Why do we meditate?
Thinking about being peaceful is not the same as being peaceful.
It is through you that the entirely of existence evolves.
The experience of our natural state of bliss, a deeply contented peace of mind, is something we all want to experience and we often make the mistake of searching for this outside of ourselves - advertising cunningly plays on these buttons - if we have this or that then we will finally feel ___________ (fill in the blank: acknowledged, important, "seen", loved, worthy, happy, content, at peace, powerful). Social conditioning will have you forever on the hunt for this outside of yourself, you're the hound chasing a carrot on a stick - you can never catch it. With Vedic Meditation you regularly have a powerful, direct experience of this deep state of wellbeing, contentment and bliss, of simply being. It's where it always has been, waiting for you to discover it, an experience inside your own consciousness that requires nothing and no-one to give it to you (except a simple technique which triggers your own consciousness to remember how to access it).
We cannot think our way to this state of mind, this state of consciousness - thinking about peace of mind is not the same as being peaceful. Most of us do not have enough willpower to override all of our subconscious programming, habits, beliefs and "stories" about ourselves and others (aka our stresses) to simply will ourselves to be compassionate, loving and in a state of peace and bliss all, or even for a majority, of the time. We need a way to bypass the programming of our brain, the neurons that have fired together and wired together for however many years we've been on this planet so far, step beyond and transcend that layer of the active mind, and dip into that pure consciousness, that place where bliss and peace naturally resides.
This is why we meditate.
Each time we dip our cloth, our consciousness, into that place we come back into daily life with a little more colourfast dye. A little more peace, a little more compassion, a little more adaptation energy. Life's demands affect us a little less and a little less, we can adapt a little more and a little more each time a change in our expectations occurs, until eventually we become more familiar with that place of pure consciousness, the fulfilment state, the truth of our nature, that we identify more with it and less with the stories and old programs, the stealth viruses that have been running in the background. One student who has been meditating for less than a month said to me: "I think I may even like myself more" - why is that? Simple - the old, out of date programs which would have you believe you are __________ (fill in the blank with your own flavour of self-criticism) are being overridden. The mechanics are very simple. Dip the cloth, fade it in activity, dip it again in the evening - the more dipping, the more peace and bliss, the faster you experience the full stabilisation of that state as your daily experience.
This is true power. This is true fearlessness. This is not manufactured, forced positivity - there's no need to fake it til you make it here, though that will certainly assist in the meantime, this is powerfully yet very easily establishing that as your natural, spontaneous experience of, and response to, life. You cannot change yourself, your experience of life from the place where the old programming is running, you need to step beyond it, defrag the system, reboot and realise a different state of being.
Some days it's harder than others to make it to the chair to meditate. It probably took me a good six months of practice before the resistance to practising waned for me. It can feel a little like a chore sometimes and that may not be the idea we originally held about meditation. But you are the lucky few who have such a simple, effortless way to defrag the system and are on your way, meditation by meditation, to a different, more joyous, more expansive, more present and contented experience of life. Your practice germinates the seed of awareness within you, each meditation waters the seed, the sapling, the young tree until you realise you are the fully grown tree. Gardening does take some effort sometimes, when we think we would rather be doing something else.
So just remember, when you sit down to defrag the hard drive every morning and evening that during that time you're not watering the weeds - you're not judging or criticising yourself or others, you're not caught up in the stories you tell yourself or you've been told about yourself, about your worth and what you're capable of. You're watering the flowers and pruning the tree. You're the field of all possibilities. Let this be the year that you really defrag some of those old programs that really don't serve you, that you create the space to feel into what you really want to achieve and experience, that you awaken to your own true essence. This is the best gift you could give yourself, your relationship, your family and friends, and humanity as a whole. And know that Nature is rooting for you - for it is through you that existence itself evolves.
Love and Jai Guru Deva*
Georgia x
*victory of light over darkness
