Meditation: Returning Home to Our Natural Self

The world is the best stage where varieties of theatrical shows are being played out simultaneously. We see what we want to see. So much is going on. It is maddening. It is insane. It is ridiculous. But on the flip side of this insanity, this is also the ground where all the forces are in play to create a Buddha, to create a holy master or a noble householder, a compassionate social reformer, a peace activist, a mover and shaker who sets new trends in environmental protection and healing the planet Mother Earth. We have already entered a new phase of evolution where a massive churning is going on globally to allow the negative forces to expose their nakedness and at some point turn toward the positive force of change that will be sustained through time. Then the golden gates will be flung open for the human civilization to bathe in the light of their own Spirit, the Soul.

For that golden era to come, we all have to work, participate, and join together, individually or collectively, in the practice of Meditation. Meditation is to be reestablished in our own pristine natural state. When we were children we had the awe of the world in our eyes; we were a tiny body in the cradle of Mother Nature, and we were so natural. Anyone who used to come to us would be filled with joy and would smile. Then we grew up; the whole society stripped off all our naturalness and put on the clothes of fake social life. We had to do what our parents did, teachers wanted, and elders forced us to do. We were made to lose our own nature. We lost our own home. We became an orphan or a homeless child. We have been moving, wandering here and there for happiness, and we have never found one that sustained us. We start feeling a deep call to get back to our own nature again. This is the call to be in Meditation.

Meditation is not just a forced, practiced technique. It is the playfulness of our spirit. The purpose of meditation is not to achieve anything. It is to reach a state of letting go, a profound state of relaxation. Meditation is our willingness to do nothing. We are obsessed with doing too many things. As if that is not enough, we are obsessed with doing them perfectly! That leads to untold stress. In meditation, our goal is to achieve the state of non-doing.

Meditation, as a practice, is an effort to stop the mind from its natural tendency to weave thoughts. In meditation, we need to relax our self and then focus our mind on a sacred sound, or a word or phrase as a mantra. Alternatively, we can focus on our own physical body, our own breath, or our own thoughts. Meditation is, in fact, sitting with our own natural self for a while.

The goal is to watch the drifting thoughts in the space of our mind without any pressure or judgment. As we keep watching, as the mind wanders away we bring it back to the watchful, playful, mindful act of being with our natural self. The peaceful, always waiting home within us is reached through the gateway of the simple practice of meditation without expectation. Meditation empowers our mind to be more disciplined, more focused, more refined, and more content. True happiness in life flows out of it spontaneously. Meditation connects us to that natural inner source.

One of the best ways to enter meditation is to watch one’s breath. As we observe this rhythmic inhalation and exhalation, our mind calms down, and with that our body and mind vibrate at a higher frequency. This vibration invites lightness and luminosity, health and harmony into our life.

Meditation does not need to be only sitting quietly in one place. One can be in a beautiful state of meditation, even in the process of doing. All that is needed is for us to be awake to our inner reality – to our spirit no matter what we are doing!

The effort in meditation is always to be effortless. In meditation, as we persevere through the initial obstacles, we begin to feel our natural connection to the universal field of energy and vibrations. We feel the calm state of our mind. Mundane emotions are transmuted into a joyful experience of giving and forgiving. We feel our body and mind are in tempo with the universal flow, and we are not struggling to be happy any more. We heed the deep inner call to Meditation and we come back home to our natural self.