An article by contributing writer Jogyata Dallas
Reprinted with kind permission of Indianz Outlook
‘Mindfulness’ is fast becoming a catch phrase these days, an acknowledgement of the need to observe and calm the mind in a hectic modern world where stress, clutter and high velocity lifestyles are placing great demands on our composure. Lasting health is founded upon a relationship between body, mind and spirit, and the physical body itself is only one component in the overall equation of well-being. Holistics recognizes this interconnection, and that a stress free and happy mind and a blossoming spiritual life are major factors in our physical health. Just as stress and negative emotions silently erode our life force, so too the practice of mindfulness and meditation releases a new and positive life force – borne of inspiration, happiness, peace – into every part of our existence, creating the optimum conditions for vitality and health. With meditation even our sleep pattern can change – an improvement in quality, a likely reduction in quantity. More time and energy to live our lives!
Everything Starts Within
The way we feel and function in our outer life is determined to a very great extent by our inner life – our happiness, our confidence, our moods, our consciousness. We often have little power to change events in the outer world, but we can change the way we react to them. When we are happy and calm, difficulties and problems are easily coped with – when we are anxious or unhappy, the same difficulties can become nightmares. Our whole experience of life is coloured by our own consciousness – our life is the creation of our minds! Meditation balances the inner and outer worlds and brings out the bright colours of our nature – joyfulness, serenity, loving kindness, strength. These emerging positive qualities reshape our very experience of life, for everything starts within.
The writings of all the great sages and pathfinders over the centuries share many recurring ideas and truths – one of these is a belief in the wisdom and beauty of the human soul. Spiritual master Sri Chinmoy describes the soul as our ‘inner pilot’ – it is our highest Self, our truest Self, our in-house life guide. The more we listen to our soul, the more our outer life will flourish and prosper – and it is in the silence and stillness of meditation that the wisdom of the soul can most easily be felt and experienced. In everything of life – decision-making, problem solving, the search for fulfillment and purpose – the inner pilot is there to show us the way and we can learn to access it through our deepening practice. Beyond and higher than ‘mindfulness’ is ‘soulfulness’, our identification and connection with this very deepest part of our being.
The Soul’s Special Promise
The great sages also tell us that each soul is unique and has something very special to accomplish on earth. It is by listening to our ‘inner pilot’ that we begin to feel and understand what our life’s deeper purpose is and then our outer life becomes increasingly in harmony with this knowledge. The discovery and fulfillment of the soul’s special promise brings us great happiness.
Power of mind
The many techniques employed in learning meditation share a common theme – harnessing and concentrating the power of the mind. The mind is like the waves on the surface of the lake, constantly moving – meditation stills this restlessness so that we can see down into the lake’s depths, the quiet inner spaces. By-products and benefits of this effort are numerous – an ability to focus and concentrate quickly, enhanced memory, a stillness in the meditating mind which enables us to access deeper, intuitive, creative and inspirational parts of our being. Silence and stillness are immensely potent, creative, the doorway where the finite connects with the infinite.
Power of Heart
The late teacher Sri Chinmoy placed great emphasis on the spiritual heart in our quest for happiness, for it houses many of our most powerful spiritual qualities. A widening, deepening capacity for love; compassion for others; a oneness with all of life; inner wisdom; a desireless happiness like the fragrance of an inner flower, spreading out into our life – a treasure trove waiting to be discovered! The heart is an egoless, unhorizoned consciousness and ‘living in the heart’ is one of the secrets of real happiness. One of the principle forms of yoga – bhakti yoga – is centered in the spiritual heart as well. Here, the power of devotional love is directed out to God and sees divinity in all things.
A Peaceful Life
Meditation will make you a very peaceful person. This peace comes about through a growing self-acceptance and self-confidence, and through an inner poise that comes from a deeper part of our being. This peace is not something passive and fragile – it is very powerful and dynamic. This kind of inner peace will lift us above success, failure, the positives and negatives of life – it leaves in us an adamantine poise and a sense of calm detachment in the face of life’s changing fortunes and tribulations. People who have developed inner peace are very powerful.
Awakening
Meditation is the awakening to our true nature, a spiritual path to enlightenment, self-realisation, oneness with God. This is why one should always feel gratitude for the impulse to meditate – we have consciously begun the great journey of awakening that lies at the very heart of all human life.
