Meditation: Life's Immutable Paradigm

n Most of what affects us and disrupts every area of our life cannot be seen. For example, the unseen limitations of thought, belief and knowledge creates an infinite number of obstacles that prevent us from obtaining what we want. Although we cannot see these things, we can observe how they affect us and our environment. Meditation is the conscious awareness of nhow the unseen effects us! I point this out because many think, believe or perceive meditation as sitting in the lotus position while trying to quiet the mind. Most see meditation as being a separate act or part of their life. Yet, in truth, meditation is a natural function like breathing. Just as it is impossible to only breathe part of the day, it is impossible to only meditate for part of the day. We are either meditating all the time regardless of what we are doing or we are not meditating at all.

No teacher, instructor or guru is needed to know how to meditate just as none are needed to teach us how to breathe. Although meditation is as natural as breathing, it seems foreign or strange to us because we have been conditioned to listen and respond to thought rather than to our consciousness. Our feelings, senses, emotions, and intuition are all part of our consciousness. The previous exercises allowed us to observe and experience the difference between thought and consciousness. Whether they realize it or not, those who participated in those exercises were meditating for they are impossible to perform without meditating. Some denied themselves that opportunity because they merely read them and agreed or disagreed with what was presented.

Like breathing, meditation is an inward and outward movement. Attentively observing how everything affects us is the inward movement of meditation. And attentively observing how we respond to everything is the outward movement of meditation. Like breathing, meditation allows us to process what we mentally "upload" on the inward movement and "download" the waste created by this process on the outward movement thereby rejuvenating the mind and keeping it fresh.

Just as the digestive process allows the body to transform food into energy and discard the waste, meditation allows us to transform what we mentally consume into understanding and to discard the waste. Although we realize the importance of paying attention to what we eat and drink, we are unable to see the importance of paying attention to what we mentally nconsume. We realize the importance of exercising the body, yet we are unable to see the importance of exercising the mind. Similarly, we realize the importance of discarding body waste, yet we are unable to see the importance of discarding mental waste. Therefore, we are unable to see the importance of meditation.

Meditation is life's immutable and indestructible paradigm. It is immutable because consciousness prevents itself from being corrupted by constantly challenging itself and its findings many different ways. Unlike thought, belief or perception, consciousness simultaneously examines everything from many different angles or viewing points. This omnipotent perspective provides a clearer and more accurate view. In turn, our response is more precise and effective. On the other hand, thought, belief and perception are not immutable. They can be altered, corrupted, lost and destroyed.

Meditation is our personalized, unrestricted and incorruptible paradigm for living. A paradigm that is free of all limitations, dependencies, or boundaries. A paradigm that isn't contingent upon chance, accident or divine intervention. A paradigm that isn't dependent upon education, social position or race. Meditation enables us to harmoniously coexist nwith our environment even while living in the throes of chaos, prejudice and violence.

Absolutely nothing can prevent meditation from improving the quality of our lives. It doesn't matter if we are incarcerated, married to the wrong person or living in poverty. Not even our friends, relatives and business associates can prevent us from experiencing the good life. It is the only paradigm that preserves our freedom, maintains our dignity and restores our soul.

On the other hand, the absence of meditation causes us to:
* Pay attention to thought and ignore or deny our feelings, emotions and intuition.
* Pursue, consume and store knowledge rather than process it into understanding.
* Value and defend our perception rather than to challenge it.
* Rely upon so called experts and authorities rather than ourselves.
* Experience fear, conflict and sorrow rather than unconditional love, peace and joy.
* Experience the same thing over and over again.

As pointed out earlier, most of Closure's subscribers are already meditating and do not know it. They are unaware of that fact because what we do is not called meditation. Furthermore, each of us approaches and enters meditation differently. Some enter meditation through their gardening, others enter through their music and others enter through their craft. Almost anything can be used to enter meditation. The act that opens the door or window to meditation is irrelevant. What matters is the quality of the consciousness that we bring to the act. Once we understand how an act becomes meditative we can transform all our acts into meditation. Then all of life is a meditation regardless of where we are at or what we are doing. n