Why we should all Meditate

I believe meditation should be a part of our every day lives regardless of whether we have spiritual aspirations or not. It is a shame that the idea of meditation is shrouded in many peoples’ ideas of Eastern dogma and mysticism. Those who meditate already do not need to be persuaded of its value, but for those who have not yet investigated this hugely rewarding field of potential I would like to de mystify the idea of meditation.

When Mohamed Ali got in the ring to fight George Foreman, he didn’t just jump in and start hitting out. His efforts of win the world heavy weight title, that famous night in Africa, were the culmination of months, even years of rigorous training at every level.

He had reconditioned every aspect of his being so that he could reach his peak performance that night. Every sports man or athlete knows how crucial training is to the success of their game.

When we are educated at school or college, we go about acquiring the information that will help us both in the daily life and professionally. At least it is hoped. But when we begin the real life practice of being a lawyer, a business executive, an advertising campaign manager, we are thrust into an environment where we have to apply our minds with a sustained intensity of focus that we have never been prepared for.

In the modern world what we are asking of ourselves at a mental, and even emotional level is often far more that we are equipped to handle with ease. And so stress has become endemic in our society. We are simply not programmed to do the things we are asking of ourselves professionally. Chronic fatigue is the result of a short fall between the application required and resource available.

Our minds are unfit, unwieldy, over loaded: and our mental capacity has nothing to do with intelligence. No one in their right mind would get up on a Sunday morning and say “Lovely day. I think I will go and run a marathon today.” It would be lunacy. Yet how many young hot shots come back from travelling after three years of the high life at university to begin a career in the city for which they are utterly unequipped at an energetic level. In our youth we can run off adrenalin seemingly endlessly but what when we turn thirty five? These days I see more people coming to see me because they aren’t coping than I do those who are seeking enlightenment. Most people first come to my meditation and chi kung classes at first to help them get their lives back on track. And why is this? Because we are asking more of ourselves than we are equipped to deliver.

When I gave up my fashion business and went off to learn meditation in Burma it was because the gratification my ego was receiving from the success of my business had paled into insignificance alongside what that success had cost me in terms of peace of mind and happiness. I had spent years chasing my tail designing clothes and opening shops without ever giving myself the chance to catch my breath and decompress from the stress it had put me under. My friends thought I was crazy. “Burgs has lost the plot,” many of them said.

I had given up a successful career to go and contemplate my navel: What could be the point of sitting still watching my breath? they thought. But by the time I left the forest my mind had transformed itself from the cluttered misorganised machine that it was to a source of inspiration and tireless energy.

Meditation is the discipline of mental cultivation. It begins with gym work for the mind long before it begins to fathom spiritual principles and the nature of our very being. The capacity for deep and sustained focus and concentration, clear awareness and mental energy is a skill set that anyone who seeks excellence in their lives will need. Yet where in our education do we acquire such skills? When you can sit still with ease and remain lucid and concentrated for an hour in meditation you mind will begin to be ready for the challenges we are expected to face in our modern world.

The idea of yogic cultivation, that seeks the refinement of our mind and body at an energetic level is alien to our society, and yet it is exactly the discipline we will need to make sense of and navigate through the challenges and predicaments that life throws at us. The ability to remain collected, calm and focused in the face of real challenge is dependent on the way in which our mind is ordered and configured. Meditation is the systematic development of the mental qualities of concentration, serenity, awareness, insight and equanimity. Each one of these faculties prove to be treasures indeed as we set out in life to make the best of ourselves and realise our full potential.

Today, in my busy life, I find that one hour of meditation early in the morning gives me many hours of sustained energy and clarity of mind in the daily life. I need little sleep and tire rarely. And when the day is done put my head on the pillow and with a few deep breaths let all that has gone before me empty itself from my mind so that I can fall into a peaceful, undisturbed and refreshing sleep. I value this ability more highly than all the other skills I have acquired, for it is the one that makes my life pleasing and rewarding, opening up a gap in which to truly enjoy the fruits of my labour.

I strongly believe that if we had all developed the mind set that meditation gives us, as part of our education, not only would be better equipped for the path we take in life, but we could come to make more informed decisions about the directions we take. Then might we begin to honour our hearts longing for peace and a sense of meaning more highly than status and material reward. And who knows in doing so we might find ourselves more easily satisfied and so play our part I slowing up the rate at which we are consuming our limited resources both mentally within us , and physically in the world in which we live.

So where do we start?

We start simply by learning to be still. By over coming our restlessness and discomfort at being alone with ourselves. It is true that meditation is hard in the beginning. It takes a sustained effort and determination to overcome the negative patterns we have developed. But is isn’t difficult. What could be simpler than sitting still and concentrating on the breath or the body whilst relaxing into it. It is only as hard as the resistance we have put in the way. Our restlessness is bourn of our hankering for variety of forms and lack of contentment with what the present moment is offering us. By learning to remain concentrated and mindful of what is going on within and around us we begin to make our peace with this very moment and what it contains. When we have made our peace with what is presented to us in the moment, our restlessness will have fallen away and we learn to enter into what happens next with a sense of appreciation, rather than charging off in search of it, hoping that somewhere out there, down the line, we will find the happiness we are looking for.

The extraordinary gift that meditation brings us to essentially two fold. While equipping our mind with the ability to more skilfully apply ourselves to what we aspire to it in stages brings about an acceptance and appreciation of what we already have. Surely this is a reward that justifies the investment. Half and hour a day of time out of the affray of our hectic life, in order to make to make that very life both more rewarding and manageable. The question is why isn’t everyone doing it?