Читать книгу 20 MINUTES TO MASTER … MEDITATION - Christina Feldman, Christina Feldman - Страница 11

The myriad paths of meditation find agreement not only in the ingredients of their development but equally in their objectives. The search for genuine happiness and peace are core elements both in meditation and in our lives. Beset by the whole range of human maladies and struggles – loss, disappointment, tension, illness and confusion, we search for a way to end sorrow and conflict. In our lives we seek an enduring happiness and peace, deeper than just the temporary gratification of our passing wants and appetites. We look for ways for our hearts to sing with joy, delight and appreciation. Struggling with anger, tension, restlessness, meaninglessness or fear we search for ways to be at peace with ourselves and others, to live with calmness and depth.

Frequently in our lives we have attempted to find solutions to these conflicts and find happiness through avoiding challenging situations or endeavouring to create a ‘perfect’ world for ourselves where there is an absence of the disturbing, challenging or unpleasant. Or we endlessly endeavour to find happiness and peace through attempting to satisfy every desire that arises – more things, more achievements, more experiences. We begin to look at this longing for happiness and peace in new ways as we awaken to the fact that no matter how controlled or armoured our life is the world will always bring us more changes, new circumstances and challenges that we cannot avoid or control. We realize that there is a difference between pleasure and happiness and there is not enough of anything in the world that can be possessed or gained that can provide the happiness and peace we search for. No matter how much we gain or acquire we are not exempt from the possibility of loss. Our lives will always be a blend of the delightful and the challenging, the pleasant and the unpleasant, flattering and disturbing encounters, health and sickness. Endeavours to control the unpredictable and uncertain elements in life leave us fearful and tense. Living in fantasies or ideals of how life ‘should be’ is a rejection of reality that banishes us from calm and balance. We begin to discover that avoidance, control and fantasy are not pathways to happiness but to confusion and conflict.

These primary insights are turning points in ourselves and are the beginning of meditation. They lead us not to dismiss or reject the world around us or belabour ourselves with judgement or despair, but to begin to look within ourselves for the source of happiness and the ways to foster it. We realize that to bring change in our personal lives and our world we will need to bring about radical change within our own hearts and minds. We begin to look not only for a genuine way to happiness but also cultivate the willingness to understand the dynamics of unhappiness and discontent. We begin to question our prejudices, opinions and beliefs and understand the way in which they can blind us to understanding what is true in the circumstances and events we meet. Instead of avoiding conflict or projecting blame in the face of disturbance, we find new encouragement to explore the nature of conflict, anger, fear and resentment and begin to understand the relationship between distress and its cause. Instead of searching the world for satisfaction, gratification and relief from restlessness and tension we become increasingly attentive to our inner life, and there are glimmers of sensitivity and understanding. Rather than turning on the television in an attempt to distance ourselves from anxiety or distress we learn to explore and untangle those feelings. Rather than being lost in anger and resistance to someone who disturbs us we find the calm and willingness to stay present and begin to understand the nature of our conflict.

With a greater willingness to be consciously present and awake in each moment, rather than being lost in struggle or resistance, our minds begin to calm and there emerges a deeper sense of harmony and rapport within ourselves and with the world. We discover that peace is not the elimination of the disturbing or challenging but the capacity to meet the changing circumstances of our lives with balance and understanding. We begin to sense a profound happiness that is not reliant upon a ‘perfect’ world, but that stems from the clarity, calmness and contentment of our own minds and hearts. It is not the happiness of exhilaration or excitement but an enduring happiness born of sensitivity, balance and appreciation.