With the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and over-worked. It often feels like there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. Our stress and tiredness make us unhappy, impatient and frustrated. It can even affect our health. We are often so busy we feel there is no time to stop and meditate! But meditation actually gives you more time by making your mind calmer and more focused. A simple ten or fifteen minute breathing meditation can help you to overcome your stress and find some inner peace and balance.
Spiritual Practice
Meditation can also help us to understand our own mind. We can learn how to transform our mind from negative to positive, from disturbed to peaceful, from unhappy to happy. Overcoming negative minds and cultivating constructive thoughts is the main purpose of meditation. This is a profound spiritual practice you can enjoy throughout the day, not just while seated in meditation. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.
True Happiness
The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness.
Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy. Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sandcastle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide.
Training in Meditation
By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency.
If we train in meditation systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we will come to experience a permanent inner peace, known as “liberation” or “nirvana”. Then, day and night in life after life, we will experience only peace and happiness.
Meditation is that which gives you deep rest. Meditation is an activity in which the practitioner just sits and allows the mind to dissolve. The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have. When the mind becomes free from agitation, is calm and serene and at peace, meditation happens.
Benefits of Meditation
There are numerous benefits of meditation. It is an essential practice for mental hygiene.
- A calm mind
- Good concentration
- Clarity of perception
- Improvement in communication
- Blossoming of skills and talents
- An unshakeable inner strength
- Healing
- The ability to connect to an inner source of energy
- Relaxation, rejuvenation, and good luck are all natural results of meditating regularly.
Advantages of Meditation
- Today’s levels of stress makes meditation a no-brainer. It helps us achieve that all-important work-life balance, enhances mental clarity and decision-making skills and nurtures trust, creativity, innovation and intuition.
- Improves our relationships. We develop a pleasant, sociable personality, and are able to accept people as they are. These are important skills in any sphere, more so at the, workplace, where teamwork is crucial.
- It gives a deep sense of health and well-being as, regularly practiced, the mind, body and spirit benefit immensely. The deep rest it offers makes us more dynamic in activity.
- If you are one of those who find forgiveness difficult, then regular meditation is just the ticket for you!
The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have. When the mind becomes free from agitation, is calm and serene and at peace, meditation happens.