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.