Go All Mystical

Lighten Up

“Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting in the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have. We can lead our life so as to become more awake to who we are and what we're doing rather than trying to improve or change or get rid of who we are or what we're doing. The key is to wake up, to become more alert, more inquisitive and curious about ourselves.”

Pema Chodron

I'm going to a new meditation group today. For most people, that would not be a cause for anxiety—after all, isn't meditation one of the proven methods of calming the nervous system? Maybe for extroverts, but we introverts convert every new encounter into a heart-pounding, hand-sweating event. Praise God, I have learned, in my seven decades, to do it anyway—in spite of the thumping in my chest.

Meditation has always been difficult for me because my mind is so prone to revving up as opposed to quieting down. But, I'm told if one hangs in there, and stops trying to wrestle that monkey-mind to the ground, it gets bored and goes away. Here is what Swami Muktananda says about it: “Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.” Mine will be like witnessing a rugby match free-for-all. But, I truly want to meditate, so I'm going to try again.

One of the mistakes we make with meditation is going into it expecting to have a mystical, transcendent experience. That's called an agenda, and from what I understand, you can't go into meditation with an agenda or your monkey-mind sits on your head and tells you every second-and-a-half that you're not having said experience. One must simply go in, sit down, and be quiet with no agenda, and perhaps experience something calming. For an anxious introvert, that, in itself, would be mystical.

Instead of a transcendent experience, meditation can be a learning tool—one learns how to let go, and allow the structures that hold the persona in place to unwind. The persona, which we try to keep solidly in place so the world won't see the insecurities we all hold within, can become a cast of sorts, hardened and difficult to escape. It is, after all, our armor, protecting us from life's capriciousness. The dissolving of that hard exterior can and will take some time.

The real purpose of meditation is to show one what worlds dwell within, and how much bigger those worlds are than the one the persona is constructed to confront. Here is what Zen Master, Hsing Yun, says about it: “Meditation will not carry you to another world, but it will reveal the most profound and awesome dimensions of the world in which you already live. Calmly contemplating these dimensions and bringing them into the service of compassion and kindness is the right way to make rapid progress in meditation and in life.” Why not give it a try.

                                                            In the Spirit,

                                                               Jane