Why Meditate?

Why learn to meditate?

People are drawn to learn meditation for various reasons. Some of the more common ones are:

• “I want to overcome my stress.”
• “I want to develop serenity and concentration and become more focused yet peaceful.”
• “I need to get to a point of acceptance and understanding regarding the challenges I face in my life.”
• “I need/want to heal myself.”
• “I want to understand why life is like it is.”

People decide to investigate the field of meditation for various reasons. Everyone who makes the effort to learn properly, under the guidance of a well trained teacher, very quickly realizes that it represents a huge field of personal investigation, endeavor and potential achievement. It opens the mind up to vast, un-tapped potential that previously could not even have been imagined.

The extraordinary capabilities of the average human mind pale into insignificance alongside the capacity of a mind that is well trained, focused, mindful and attuned. Every area of human excellence is achieved in a state of mental awareness and focus, well beyond the normal waking state. Some are gifted with the natural ability to enter into such heightened states. But for the vast majority the mind is nothing more than a burden that obsesses and clings to this and that, insisting on viewing life and the world around us in a way that suits our own ideas of what we think we are. Through our own fears, anxieties and obsessions, we create a bubble around ourselves in which we live in the hope that nothing unpleasant will intrude and shake its delicate balance.

Meditation equips us with the tools to make sense of what is hard to understand and work through the challenges we face in a balanced way. Once we start to dissolve the bubble that we live in, we begin to sense the extraordinary potential that we are blessed with.

In the same way that someone who does no exercise and takes no care of their body will never be able to climb a mountain or run a marathon , so one whose mind is slack, dull and lacking in energy, awareness or concentration, will never be able to recognize their own potential, let alone work towards achieving it.

What  benefits might I achieve from meditation?

Some immediate benefits one can expect from sitting a one week retreat:

• Deeper and more stable concentration and focus.
• More sustained levels of mental clarity and physical energy.
• A greater sense of presence. More grounded.
• Less easily stressed by the challenges of life.
• Greater sense of peace and acceptance.
• More objective understanding and insight into the challenges we face in life as well as tools to navigate through them successfully.
• The ability to love oneself and others unconditionally.
• Patience and tolerance towards others.
• Improved physical health at many levels (especially in combination with the Chi Gung practice).

All of these benefits will continue to multiply with practice over time.

Why is now an important time to be learning to meditate?

In these difficult times, with so much in the world so precariously balanced, we need more than ever to develop a genuine discipline of spiritual enquiry. Much of the social and natural order we have taken for granted in life is beginning to decay, and many of us are beginning to question deeply our role on this planet. Chronic illnesses and degenerative conditions are increasing in all populations of the world at alarming rates.

People are finding it more and more difficult to make sense of all that faces them. The single biggest cause of depression and the sense of “dis-ease” that so many in the West are experiencing is caused because at some deep level they know something is wrong. They know their life has gone off track. But they have no idea what to do about it. Antidepressant use is at epidemic levels and countless people, who are well provided for, without any apparent troubles in their life are seeing therapists and counsellors. Too many people just aren’t coping!

Once we are courageous enough to recognize that most of our problems are internally created and not simply the result of external conditions, we begin to take on the power to do something about it. Having made this brave shift in our perception of things, we will then need to acquire the tools to empower ourselves for a process that then becomes inevitable; the refinement of character.

The first step in this process is developing a harmonious, peaceful and balanced mind. The truth is that there is a higher intelligence in the heart that always knows the truth and knows the answers to all of our deep-rooted challenges, if we could only learn to listen.

In essence the entire field of meditation in the early stages is geared to learning to hear the silence of the heart. Once we have done that, we can begin to ask questions and start to get answers. All of the answers to our most searching of questions lie already answered within the heart.

The problem that most people face is fear or inability to sit still long enough to listen. I have taught many people from so many backgrounds and from many cultures with many different ideas about how to practice. I no longer believe that there is any one single technique that works and the rest don’t. There are many people who profess to be teaching “The Only Genuine” technique of meditation. They can’t all be right.

Whilst I have been taught many techniques, and am fortunate enough to have such concentration to see how and why and whether they work, in practice I look to one thing and one thing only - “What results are the students and yogis of each teacher/practice experiencing?”.

Whilst I do strongly believe there is a very discrete and well defined path that leads to the realisation and liberation through Nibbana as taught by the Buddha, there are so many staging posts along the way and so many people at such differing stages of progress. My job as a teacher is to guide each student through the stages they currently face.

When I started out I felt it was my duty to teach the Buddha’s meditation techniques, that he himself practiced and that led to his own liberation. Over time I have come to realize that there are many people who are seeking meaningful and workable teachings and techniques to help them navigate the more immediate issues of life’s challenges. This requires teaching the essence of the Buddha’s Dhamma in a context that is directly applicable to the lives we lead in this day and age.

The real goal for all of us is a sense of meaningful value and happiness in our lives. I take this as the mandate for what I now teach. Those who find a strong desire to achieve even higher attainments than these noble goals will over time come to ask for such instruction as they may need from me if I am able to provide it, or from another if need be.

For those of you who have decided bravely to begin to untangle the knots of confusion and let go of the accumulation of what has become meaningless, I strongly urge you to give sufficient time to meditation to make your mind a companion and ally, rather than a hindrance and obstacle on the road to happiness. To restate an earlier point, if you can quieten the mind enough to begin to listen to the heart, you will find that you already have the answers you seek.