I brought books to read and projects to work on, and my shaver. I realized later that while I waited for the inspection station to open at 8 I had planned to do many things to keep my mind busy; I hadn’t planned to use the time to meditate.
I got up earlier than usual this morning. I had to get to the DMV inspection station before 8, so I could finish with the inspection and get to work on time. I felt like I had to hurry, so I didn’t shave, didn’t pack a proper breakfast, and didn’t meditate.
Walter Kirn writes in the New York Times Magazine, April 4, 2010:
“They certainly weren’t born of thought, my son and daughter. Nor do they live by thought, when I come to think of it. So this Easter I’m vowing not to think at all.”
Kirn has noticed, since his childhood, how problematical adult, rational thinking can be, and how it seems to defy observable reality. “Rational thinking” in fact seems to often be “irrational thinking.”
He’s on to something important. If he is able to watch and delight in his children, without any thoughts in his head, he is indeed enjoying what “truth” is, and it’s not contained in any concept.
“The sense of well-being pervaded all over me.
“On the way home, I threw away my tobacco tin and gave up smoking permanently, and then leapt in the air and swung round lamposts for sheer joy and exuberance.”
Some people have calm, serene experiences when they try Sahaja Meditation. And some people have strong, vivid, extraordinary experiences. One man recounted his first experience of the meditation like this:
“I felt much cleaner, much lighter, and filled with great love, peace, security and bliss.”
Many of us have developed a habit of thinking about everything. Once we’ve experienced the world we live in while our mind is quiet, in meditation, we realize how much there is to enjoy. With no analysis or opinion to get in the way, we can discover the true beauty of another human being.
In a state of meditation, we find that we just enjoy what is in front of us — the food, the landscape, the person.
We have developed the habit of wanting things we do not have. Our economy runs on this chronic state of dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, wanting what is not in front of us means we cannot enjoy what is in front of us.
A friend of mine told me what he has found, after practicing Sahaja Meditation for several years.
He said he has noticed what happens when he worries about doing something absolutely perfectly. He worries. He gets upset. He’s troubled. But he has learned, through the meditation, to just do it, and not worry about whether it will be perfect or not.
Sahaja Meditation is simply a way to quiet down the mind and completely relax.