Meditation will not make you happy, but it may help you see that happiness is always here and available.

What is it that motivates a person to practice meditation (prayer, or whatever term you choose to use)? Is it a belief that by beginning this practice will lead to some kind of improvement, some kind of happiness which you do not currently actualize?

I would propose that in many cases people meditate because they believe it is good for them in some manner. Because of this, people do not really meditate. You may sit, walk, or consciously choose to do other activities and call it a practice of meditation. But with the underlying presumption that it is good, you do not meditate, you are always somewhere else.

Now, in the practice of meditation it is true that you may experience happiness and peace. So, I am not saying “do not practice meditation.” What I am saying is that we examine and inquire as to what meditation is. “What do you meditate on?” is a common question asked of someone who meditates. However, this question evokes a certain amount of puzzlement from those who truly practice meditation. Meditation does not meditate on anything at all. It is a practice of seeing existence for what it really is beyond all words, ideas, images, and abstract creations of thought. As we commonly say, “talking to one’s self is the first sign of madness.” And so in this sense, a person who is always thinking is always talking to themselves. Thus, they are out of touch with reality.

Meditation seeks to gain nothing nor does it lose anything. It sees that all of life is a relationship and completely connected with itself. The separation of things and identities which we convince ourselves to be real through our thoughts, ideas, and measurements to bring definition to matter, evaporate. We see that there is no past nor is there any future. Both past and future begin now. If you hope to gain happiness in the future through practicing meditation you are living in the delusion that the future is something real. As long as you are practicing meditation with that sort of mindset, you are like a donkey who is being lead by a carrot tied on the end of a stick. The donkey is always hoping to get the carrot but of course, never really does.

The human mind has the tendency to desire a straightening out of the world in which we live. We are always attempting to straighten out the vast wiggles of nature so that it will make some kind of sense to our way of thinking. We desire formulas and methods we can use to gain something to improve us, to make “me” a better person. Certainly, there are many books, products, and teachers on meditation, spirituality, and becoming a better person which have made a fortune capitalizing on this desire many of us have. But who is it that is in need of improvement? And if you identify your-self in terms of thoughts and ideas – who you think you are – you will always be attempting to improve yourself using the very thing you presume needs to be improved. Which is like cleaning a dirty plate with a dirty rag.

As long as you believe yourself to be unhappy you will be unhappy. As long as you believe yourself to be in need of improvement you will need to be improved. As is well said “anyone who thinks they need to see a psychiatrist ought to have their head examined.” Meditation can be greatly beneficial for us as human beings to practice. But when it becomes formulaic, which is to say something we do for some reason, some purpose of betterment, it is undermined by desire and therefore does not see reality for what it is.

Meditation like any method of doing something can provide useful functions for the way in which we live. It can bring us to an actualization of the present and the enjoyment of being alive. But the present is always here. You cannot escape the present.

Meditation will not make you happy, but it may help you see that happiness is always here and available.

What is your motivation to practice meditation?

Listening: Do I hear what they are saying, or what my own inner-filter is saying?

The need for control seems to be a lifelong battle and struggle for many of us. We look upon the actions of others and indeed our own actions with the eye of judgment; ever watchful that we do what in our minds we perceive as being right. when we do not act in accordance with our point of view of was right, we then feel guilt, propelling us into a cycle of negative behaviour.

It is much easier to point our lens of focus – our lens of judgment – toward the actions of others. This ease of looking at others as opposed to ourselves is the initial, natural supposition in the way we view life, as one of course cannot look at their own eye with their own eye. And so we look at others. Indeed we only know ourselves by how we know and what we know, from others. Everything which enters into the eye and to the mind creates our perception of truth, reality, and who we are.

But there still seems to be something, some pervasive voice telling us that what we see is not how life should be. There are socially agreed upon notions of morality and proper behaviour which we learn in early childhood, demanding that we judge the world outside of thinking skull. In conversations of religious, political, or scientific topics we listen to what a person is saying to determine whether or not we agree or disagree. But what they are saying is not what we agree or disagree with; rather, our own interpretation of their words is what we are attempting to reach a conclusion towards. And so we are not really listening to them at all but to ourselves – to our own chatter in the skull.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Zen Master with great insight into “deep listening”:

In our interactions with one another, how can we truly listen to what each other is saying? How can we pause our judgments in order to more deeply investigate, inquire, and truly hear what another is saying? I might even go so far as to say that we may never reach a point of making a judgment about what another human being has said, unless we only hear what they superficially are saying. Conversation is a lifelong relational journey we take with one another. If our initial inclination is to make a judgment about what another says, let us ask ourselves, what is important? Is it important that I let them know my judgment, my conclusion about what they have said according to my own interpretation, or is it important that I investigate what they think with them? Is it more important that I do not judge, but place myself in their shoes to understand what they are saying as we learn from one another?

