Creative Guidance-IASbaba, Inspirational & Educative Articles
Path to Awakening:
So, how do you get to your True Self? What can you do to go beyond all your conditioning? What can you do to find the ultimate solution to all your problems? The answer is simple – meditate. Meditation is the ultimate path that leads to your True Self. Meditation is a process of gradually letting go of your deep-rooted attachment to your mind and body, and getting to a transcendental state of reality. Initially, meditation is all about the experience of the mind. You have to battle with the constant distraction and disturbance of the mind to be able to find that quiet space within you.
This is the most difficult phase of meditation. At this stage, either you or your mind will win. If your mind wins, you cannot escape your old ways of being lost in thoughts, and constantly searching for deeper meaning and purpose. If you win, then begins the next phase of your meditation – experiencing meditation through the body. Meditation is real only when it becomes an experience of the body. Conquering the mind can only give you control, relaxation and happiness. Conquering the body is what will lead to the transcendental experiences of bliss and Enlightenment.
The entire effort involved in meditation is to find that absolute quiet zone within you, where your mind and body have no influence whatsoever. For every sensory experience, there is a corresponding zone of emptiness. Silence is the zone of emptiness for noise, stillness is the zone of emptiness for movement, and pleasure is the zone of emptiness for pain. Similarly, you can find a zone of emptiness for smell, taste, sight and touch. The objective of meditation is to start with one of the senses and get to its empty zone. For example, you can start with the visual sense.
You can begin your meditation by watching an object, let’s say a candle flame. The purpose of your meditation is to continue to look at the candle flame, and find that internal empty zone where there is no image. Similarly, you can do this with sound. You can listen to some pleasant instrumental music, and continue to search for a moment of absolute internal silence. In theory, meditation is one of the simplest of things you can do. All you have to do is go behind the object of perception and find its empty zone. In theory, that is all there is to it. But, you will know the actual difficulty when you begin to practice. Your mind will pose the biggest challenge to meditation. In fact, just after a few months of trying, you will conclude that your mind has a mind of its own. Your biggest problem in life is a mind that does not want to listen to you. Gaining control over your crazy mind will be your biggest challenge.
“This article is a part of the creative endeavor of Nirvana Foundation and IASBABA.”
