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Top 5 Changes Meditation Demands From You
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Top 5 Changes Meditation Demands From You
Art of Meditation: Personal Development & Spiritual Growth
There is no substitute for meditation - if someone was to offer me 1 billion dollars, yes with all those zeros, and said that all I would have to do is give up meditation and the treasures of spiritual practice, not even 1 cell in my body would think… yeah maybe. All 10 trillion cells would be laughing at the offer. There is no material equivalent for the rewards of meditation – none. The difference is so enormous that I can’t even come up with a suitable example — and believe me I tried. If life can be said to have any purpose, it is to discover the Truth and at the heart of this mission lies meditation. But, as you move ahead with your meditation practice and the rewards start to flow, you will notice an interesting phenomenon taking place — You Are Being Held to Live at a Higher Standard.
There is really not much choice in this matter. If you give yourself seriously to mastering the Art of Meditation, you will no longer be able to live the way you had been in the past. The practice demands its own discipline, not one artificially imposed, but, a discipline that gracefully emerges as you move deeper into this profound science. Here is what I have found to be the top 5 changes that tend to take place in the lives of passionate aspirants who are being true to their meditation practice. These same changes generally also apply to those who practice other spiritual disciplines such as Yoga, Ayurveda, Reiki, Qigong, etc.
1. More Simple & Wholesome Life: As your progress matures you will notice that you are more and more gravitating towards a simpler, more natural life. You find yourself buying less and less into commercialism and materialism. Its not that you are becoming an ascetic and "renouncing the world", its just that material possessions are loosing their grip on you. If you have them you enjoy them, if you don’t have them no problem at all. In this way your life starts to incorporate more of what is natural and moves in a direction that is uncomplicated, but, deep.
2. Waste Less Energy: Meditation, Yoga and spiritual practices will make you realize that everything is energy. Energy is the name of the game. You are nothing but Energy and the Universe is nothing but energy. These fields all interconnect and intermingle. At an Energetic level, demarcations loose their definition and everything merges into each other. In addition to this, you start to realize one more important fact regarding meditation. It requires tremendous energy. The energy required for real meditation is available to a human being, but, is not harnessed corrected. It is dissipated in contradiction and meaningless activity. This will have to stop if your practice is to penetrate deep into the mysteries and wonders of Reality. You will start to become more integrated as a person. You will start to stop wasting precious energy in endless gossip, immature pursuits and conflicting desires. You will start be become an charged being, capable of summoning intense energy of the highest vibration when required to penetrate the veil of illusion.
3. Better Diet & Fitness: Along the lines of number 2 above, you will start to shift to a healthy lifestyle. You will realize the profound opportunity life and each moment offers and simply would like to make the most of this blessing of human life. Getting sick, being injured, lacking energy will not be acceptable and you will do what is necessary to have a fit, vibrant body. In addition, certain food groups will not suit you as they will make you lethargic and insensitive, so you will likely start to move to a lighter, more lean diet.
4. Ending Dependencies and Addictions: For those on the spiritual path, freedom is valued above all. Things that make you dependent and bind you down will come under heavy scrutiny and in time be set aside. This goes for all things that make you dependent. Those far on the spiritual path realize their one to one relationship with life and Divinity and eventually embrace complete independence. This independence then allows for love to flow, as now, without dependency, there is no shadow of fear.
5. Becoming a Rebel: It is inevitable. You will become a bit (or in same cases much :-) of a rebel. Especially with regard to tradition and the so called values of society. Society creates the need for so much artificiality and hypocrisy, which simply cannot be sustained under the heat of meditative awareness. In addition, the values that society holds in high esteem are seen for what they are — stupid — so that is the end of that.
Summary:
So there you have the top 5 changes that will be required of you as you move ahead with your spiritual growth. Some of these changes will happen on their own, below the radar of consciousness, while others will be conscious decisions you will have to make, as required by the demands of the meditation and spiritual practice.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this interesting subject as I feel that others will benefit from the map that we draw together. So if you have noticed changes you have had to make in order to enhance your meditation, yoga or other spiritual practice feel free to share that with us. It could be as simple as, I had to watch less TV so I could sleep on time, to as complex as, I had to quit my job that became incompatible with my spiritual evolution.