Can we recognize the content of words apart from the ego who offers them?

The word preaching to me, has a certain connotation. It has an inference that one is giving a message to others they think others ought to believe or adhere to. Certainly, there are definitions of preaching which differ from this connotation that I perceive, but this is the sense to which I am addressing what it means to preach. This connotation to preaching is why I say I do not like preaching.

A criticism of the preacher is often that he does not practice what he preaches (please forgive the sexist “he” as I mean this pronoun in a more inclusive sense). But I feel that we as writers and speakers must give the message of which we believe we have to give, in the same way that a stream of water gives water to the thirsty traveler. I wish not to write with a purpose of giving instruction or or teaching that you ought to receive; rather, that I have thoughts and as the stream quenches the thirst of the hiker, perhaps the words I write may at some time inspire others to a greater understanding of what these words mean, even if it is a meaning that I myself do not yet grasp.

If one does not practice what they preach, is their message invalidated? If their message, although perhaps not lived by the speaker, their words may still inspire others to a greater depth of understanding life. So can we recognize the content of words apart from the ego who offers them?

Who are you beyond who you think you are?

I wonder if you see who I really am. I wonder what it is you are using to define who I am. Are you using your senses, your eyesight? I wonder if you are using your abilities of thought. Are the words I which I use for the purpose of communication creating an image within your mind of who I am? Do you use your memories and experience of interaction with me to determine a definition of how you view me?

Would it be accurate to say, that nearly each one of us forms a point of view, idea, and conception of who another person is, by using our abilities of thinking? Does our ability to think create an accurate perception and awareness of the real identity of a human being we see as an “other”?

Who are you beyond who you think you are?

That is a question I have been contemplating for some time. I use the term “contemplating” because this word, to me, means something a bit different – a bit deeper – than simply thinking about something. Contemplation means to see through thoughts themselves into a reality which lies beneath or perhaps more accurately – beyond the thoughts themselves. It is as though thoughts act as a fog in the mind and contemplation is a Way in which we see through the fog and discover a place of clarity. We see that which is unseen.

Contemplation is coming to a vision of nothing. Not nothing in the sense of being void or empty, but nothing in the sense that in silence and in rest we find peace. What does sound look like from the point of view of silence? What does your body look like from the point of view of all the space which surrounds your body? Perhaps the silence would wish to investigate and inquire as to the nature of these sounds emanating from itself. Perhaps surrounding space which to our eyes appears blank (although when we look with tools that can detect other frequency of light, we see space is not empty at all) would investigate the things we call objects and matter, in the same way that we human beings talk of exploring space.

The question and investigation of “who am I?” is vital to living a healthy and sane life in relationship to the world around us. When we feel separate from others, separate from nature itself, this creates a feeling a strangeness and distrust of life itself. We see life as something to be conquered or as a problem to be solved. And so we’re constantly and perhaps unknowingly looking for problems we might solve through our own efforts and work. We look at the problem of poverty and think something must be done to change this state of circumstance in our world. Perhaps we ourselves feel impoverished. Even the richest person may be driven in life by a belief in the fear of poverty. Perhaps some become rich in order to use their wealth to help the poor. But of course, we do not have the poor without the rich, so these efforts to obtain wealth to help others is limited by the fact that richness exists only in relationship with poverty.

In reality, there is no poverty and there is no wealthy. The earth produces enough resources for all people to live well, but because we see ourselves – who am I? – as separate from one another there are some who hoard wealth while others suffer greatly. When we see our unconditional relationship to all people and all of life, poverty and wealth evaporate and the grand resources of earth are shared so that no person is in lack. I am not talking about politics or forms of law and economics to enforce the sharing of resources. I am saying that sharing and generosity naturally arises within the freedom of truly understanding relationship and connection to life.

