taken for granted that they are spiritual. This has nothing to do with the truth. These are merely skills and just take a little time to develop.

Without a balance among all the chakras, opening up the third eye will create a lot of physical, mental and emotional turmoil. It is of utmost importance to be deeply rooted. An open heart is very important.

Transcending the Bliss

The trip: Deep meditation can bring flashes or lasting moments of bliss.

The trap: This is not ‘it’ either. One could easily get stuck after a bliss experience, trying to bring that experience back, and judging the ‘success’ of each meditation by the level of bliss experienced. Meditation is about being in the moment. Sometimes those moments are blissful. Sometimes they are pure torture. One is not better than the other, they just are.

Doing and Being

Meditation is the perfect balance between being and doing. However, if there isn’t enough grounding, then one can become heady, loathing tasks and feeling like one is above them. One wants to be left alone, unable to handle the hypocrisy and madness of the world. If this is the case, grounding becomes essential. This is just another gimmick of the mind and also needs to be transcended.

If anything, meditation makes it easier to do more, more easily, because one is not dictated by the likes and dislikes of the mind. Learning to be completely present while performing tasks is very fulfilling and brings more peace to the world, no matter how small a task it is.