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Have
you observed what is happening in your mind every moment? It vacillates
between the past and the future. It is either in the past occupied with
what has happened or in the future thinking about what you have to do.
Knowledge
is being aware of this phenomenon of the mind — of what is happening
right now in your mind as you are reading this article. Information can
be acquired by reading books or browsing the Internet. You can open a
book on any subject such as how to lose weight, how to prepare for an
interview, success 101 and so on. There are innumerable volumes
available on a countless number of topics, but the awareness of your own
mind cannot be learnt from a book.
There is another
tendency of the mind — it clings onto the negative. If 10 positive
events are followed by one negative event, the mind will cling to the
negative. It will simply forget the 10 positive events.
With
meditation, however, you can become aware of these two tendencies of
the mind and bring it to the present. Happiness, joy, enthusiasm,
efficiency and effectiveness are all in the present.
The
human mind is very complex. It has its delicate and tough aspects. If
you have had a misunderstanding with a friend or colleague at work, you
can become stiff inside and this can distort your emotions leading to
negativity — and you carry this negativity wherever you go.
However,
when you culture your mind with meditation, its tendency of holding on
to negative emotions simply disappears. You gain the ability to start
living in the present moment and are able to let go of the past.
BALANCING
THE STATES OF MIND: In your day-to-day life, you come across all kinds
of situations that can be challenging and demanding a degree of
alertness to be able to make good choices. These situations give rise to
different states of mind and neither life nor the states of mind occur
with our permission. In fact, they often occur in direct defiance to our
wishes.
Meditation can bring about a balance between the
different states of the mind. You can learn to switch from the tough
aspect to the delicate aspect within you. You can stand up when needed
and let go when needed. This ability is present within everyone, and
meditation enables you to switch between these states effortlessly. The
whole exercise is to develop an ability — to switch back and forth
between the tough and delicate aspects of the mind.
One of
the biggest deterrents for people not being able to meditate is that
they don’t have enough time. Yet when they start to meditate, they find
they have more time, because they are able to focus and get more done.
Not only that, the regular practice of meditation also leads to greater
intuitiveness. It sharpens the mind through focus and expands it through
relaxation.
With the integration of meditation into one’s
daily life, a fifth state of consciousness, called cosmic
consciousness, dawns. Cosmic consciousness means perceiving the whole
cosmos as part of oneself. When we perceive the world as a part of us,
love flows strongly between the world and us. This love empowers us to
bear the opposing forces and the disturbances in our lives. Anger and
disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then
vanish.
Rest and activity are opposite values, but they
complement each other. The deeper you are able to rest, the more dynamic
you will be in activity. Planning can hold you back from diving deep
into yourself. Meditation is accepting this moment and living every
moment totally with depth.
Restlessness, agitation, desire
and ambition stir up the mind and keep it engaged planning for the
future or being regretful about the past. Real freedom is freedom from
the past and future.
The confluence of knowledge,
understanding and practice make life complete. When you grow into higher
states of consciousness, you find that you are no longer thrown off
balance by different situations and disturbances. A regular practice can
transform the quality of your life by culturing the nervous system to
maintain peace, energy and expanded awareness throughout the day. You
become beautiful yet strong, capable of accommodating different
challenges in life without any conditions.
Source: The news