When a person asks the question “who am I?” I wonder who is asking this question. We all identify ourselves with this letter-word “I.” It is perhaps the most used letter-word by those who use the English language. But what does “I” mean? What is it referring to? Everyone is “I” in the simple example that this how we each refer to ourselves. Perhaps we think that when we use the letter-word “I” we are referring to something inside of the skin or in the brain. Perhaps we are referring to some sort of spirit that is trapped within our body to finally find escape and liberation upon our death. But does what one might mean by the spirit have thoughts? Who is the thinker? What is beyond thought?

What Is Your Solution?

This week I have been speaking with many different people who seem to be experience quite a bit of stress deriving from problems within their daily lives. The perception which they have expressed is that their problems are being caused by the action or inaction of others; family members and friends. Yet, if we are ourselves are experiencing a problem or point of stress, blaming others for that experience is the result of our own desire to control our surroundings. We complain because we want the actions of others to be different and aligned with how we think others should live, and when that is out of our control, we want to bring it back within what we can manage.

Stress and suffering are created within our heart because we do no want to let go. The actions of others do not in themselves effect us, rather; we allow them to have their influence in what is happening within us. Which is not to say that our environment does not intrinsically influence who we are, but that we can either flow with that environment or we can seek to control it. That is our choice.

When we seek understanding of the actions of others we begin a journey to get down to the root of what is happening, why it is happening, and how we can move forward to bring resolution to what is frustrating our thinking. Our solution is to live in harmony with one another. In order to live harmoniously, we must be free from the desire to control what is happening in our lives.

Control is rooted in our fear. We all want to live as free people, but this freedom can also be quite scary to many of us. We want to know that we are secure and know what is going, and so we seek control. But as soon as we know what is happening, and place a concrete definition to it, we begin to live in a world of illusion. Reality is not something to be defined in a sentence nor paragraph because it is beyond all concepts, words, things, and thoughts. It is from reality that we live, but we often become bamboozled into believing that our thoughts are reality, that our name and body is our identity, and that we are in control of our environment.

Writing on the subject of liberation is like attempting to tell the story of what you felt when you fell in love with someone, in terms of words. I could write the most poetic and inspiring book on the story, but you still would not have the smallest percent of true understanding on what I truly felt. Liberation is simply understood. Love is simply understood. Life is simply understood. And everything in the universe, implies these forces which shape, play, and continue our experience.

When a problem in your life arises, what is your solution? Where is your liberation? Where is your love and understanding? Where is your heart?

Related articles

• How Do Your Thoughts Affect You? (tracywebb255.wordpress.com)
• Give Up And Be Happy (glowville.wordpress.com)
• 3 Simple Steps to Banish Negativity (inc.com)

What The “Word” Says the “Word” Is

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life,and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

– John 1:1-5

Most often when we hear those of the Christian belief use the term “The Word” they are referring to the sixty-six books of the Bible. But of course, there is nothing within these sixty-six books which tells us they are in fact “The Word.” What the Bible does clearly state, in the above quoted verses, is that “The Word” of God is “He” who was with God in the beginning. It goes on to tell us that Through “him” all things were made. Therefore, one could logically presume that all things are in fact, “The Word.” You are “The Word” as I am “The Word.”

As Christians we naturally presume the Bible to be either the inspired or literal “Word of God” thus, we also assume that “The Word” is the Bible. However, given that the Bible was not formed until 300 years after the books of the New Testament were written, it is perfectly obvious why, according to the books in the Bible, this is not possibly the case being made.

You Are The Word

Many of us have a sort of insecure view of ourselves and because of this insecurity  we think that by attributing truth as being something else, something other than who we are or through whom we were made, we are somehow being humble. But what this truly produces is not humility but, humiliation. The “Word of God” – regardless of if you believe it to be the Bible or not – goes far beyond the sixty-six books of the Bible. You are the very Word of God living, breathing, and playing out this form of a human being. Just as Jesus Christ was God playing out what it is like to live as a human being to save them from their plight, you also are the Word of God existing for the same purpose.

The “gospel” which we commonly hear is one of institutionalized guilt, condemning you for your sin and selling a pedestalized Christ for you to accept and be made clean once again (until the next time you make a mistake). But the real gospel is simply this:

“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”  Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?

The Real Gospel is that you are in fact this marvelous creation, this walking, talking Word of God living in this world. This Kingdom of God is not something you can say is over there but it is within you. You only have to recognize it. Once you recognize it, you see who you really are, and you begin to truly live.