Meditation works - always and without fail - but only if you do it

As a Meditation teacher and lifelong meditator, I can say with absolute certainty that Meditation works. Success is inevitable and guaranteed.

How can anyone be so confident about the outcome of an endeavour? It is my own experience and that of countless friends and students, as well as the knowledge transmitted by living sages and scriptures throughout the ages, that allows me to be completely doubtless in my affirmation. Whoever applies themselves to meditating regularly, while applying a technique informed by direct knowledge and experience, will reap the benefits of their practice.

The only time Meditation seems to work less than perfectly, is when we don't do it....

Every time we sit and close our eyes, a subtle yet powerful transformation takes place. Our attention, which is normally oriented exclusively towards the outside - towards people, things and situations - gets drawn inward towards our center. Instead of being glued to every thought that passes through our head and makes us believe that we need to follow it, our attention is directed toward the awareness of that which is watching and knowing everything. This awareness is referred to as the Knower. It is the unchanging Presence that knows everything appearing in front of our closed eyes when we meditate.

The process of redirecting our attention away from the incessant movement of our thoughts has many subtle results. As the most immediate outcome we realise that we are not the thoughts, opinions or sentiments that we observe with our our closed eyes. We notice that, in fact, we are the one knowing them. At first sight this doesn't seem like much, but it is in truth a momentous shift in awareness.

When we begin to know that we are the one watching a thought or judgment, the very thing that we believed to be true, looses its power. This leaves us with a choice that we never had when we considered the thought to be our identity. We now can associate with the thought, or we can choose not to. We can decide to act upon it, nor not. In that space between the thought and the one knowing it resides the possibility for freedom from the dictates of our thoughts and emotions.

Every time we close our eyes to meditate, every time we choose to rest our attention with the Watcher and Knower of the thoughts, the awareness of our identity as that Knower gets strengthened. This creates an increased certainty about our True Nature, which allows us to experience the unchanging peace of the Knower more and more continuously. At the same time, as a side-effect, the body-mind identification lessens steadily. We notice that we feel less attached to things and forms and that our own thoughts and opinions don't hold much sway anymore.

For such a fundamental shift to take hold in our system, a change of habit is necessary. We can't continue to race after our thoughts and expect for the mechanism to change by itself, even if we understand intellectually how it all works. The breaking of any habit we have entertained for years and decades takes time and repetition. If we want to become free from the tyranny of our mind - more importantly - if we want to know ourselves as the ever free Knower, we need to practice something other than what we have done so far.

That is what happens in Meditation. By directing our attention again and again towards the Knower we are eventually able to remain with the Knower and accept that we Are that Knower. Every time we close our eyes, the underlying reality of the Knower gets affirmed and the knowledge of our True Nature shines more strongly. The only condition for it to work is that we actually do it on a regular basis. When we do, the resulting sense of freedom and joy is guaranteed - always.

Changing habits is not always easy. If you would like to get help in building, rekindling or deepening your regular Meditation practice, send me an e-mail requesting a free half hour consult and check out the details of our Online Meditation Mentoring Program.

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Worry is Optional...

Two very talented friends and meditators have recently created a YouTube Channel called Yog Tales, where they share deep and inspiring animated stories depicting the philosophy of Yog.

'Yog' (a sanskrit word translated as 'Oneness') is the name of an ancient science investigating many of mankind's fundamental questions such as 'Who am I?', 'What is the purpose of my life?' and 'How do I fulfill this purpose?'. These are the topics of each video presented there. Their stories are based on and inspired by rich yogic literature and all of the voices used in the videos are from lifelong meditators and Yog philosophy scholars.

The short video I am sharing with you today is a humorous and insightful story about a young man plagued by worry. His mind is on what I call "automatic pilot". It is agitated and moving restlessly in several directions at the same time. Our young man believes that all his thoughts are real and true. He is therefore going along with the stream of the constant chatter in his head. As you have seen in the video - or as you many know from your own experience - following random thoughts as if they were the reality, can create a very unpleasant sense of insecurity and agitation. Once we are caught in this spiral, the negative thoughts seem to feed on the drama and the ensuing anxiety. They tend to jump to ever wilder conclusions. When out of control, they can become endless imaginative scenarios of doom. We call the process of accepting these thoughts "worry" and most people believe that there isn't much that can be done about it.

