Why Meditate?

“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.”

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

• “I want to overcome the stress in my daily life.”
• “I want to overcome a physical illness and heal myself.”
• “I want to understand why life is like it is.”
• “I want to find peace in my daily life.”
• “I want to get to a point of acceptance and understanding regarding the challenges I face in my life.”

Everyone who makes the effort to learn properly, under the guidance of a well trained teacher, very quickly realises 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 have even been imagined.

The ordinary capabilities of the average human mind pale into insignificance alongside the capacity of a mind that is well trained, focused, mindful and attuned. Areas of human excellence are achieved in states 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 of us, 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 and work through the challenges we face in life 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 find it hard 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 find from a meditation retreat?

Here are some immediate benefits one might expect from sitting a one week retreat:

• Improved physical health at many levels.
• More sustained levels of mental clarity and physical energy.
• A greater sense of presence, and a feeling of being more ‘grounded’.
• Less easily stressed by the challenges of daily life.
• More patience and tolerance towards others.
• A greater sense of peace and acceptance.
• A more objective understanding and insight into the challenges we face in daily life
• Tools to navigate the challenges that life might bring.
• The ability to love oneself and others unconditionally.

These potential benefits will mature over time if you were to maintain a consistent meditation practice after the retreat.