Yesterday I met a very interesting old lady. Her husband had died two years ago and she is now living on her own. She told me that she missed him dearly. They had been married for 54 years before he had died. Now that he is gone, she feels empty. She said she cannot sleep at night anymore. She is on pills she said. But nothing works. Despite being involved in church and many other volunteer services, having friends and family she is having trouble getting to sleep. She feels as if everything starts to churn in her mind when she tries to sleep in the night.
She was asking me about meditation. She had heard that meditation is a good 'cure' for these kinds of problems, she said. So, she wanted to talk to me about meditation. After having talked to her I suggested that before she started meditation that she would benefit by looking at other alternatives to get her mind settled.
But my point is this.....'meditation' is becoming another 'fad'! It's becoming like something one can buy off the pharmacy for a cold, a cough and everything else. It is NOT!
Meditation, as I have known and as I have been taught by my teachers (Buddhist monks and nuns) is a way of life. It's not a "quick fix" or a "solution" to overcome personal problems, marriage problems, sicknesses or even to run away from lay life into solitude. Meditation is a life time commitment, that one has to undertake with great pure intention, with a big heart to give unstintigly to a process that would take years if not lifetimes perhaps to open up. One needs to be a silent and patient observer in that process. Fruits of that process, may or may not appear; you may or may not taste that fruit, it may be sweet or it may be sour, but through it all one needs to persevere. That is meditation. Meditation is a giving; not a taking.
So, please for those who want to meditate, don't look for shortcuts, take the long ardous path.
In this modern world we are so programmed to look for shortcuts. The quick fixes, the fast ways, the fast foods. But spiritual path, truth cannot be made to come to you fast. In fact, the harder you try the slower you go in the spiritual path. That's just the way of truth. But when you give yourself, diligently, without asking for much the path opens up easily. That's the nature of truth. It doesn't try to show off to you. When you give yourself to it, without hanky panky, it naturally comes to you.
It is unfortunate some people nowadays try to meditate looking, of course for relief. I cannot blame them. I can only feel compassion for the pain and suffering they have to go through. But if one meditates looking only for relief, then it`s not a good approach to meditation. Meditation is only one step in the Noble Eight Fold Path. There are seven other steps in it. They must all be cultivated togethether. Not just one in isolation will reap in peace or happiness. Of course, if one through meditation realises, jhanas or truth or come to have insights then that can lead one to make changes in ones life so that one walks the eight fold path in its entirety. But if jhanas don`t come, or insights don`t come, then one will be like an empty vessle.
So, it`s wise to practice meditation understanding the path taught by the BUddha. Not as a quick fix or to seek some quick relief. Nibbana cannot be found only in meditation. Nibbana, can arise in a mind that has been tamed in sila, cultivated in meditation that would then open itself up to wisdom like a flower that blossoms in its own good time. Like a ripened fruit, that falls from a tree. It happens!
No comments:
Post a Comment