“I am large, I contain multitudes.” Walt Whitman

“Meditation – it’s not what you think.” seen on a t-shirt

Meditation is the most valuable tool for our personal development. Through the increasing powers of silence, stillness, willpower and concentration, we become masters of our minds. Control of actions begins with control of the mind. We can achieve anything – success at work, peace in our lives, physical and mental health – if we put our minds to it. 

Conversely, when we don’t control mental tendencies and bad habits, we become slaves of our senses and desires. We surrender our independence and integrity to distractions and delusion, or to the deceitful lure of advertisements promising pleasure but delivering misery. Our senses often demand we eat foods that may taste good but ultimately create deadly diseases in our bodies. When we act against our better judgment, we have surrendered control of our minds to our senses.

It is not easy to control the mind. Consider what psychological fare we daily feed the mind. The existing 24/7 news cycle gorges us on fear, violence, doom, hatred, and never-ending threats to our peace and security. Social media, email and text messages, phone calls, financial worries, and health issues distract our attention. We often regret the past and dread the future, when the only time that matters is NOW. We forfeit inner tranquility and bliss to outside agents of exploitation and manipulation.    

It doesn’t have to be this way. Never forget that mind is the king. Mood, desires, and habits will blindly follow. Mind determines your attitude, which then has a lot to do with your health and ability to face adversity in life. Your mind governs self-control and determination; it is through meditation that you develop the willpower and evenmindedness to be calm instead of angry, forgiving rather than resentful, and compassionate instead of selfish. 

Ultimately, meditation provides the scientific means for quieting the world within so that we can be the pioneers of our true and noble selves: the explorers, discoverers, developers and realizers of divine truths that can only be found through intuition and inner consciousness. Not learned second hand, not gleamed from books, not preached to us or beaten into by unqualified teachers, but discovered by ourselves. Meditation plants our feet firmly on the road to Self-realization, which then puts us in firm control of helping to change the world to a better place.  

What is Meditation, and How Do I Do It?

Although people practice a wide variety of meditation – from mindfulness to mantra to transcendental meditation – almost all forms involve enhancing concentration, stilling the mind and body, and controlling the breath to create a heightened state of awareness in a sea of calm. Advanced practitioners can achieve a state of peaceful bliss within minutes, providing fertile ground for inner growth and transformation.