Why
people become restless when they are asked to close their eyes and meditate?
HARIOM
I have often wondered,
why the day I would plan for meditation class many of them would be absent. May
be they have not realized the importance of it or they are able to manage
their emotions on their own if so then why they are restless.
I would like to share the
importance of Buddhist meditation and it’s very practical and step by step process
to grow spiritually and anyone can follow.
One of the best thing
which could have happened in my life till now in spiritual growth
is attending the meditation course in Dharmkot,Tushita
Meditation center.
It has changed the outlook towards the life
in every aspect of my life. I found the kind of meditation which I was
looking for many years, very logical and scientific and the best is that is used
as therapy for healing the most common problems faced by all . I realized more
than just the physical benefits through Yoga, the understanding
of self-matters a lot in spiritual growth and further to help other beings.
Lama Yeshe says whether we are rich or poor ,religious or atheist, we all suffer
from delusions like anger, pride, jealousy, selfish, depression, hatred,
irritation, attachment, deluded doubts, wrong
views, ignorance. Because of these negative aspects in
us there are lots of problems and sufferings which we create for self and
involve others too.
We collect
negative karma's associated with these negativities.
Karmas are never lost it gets accumulated life after life so what’s
in our hand is now which is the cause, which create effect
for tomorrow.
According to Buddha one must overcome these delusions one by one in this life time as
human birth is precious and to avoid rebirths.
It's not the religion nor the Yogic Asanas or any
spiritual master(who
can show way) can help one to get rid of their negative emotions but one
himself by understanding the fact that the problems lies in oneself
and solution lies in oneself ,others can just kindle a spark in you and you
have to identify that and further should take it up for spirituality.
"Be your own Therapist" says Lama Yeshe as the type of meditation which is
being taught in that center is to study about yourself, the
nature of your own mind, instead of some supernatural belief
or some supreme being. It is more of science or psychology.
What I have realized is that,
it is not attending to church, temple or mosque or blindly following
religious Dharma which is going to give you self-realization but how one takes these religious Dharma in to
practical life and help all other sentient beings without
harming them and help them to grow more spiritually matters in
spirituality and for self-realization. For eg. Lord Jesus Christ, when we all pray to him, do we pray to
his physical form or to his qualities which made him
the spiritual master to all. He was an
example for compassion, love and service to all mankind so let’s
take his quality and bring in to our mind his physical form to
remember these spiritual qualities to help others. It’s the same in all religion
and all spiritual masters set an example for growing spiritually but we as
normal human being are not able to understand their teaching in reality.
Best examples would be
to make even atheist to understand are of Mahatma
Ghandiji and Mother Teresa what else one can think when one say
their name? It’s their devotion for others, humanitarian service
which enlightened them. All spiritual masters lived for others so they had
overcome their delusions like anger, hatred, pride, jealousy, self-cherishing, attachments,
ignorance, attachment etc.
Don’t we check every
day morning our least materialistic things eg; food, money, dress etc
which we think is most important in our life.
The same way let’s be aware of every moment of our daily life,
fully conscious of what we are doing, why and how we are doing? That's all
so simple isn't it?
Investigate our
mind with introspective knowledge and wisdom to see what's in
there says Lama.
Without checking no
matter how much we talk about our mind our emotions, we can never really
understand our emotions which are
egocentric and is making us restless.
Everyone wants happiness and in search of satisfaction we move from
one relationship to another, one job to another, one country to
another, we all keep collecting material things. We all believe that
things and people have their inherent quality or nature or
permanent like good or bad, attractive or unattractive for
eg chocolate is inherently delicious but if that
so then all would feel the same way or we also have the opinions
like she or he is good or bad and I am fat or I am lazy.
According to Buddhist philosophy, mind is clear in nature and
reflects everything that it experiences just as still lake reflects
the surroundings
There is nothing wrong
in wanting happiness and attempts to find it but see things
like relationships, possessions have intrinsic ability to
satisfy us or the cause of happiness.
Meditation is not just closing your eyes and sitting and allowing your mind to wander
like a wild horse.
It’s not activity of
body or for the purpose of experiencing bodily sensations.
Many of us feel good
after sitting quiet in meditation and would like to
carry it back when they return to their worldly life but how many are able
to hold the same state of mind?
Many of us due to their
habit instantly react negatively and then may or may not realize their negative
states of the mind.
This type of meditation is to be honest with
ourselves and taking good
look at what we are.
But remember that our life long habits die hard and it’s
very difficult to recognize our anger ,jealousy, attachment, ignorance
etc.so the transformation of mind is a slow process by creating
more positive states of mind making it a habit to bring more positive results
to self-first then to others around.
In Tibetan term meditation means "to become familiar”. What arises in mind is what we are most
familiar with. For example: if someone treats us unkindly or disrespectfully we
feel hurt or angry it is because these are the reactions that we
are most familiar with or habituated to.
Buddhist meditation makes us understand
and familiarize our mind with positive states of mind like love,
compassion, patience, serenity and wisdom so that these become natural and spontaneous. Then if we
encounter an unkind person or similar unkind situation which we may
not like we remain calm patient and have compassion
for them and use the wisdom to deal the situation.
In Buddhist meditation one gets the opportunity to
check their mind
and with regular meditation one becomes more balanced and has compassion for
all sentient beings and develops equanimity to all being.
If one expresses their
negative emotions externally which leaves deep impression in their consciousness and
this kind of imprint makes it easier for them to react the same harmful
way again may be more powerful than previous. So
one should recognize it in first place itself
by carefully investigate their feelings and identify it and diffuse
it or digest it before it increases further.
There are any
different techniques in Tibetan style of meditation which
can be categorized in to two: Stabilizing (Shamata) and Analytical (Vipashayana)
The step involved in
meditation is very systematic and logical.
Steps to investigate the mind....
- learn to sit in Padmasana or Ardhpadmasan or any
other posture where knees are reaching and relaxing on the
floor, back straight, shoulders relaxed hands on knees with
palm downward or right palm over left with tips of
the thumb touching each other resting below navel and
head straight but chin slightly down and lock
the tongue and eyebrows gazing at nose tip. Sit on cushions
to keep the back straight and knees on floor.
- Close
your eyes and observe the present states
of mind for a while.
- Body
awareness from legs to head relax.
- Motivation
for this practice is
must as without proper motivation the results are not proper
and motivate yourself to do this practice for others so
that there is less of expectation from self and many
sentient being in this earth are not able to practice meditation and are
not getting the opportunity so let's practice this for others and dedicate
this positive energy at the end of the practice to all beings.
- Stabilizing meditation on breath
- Analytical meditation depending on what you want to analyze (esp. if you are restless or any
mental stress or anxiety which is making you insomniac) at that point of time or day
- Identify it but how can one identify if it's a negative emotions which is creeping up and is disturbing you making you restless and others around is that you can notice a slight buzz behind your heart and leads to short breath (notice it as these are very subtle feelings) and positive emotions leads to lightness in heart and deep breathing and rhythmic, as breath goes hand in hand with thoughts and emotions.
- Put forth lots of Analytical questions related to it like How,where,when and antidotes to these negativity and work on the benefits of these positive antidotes. Once you are able to get some solution to your problem then finish your meditation with the last step.
- Dedicate
your practice to all sentient beings for
their benefit and understanding.
Stabilizing meditation can be practiced in mornings as it helps to be more focused in days’ work and Analytical ones can be practiced in
the evenings or before going to bed to analyze the day’s activity so that
when you go to bed you can sleep after throwing off your entire burden.One can practice initially for 15 mins then slowly increase the practice.