Nothing is farther from the truth. Like the young man in the video, we can become aware that these thoughts are merely creations of an active mind who is playing tricks on those who believe in it. Just because the thoughts are there, doesn't mean they are true. They appear in our head uninvited, and if we decide to watch them in a neutral and detached way - as if we were watching a movie at the theatre - then we notice that they also eventually disappear. More importantly, we notice that just because our thoughts tell a certain story, that story isn't necessarily true. If we make an effort to observe, we come to see that thoughts are nothing more than movements in our mind. Depending on the situation we find ourselves in, or determined by memories of previous situations, the movement has a specific, sometimes dramatic, flavour. But it is still just movement in the mind. The most important observation in this process of watching is the realisation that I - the one watching the movement - am utterly free from the thoughts. I am there when the thoughts create drama, I am there when they are peaceful, and I am there when there are no thoughts.

The experience of this sense of I is the secret and the gift of Meditation. When we close our eyes, we become aware of the movement of the thoughts that come and go. Whether they are pleasant or unpleasant, numerous, just a few or entirely absent - the I is aware and knowing. It is free and uninvolved, yet it is always present. In fact that I is our True Nature. It is the Essence of our Being, the Source of Existence and our very Identity. It may appear to be covered by worry and agitation - but just as the sun is always shining, even when it appears to be covered by clouds - the I or Self is shining throughout. Meditation allows us to know that we Are the Self. When we mediate regularly, this sense of Self as Me becomes strengthened and stabilised. We become established as the Self, and random worry or agitation of the mind won't affect us in any way.

Are you ready to be free from worry? Contact Sampriya for a free half hour consult to find out how she can help you build or expand your own Meditation Practice with Online Meditation Training and Online Meditation Mentoring.

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You are Pure Free Forever - nobody needs to approve to make it so

The human condition is to forget that our originality or True Nature is Pure Free and Forever. We are born of that Divine Purity and Freedom, but as soon as our ego/mind/intellect starts to develop, the knowledge of our Divine Nature is lost.

We are told from an early age that we are a girl or a boy, that we have a name, a family, a skin color and a nationality that define us. Growing up we accept different roles that society determines for us and so we become daughters, sons, wives and husbands, professionals and parents. Each definition of a role is established by the social norms of the times and environment we live in. The specific flavor and coloring of the roles we adopt is entirely dependent on the social climate of our surroundings. More or less consciously we learn to conform to and abide by the definitions and opinions of others. We do so for good reasons, since compliance brings approval. Most people need this sense of validation to feel loved and respected.

It is well worth giving this point some special consideration. Most people are not fully aware just how much they depend on the approval of others to feel good about themselves. We often don't realize how exhausting it is to rely on the approval of others for our wellbeing. It masks our own inner knowledge and this need for validation is, more often than not, the source of self-judgment and disappointment. When we keep looking to others for approval we feed our lack of confidence and maintain the forgetfulness of our own True Nature. In searching for a sense of fulfilment and accomplishment outside of ourselves, we miss the fact that in reality we already are everything we ever wanted to be - we truly are Pure Free and Forever, Divine Beings living in a human form for a while.

Remembering who we really are and building the strength of knowing Pure Free Forever as our identity is possible through Meditation. When we close our eyes we have a chance to tune into the aspect of ourselves that gets masked by the ego/mind/intellect in everyday life. With closed eyes, our inner eyes first notice a dark - some call it blue/black - space that fills our whole field of perception. This space has no beginning and no end, and it goes on forever. When we pay close attention, we notice that the thoughts that come and go appear in that infinite space. We become aware that everything we perceive arises and eventually dissolves in that space, yet the space itself does not change. This space is the unchanging constancy that is ever-present at the back of all events and circumstances. It is our Source, our Originality and our True Nature - Pure Free and Forever; and exists unconditionally as the infinite vastness of our own Being. It needs nobody’s approval - not even our own - to make it so.

Email Sampriya for a free half hour consult if you would like to explore the infinite space of your own Source. Her Online Meditation Mentoring Program offers the possibility to build or expand your personal Meditation practice with the help of regular private sessions with an experienced Meditation Mentor. If you would rather explore Meditation in a group setting, check out her Online Meditation Training, Classes and Satsang.

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