The Yin of Meditation - the Yang of Contemplation

Meditation is critical to “clean the windows” in order to have the untainted vision needed to hold a clear overview of the mental processes. Contemplation is necessary to solidify the required motivation and intention to facilitate deeper meditative experiences.

Meditation is the way to feel the lasting self that exists beyond the more familiar cobbled and conceived self. Contemplation is the method for intentionally orchestrating the ever-changing, conceptual, functioning self.

Meditation is the way to feel the fullness of our interconnection with the flow of creation. Contemplation is the means to determine what goals and actions will best serve the whole.

Meditation lets us see our lives in an ever widening perspective. Contemplation is how we can focus on the nitty-gritty details of our lives.

Meditation dispels disconcerting thoughts and feelings. Contemplation is the venue to generate feelings and thoughts that create a sense of well being.

Meditation is the place to find equanimity with what is, as it is. Contemplation is the realm in which to dream a greater future.

Meditation gives one a sense of timelessness. Contemplation is the arena for laying out intelligent time lines.

Meditation generates the momentum. Contemplation steers the focus.

Yin and yang are not two separate things. They're two sides of one coin. They can not be divided, and only appear to be apart from each other. Meditation and contemplation should be seen and befriended as an inseparable couple.

When the stillness and vastness of meditation unite with the precise refinement and exacting direction of contemplation, we come to know the actual nature of our being and are intrinsically inspired to conduct our lives in the most loving, inclusive and harmonious manner.

Standing Waves

When a branch becomes lodged in the muck at the bottom of a steam, it can create an environment suitable for the occurrence of a standing wave.

This is an apt analogy for what we are, as beings, in this life that we share.

The wave is not a thing. It's not an action. It's not a process. And it's certainly not permanent. There's a confluence of things, actions and process', joined together for a small segment of time to manifest this wave's being.

It can't be contained or segregated. It's not stable, consistent or enduring. It just is, what it is, as it is, for the time that it is, because circumstances have transpired to make it so.

Some day the branch will rot, leaves will pile up, the current will push hard enough or some kid or critter will disturb the environment in such a way that it will cease to be.

We, too, are far more transient and fragile than we'd like to admit. Time will erode the environment, disbanding the confluence that perpetuates our being.

However, unlike the standing wave, we move. Therefore, we influence the environment of all the other waves around and down stream from us. It's not just that we have the capacity to do so. It happens whether or not we like it or pay attention to it. There are psychopaths among us, who would do others harm, just do do so. But for most, harm is caused or allowed due to a lack of awareness.

If we can embrace the fortuitous and precarious nature of our own existence, it will help to motivate us to pay closer attention to how our actions affect the world around us and inspire attitudes that will benefit each and every wave, now and far into the future.

We're all precious beings. Please, relish this existence and be a supporting player for all others trying to do the same.

May every being be healthy. May every being be free. May every being be wise. May every being know peace.

The Truth in a Fly's Eyes

Everyone wants to believe that they're right, that what they see and how they see things are valid. And, for the most part, they are. What's difficult for the majority to digest, is that there are a great many valid, yet contradictory, truths.

As the fly buzzing at my window sees the world, there are always lots of pictures, all different. Some are slight variations and some encompass completely different pictures. But the fly knows that the most accurate understanding comes from accepting all the varying pictures as equally important and trustworthy.

Why is it so hard for our vastly superior minds to accept that other's contradictory view points can coexist with ours; and even enhance our over all understanding of the world? In a word: ego. There's a feeling of need to know that our certainty is justified and a fear of looking foolish by being proved wrong.

Ironically, in our efforts to create and protect a comfortable belief in the irrefutable truth of what we know, we prove ourselves to be delusional fools.

Personal truth is all that we can have, even when we embrace other's truths in creating our own. Ultimate truth is not a personal matter. It's beyond comprehension by our limited minds - even as a collective. We can move beyond the confines of our cognitive minds and the boundaries of framed time. But even the most enlightened individuals and the most potent spiritual experiences only glean a portion of the whole, in a fraction of its being.

Such experiences do give a broader understanding and the corresponding ability, perhaps even a responsibility, to help others to see more clearly and understand more fully. But they don't turn anyone into deities. Every truth and every perspective, no matter how small, is worth accepting and incorporating.

We, undoubtedly, have a much better grasp of the larger world than this wee fly does, but he still has valuable lessons to share with us, if only we're open to receive.

Meditation - The Overlooked Gem of Yoga

While the strengthening, opening and detoxifying aspects of practicing yogasana (yoga postures) make us feel better, the most profound changes occur in our inner world. For most, focus is primarily on a combination of thinking, feeling and, for many, visualizing. The blend, being an individual formula. The dedicated attention to these functions of our minds creates an illusion that they comprise who or what we are. Once that illusion has solidified into belief, we're cut off from our true nature and many other functions naturally available to an open mind.

The benefits of learning to rest in a meditative mind set aren't apparent to those unfamiliar with it, but it makes for a far better functioning mind, even on cognitive levels. Intuition, creativity and insight are elevated. There is a quality of understanding or knowing that isn't available to a mind dependent on recorded memory. It's what makes leaps of scientific understanding, and innovative invention possible. It's not magical or mystical, it just doesn't compute to the limited, and limiting, fixed mind set.

