A whole person, someone at one with himself – as opposed to someone who is inwardly divided – meditates everyday, without effort and without the need for any stylistic preparation. However, most people are not at one with themselves and most people would greatly benefit from achieving this state. And, interestingly enough, the most widely used way of becoming a whole person is to practice meditation.
Most people who want to learn about meditation seem to think that they have to read a lot of books or take classes. Books and classes are wonderful tools for getting second hand knowledge, but this has little to do with the act of meditating itself. Meditation is a natural process, part of the mechanism of being a human, we can all do it intuitively – at least we should be able to if we weren’t programed to resist it by our current materialistic culture.
Assume a comfortable position and then let yourself concentrate and connect with your inner self, letting the outer, messed up world fade away. A few moments of this a day, in time, will make a big impact on your life. Get into the habit of doing this. Once you start to understand and appreciate what is happening for you, some review of known, established meditation techniques will be helpful.
Look around. Find one technique you think you will like and work with that for a time. You can change your mind and try something else, later. Some simple, early-stage techniques will involve adopting a good posture and effective breathing methods. A minute of reflection will tell you what these could be. Once you’ve had some regular practice, books and classes will then serve to REFINE and ENHANCE your own natural experiences. After using different techniques and finding something that feels good for you, the knowledge, experience and sensations that come to you automatically will inspire you to continue the practice.
Start now. Start from where you are. Start with whatever fear, pain or doubt you have. Start with your uncertainty – but start. Start and don’t stop. Start right from where you are now and with whatever insight and knowledge you have and go from there.
Later, you can do other things, refine your technique, explore more sophisticated or complex methods to see what they are about. First, however, you will want to get some direct experiences that can only come from practice.
Many people believe that to be a regular meditator or a spiritual person means that you must immediately stop living the way you do now: stop eating, drinking, playing and having a normal life.
Nope.
You can meditate and still keep living your regular life.
However, if done sincerely, meditation will expand your consciousness – it will expand your understanding of life and fill you with more clarity. Once your mind becomes calm and you get an overview of your own life patterns, you might begin to act differently. You might have the desire to live differently. But this will be a natural, unforced experience – something you will choose to happen. What that will look like is anybody’s guess. It will simply be something that is right for you alone, something that you, yourself, will choose.
Your choices in life will begin to be based on a calm, self-reliance and inner contentment. Your personal choices will NOT be based on indifference or some form of imposed, frightened attitude regarding what is allowed and what is forbidden. Instead, you will choose with an alert, involved attitude toward whatever you face in your own life.
Meditation won’t change or remake you – it will simply bring out your own true, natural, inner self. It will help you be the person you really are.