For a long time we have been saying that we don’t have enough time. The busyness of our lives was the pretext to run and to keep running. Because of it we were able to justify that we didn’t have time to slow down, to be watchful, to meditate. It seems that Life itself has decided to change this situation...
Overnight we find ourselves in a world where the ground on which we stand seems to be shifting. Things that were unthinkable two weeks ago, have become reality. Individually and collectively we are forced to adapt and change our habits and world view on a daily basis. This brings a sense of insecurity that may even manifest as fear, since we can no longer predict with any certainty what tomorrow will bring.
As much as these changes will cause different forms of hardships, they also offer an incredible gift, and with this gift an opportunity for transformation and expansion. This sudden luxury of time is a precious invitation pause, to change the pace of our life, our habits and our thinking.
When life slows down, our perceptions change. We start to notice things that were lost in the speed of our thoughts and actions before. We see that there is a space between thoughts, we perceive more details in our environment, maybe we notice more acutely how the people around us are feeling or what is going on within ourselves.
Pause is not just a gift, it is a definite power. Especially when we live in close quarters with family. The ability to pause before we react will significantly improve the quality of our communication and therefore the climate in which we live our confined lives. Using the power of pause will allow us to choose what information we listen to, what food we eat, what activities we adopt. It gives us the power to resist the pull of our conditioned and reflexive reactions that follow any thought as if we were on automatic pilot.
In accepting and practicing the gift of pause we also counter the influence of auto-pilot in our actions. Because pause brings awareness to our actions, it gives us the power to choose one thing over another. This makes the act of pausing one of the most powerful ways to change habits that don't serve us.
When we deeply contemplate the infinite potential of the power of pause, we realise that it is not just a means to change our waking state from stressful to peaceful. We can use this unexpected offering of time to actually pause our actions - to to go inside, since going outside might not be an option for a while...
Going inside is another word for Meditation. We sit down, close our eyes and start watching. We notice that we no longer see our body or the room in which we sit. What we perceive with our eyes closed is the multitude of thoughts and feelings that are vying for attention. In Meditation we will not try to understand them or figure out why they are there. We will simply notice that they exist as movement going on in our mind. The focus of our attention is shifted to that which is aware of the movement.
The very realisation that there is a part of us that sees and knows the thoughts, represents a fundamental shift. It allows us to see that there is an aspect of our being that is always present and unchanging. If we continue sitting with our eyes closed we become aware that this ever-present Knower is not affected by the thoughts, their content or their number. This Knower is the unchanging presence of the Self our True Nature. When we pause and meditate we become aware that the Knower is never separate, ever-present, Pure Free and Forever. This challenging time of change also offers us an incredible opportunity: to accept the gift of pause and to experience the most profound transformation - the knowledge that the unchanging Knower is who we truly are.
Stay well, be safe and listen to our FREE Guided Meditation if you are interested in an immediate experience of Meditation. Check out our Online Satsang to experience Meditation in a group or contact Sampriya for a free half hour consultation on private Online Meditation Mentoring.