Article Series - Mastering Your Daily Meditation Practice
- No Short Cuts to Enlightenment
- The Golden Rule to Stop Excuses and Start Meditation Now
- How to Meditate by Yourself (Zazen Practice)
- Top 5 Mistakes in Establishing a Daily Meditation Practice
- Top 5 Changes Meditation Demands From You
- Its Wonderful, But Dangerous to Your Meditation Practice
- How Much Time Should You Practice Meditation For Daily?
- Essential Meditation Tips & Tools for Daily Practice
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on August 11th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
gosh I love your blog posts!
I completely agree on all accounts (rare ; )
Well to be brief my meditations practices of gone through and ebb and flow throughout the last 15 years but now that Im doing it more regularly I have:
1) Completely stopped watching tv
2) Could never work another day job in a mundanely structured company
3) Threw out all my make up, dreaded my hair, threw away all of the clothes I wore that were only purchased b/c they were fashionable as opposed to ones I truly identified with
4) completely stopped spending $ on frivolous things
5) value yoga and meditation over social gatherings
6) disengaged from gossip
7) am hopefully much more in harmony with my authentic self and compassionate towards others even if they are not on the seeker path
I could go on but I guess to sum it up..completely alienated myself from those that choose to remain asleep ; )
on August 12th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Ah indeed, this is a topic I’m going through at the moment.
When I was a student, I got involved in a Christian sect, and as the saying goes amongst the antagonists, “When you let Jesus into your life, you let the devil in too”, and indeed, I spent more time thinking about the devil than about Jesus. As I didn’t want to be doing that, I stopped the whole thing.
Now that I’m meditating and reading the Buddhist scriptures, the whole question comes up again, and the devil is … me. This time, since I can see the foe much more clearly, there’s less confusion and I can see the way to proceed.
Since I already thought social conventions were pretty stupid before I started meditating, that step is already pretty much completed. Simple and wholesome is already a fair way along too (relatively speaking).
But the energy, and the dependencies and addictions are going to be tough issues. The Buddhist scriptures offer a list of things you really need to do, and one of them is ‘doing your best, sincerely’. Immediately the foe takes refuge in that, saying “I’m doing my best with everything else, so I don’t have to talk to my wife about serving less meat. Maybe later.”
However, one area of wasted energy that I gave up very quickly was reading unhappy books about various wrongdoing, and taking an interest in morbid crime reporting on TV. Somewhat unwillingly I watched ‘Hotel Rwanda’ a short while ago and resolved not to waste a moment more on such fare.
Oh, and my posture has improved. Even when I sit in a chair with a back to it, I prefer to rely on my spine. I was going to buy a very expensive Aeron chair since my work involves sitting all day. Instead I bought a balancing ball for 1/10 of the price and have enjoyed less back pain as a result.
Anmol, perhaps you could talk some more about dealing with one’s deeply embedded and once-cherished habits and dependencies. That would be very helpful.
on August 13th, 2007 at 1:42 am
Hi man.. Nice post. This is the first post I have read and I am starting out fresh on the path of meditation, though I learnt it a few years back. Your insights into the changes demanded is pretty interesting to know, since I might face them in the future. And the reason I took up meditation is ofcourse for stress release (stress from excess worry), which has been troubling me a lot lately. Will read your other posts and frequent your blog. Keep blogging.
on August 14th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Fantastic list. Many of the items on your list are not easy for people to do. I am sure you have inspired many with your contribution. Thank-you.
on August 14th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Great stuff. My wife absolutely loves every single morbid crime scene drama show on TV… the more morbid the better LOL. At least she doesn’t watch the news as it can’t get any worse than that!
The “Do the best you can, sincerely” is really invaluable in the later stages, specially when it comes down to the advanced meditations of comprehending the moving mind from moment to moment…. but yes it can be used as a convenient refuge as well by “the foe” :-)
Will put together an article discussing breaking deep seated habits and dependencies, I think that will be of benefit to others as well, as that issue has come up in my yoga classes also.
Thanks for contributing to this discussion.
on August 14th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Welcome to the Mastery of Meditation website. I am glad to hear you are taking up meditation and I think it will benefit you greatly in combating stress. Here is a link to online guided meditation and kundalini yoga classes which may be of interest to you….
http://anmolmehta.com/blog/classes-online/
Let me know if I can help further.
on October 10th, 2007 at 7:04 am
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