MEDITATION
The aim of meditation is not to take control of your thoughts but to prevent them from leading you.
“Meditation is a sort of prayer. The highest meditation is to think of nothing. If you can remain without thoughts, great power will come.” Swami Vivekananda
What do we do to be happy and have fun if we ever get around among the responsibilities and to-do lists in our lives quickly passing by? We listen to music, do sports, take up various hobbies, and take a vacation. Why do these things make us feel good? Because they help us not to feel the things wearing us down and to get away from them. In order to REST, FEEL GOOD, AND RELAX, we have to get away from the thoughts and situations preventing these.
People use various means to feel good. We have solutions changing in line with the conditions and possibilities. Going out and having a drink, reading books, doing extreme sports, praying, visiting new places, shopping, planting flowers, running, making love, fighting… We relax while we are doing these because we succeed at not thinking of any other thing while doing these. Everyone’s relaxing way and method are different.
Whatever pulls you out of the whole rush of life even just for a moment is your meditation.
Meditation is the time you allocate for yourself and relax. Even struggling may be relaxing for some people. This is because we adapt whatever we get used to into our lives. If we have a life full of struggles, only a new struggle will exhilarate us even though we seem like complaining. Going to a match and cheering may make us feel good as well as fishing quietly for hours by the sea. The only thing we must know is that getting away from the crowd of thoughts lies behind all of them. However, it will be much more beneficial for us that the method we choose to do this does not have side effects. Watching television can be a good example of this.
The most preferred thing for millions of people around the world to fill their spare time, or rather not to fill it, is to watch television.
The average person spends 15 years of their life watching television until they reach the age of sixty.
Most people find watching TV “relaxing”. Notice that the more you focus on the screen, the slower your thought activity becomes. Indeed, when you watch talk shows, sitcoms, or even commercials, your mind generates almost no thoughts. Not only do you not remember your problems, you even disconnect from yourself for a while. Could there be anything more comforting than that?
So, can watching television create a space of inner stillness? Can this be called meditation?
In fact, watching television is the biggest indicator of the need for meditation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t keep us in the Now. Your mind may not generate any thoughts for a long time, but it is hooked up to the thought activity of the television show. Your mind has attached itself to the television version of the collective mind and is thinking of its thoughts, constantly assimilating the message and images from the screen. This puts you in a kind of trance-like hypersensitivity, just as hypnosis does. Television has a motivating effect on generating “public opinion,” as politicians, certain interest groups, and advertising companies, who pay millions to catch you in this accepting blunder, are well aware. They want their thoughts to be your thoughts, and they usually succeed.
This is the common thread between television and alcohol and other drugs. While it provides some relief by taking you out of your mind, it will cost you a great deal in return.
The cost is your loss of awareness.
Television, like these drugs, has an addictive feature. You pick up the remote to turn it off, half an hour or so later, you’re still watching TV and still scrolling through the channels. You keep watching, not because it’s a program that caught your attention, but because you couldn’t find anything that interests you.
This is exactly the “side effect” of the tool we use while trying to relax. While cleaning our minds, if we do not actively or passively reload with other things; that’s when the side effects are eliminated and we become absolute peace, presence, serenity.
But there is no time, right? Most of the time, there is no time to do these and rest the mind. When there is time, there is no money… Or, sometimes, even if we do these, it is of no use. Then, we turn into a machine that is continuously operating without being lubricated. We become rusty in time and even lose our function slowly. We become unable to enjoy life because we are drenched in rust…
In fact, the easiest way to silence our thoughts and get away from our concerns, that is to say, relax is to focus on our breath.
Because breathing is the most effective power we hold. What we call meditation is resting our brain through concentration and breath control. All of us already meditate somehow without even noticing it because this is our way to being charged. As you do this consciously and making it a part of your life, you will begin discovering yourself and will be surprised by the power inside.
We come into this world, grow up, and become students, parents, employees, winners, losers, buyers, sellers, life-livers, life-givers…We always have our goals and work to do. Finally, we die… Life is not within this frame drawn for us at all.
LIFE IS IN “THE MOMENT”
At this very moment. If I can enjoy this day, this moment, then I can enjoy life. I have to live a good day today to be able to say; “Yesterday was a good day”, tomorrow. Postponing life by planning and hoping that it will be better is the longest termed investment we can make. Planning life by living a good day today, on the other hand, is an inherent skill of us that we actually see often in children.
What we have to do is appreciate what we have, remember to be grateful, and prevent our concerns and fears to get hold of us.
You have survived until today with certain frames of mind, habits, beliefs, and behaviors. All the things you have gone through until today, your surroundings, your social circle, and all other factors created today’s you.