We frequently cling very strongly to our beliefs, regardless of contradictory evidence. When these primary functions first fall silent, it can be quite frightening. It may feel as extreme as if death was tapping one on the shoulder. It's as if the concept of self has its own life and its own survival instincts. Fortunately, our bodies are an integral part of that self concept; and so, it feels perfectly safe to place attention in the body. For some, it takes considerable time and practice to develop the necessary sensitivity to, and caring for, the body, to become fully absorbed in it. For others it can come naturally and quickly. Either way, once attention is integrated into the body, it is automatically drawn out of the ordinary mind set. Over time, this changes from a quick flash, to a prolonged experience , to a normal state of being. The longer and more comfortable the excursions into the body are, the quieter the mind becomes, and the more natural it feels to be in that state.

Meditation is learning to access this perspective without the aid of asana. If someone slams your performance at work or cuts you off in rush hour traffic, you can't just pull over on the berm and start practicing your sun salutations to recompose yourself. We need to have easier access to our feeling of well-being. For the most part, people don't remain in the quietude 24/7, but bounce back and forth between thinking and being; ideally, developing a continuous and stable overview of the process.

Additionally, most will be able to find a deeper and more meaningful experience through seated meditation. The evolutionary process generally progresses from finding peace for a moment, as a benefit for the familiarly conceived self, to feeling like the quiet self that is repeatedly drawn back into the mental chaos, to a sense that both self and Self are only conceptual creations, within a greater field of awareness.

We practice to experience just being. Not being this or that. Not being a certain way. Just being. It's a state we all know, like powerful, but forgotten, memory. We were born a mere breath away from it; and most brush it, occasionally, when in a particular activity or situation. It's just that we've lost touch with it amid the cacophony that swirls and reverberates within our minds, since we've learned to process everything we experience through our cognitive minds. We can be aware of our cognition, but we can't be cognizant of pure awareness. The practice is simply finding comfort and stability in that unadorned presence.

As we reacquaint ourselves, ever more fully, with that natural state of being, we gain a perspective that's more attuned with everything that is - without self centered and judgmental interpretations. Simply put, we are superior, when we exceed our graspable selves; and, life is much more pleasing when viewed as being what it is, rather than, as what it is in relation to us.

The Answer

I heard the sea and asked,
"What language is that?"
The sea replied,
"The language of eternal questions."

I saw the sky and asked,
"What holds the answer?"
The sky replied,
"The language of eternal silence."

—Tagore

Just Be It

It's difficult to verbalize thoughts in this arena without misleading. Terminology needs to vary depending on the audience and perspective in question. On one level we're dealing with an imperfectly programmed self, but more importantly, we're dealing with a false identification with whatever self appears to be present. So, thinking that "I am being adversely affected by this situation and need to improve my reactions" or "There's something wrong with me that I need to fix" isn't as helpful as nurturing a realization or feeling that "I" am not that false self. I've mentioned the value of the question "Who am I?" before. Although a good way to explore what you're not, it can actually be problematic, if taken too literally. It's a question that has no answer. The "real you" can't be defined, it can only be experienced. That quiet presence is always there. We just need to stop obscuring it. It's not something we create or find, it's something we allow.

We practice to experience just being. Not being this or that. Not being a certain way. Just being. It's a state we all know. We were born a mere breath away from it, and most brush it, occasionally, when in a particular activity or situation. It's just that we've lost sight of it amid the cacophony that swirls and reverberates within our minds. We've learned to process everything we experience through our conscious minds. We can be aware of cognition, but we can't be cognizant of pure awareness. The practice is simply finding comfort and stability in that unadorned presence. As we reacquaint ourselves, ever more fully, with that natural state of being, we gain a perspective that's more attuned with everything, without self centered and judgmental interpretations. Simply put, life is much more pleasing when viewed as being what it is, rather than, as what it is in relation to us.

The Growing Dilemma

From a number of perspectives, we live on a surprisingly small world. Particularly, in terms of our ever expanding population, as a species; that, coupled with the way in which we feel entitled to use the earths resources as frivolously as we want. There are more people living in Beijing now than lived on the entire planet 150 years ago. The same can be said for Mumbai. Between those two cities alone, there are more people than were alive 50 years ago. If we could stop the growth where it is now, the earth could not sustain us without drastic changes in our lifestyles and usages, along with some remarkable technological advances in power and food production. And it's bound to continue to increase for the foreseeable future. It's of little help that the majority of the population growth is in the poorest and most uneducated countries of the world, and in the poorest and least educated segments of societies.

The population of our oceans has undergone a relatively equivalent reversal in population during the last century. And the depletion of forests and plains and healthy freshwater habitats are moving in lock step. What we have done and are doing is so unconscionable that most folks simply put on blinders, just to be able to go on. It's truly mind boggling to consider the magnitude of devastation that we have brought about and are causing at present; let alone, projecting our bad habits and poor planning and prioritizing into the future.

This is an area that is very difficult, nearly impossible, to manage. The Chinese were able to institute policies to address this problem, but the outcry in democratic societies would make such actions unimaginable. It may, in fact, be a runaway train that we simply can't stop. Especially, in the afore mentioned, uneducated segments of our world.

Eventually, wars, famine and disease may play a role in reducing our numbers. But by the time we can no longer squeeze sufficient resources from the planet to sustain ourselves, there certainly won't be enough left to sustain the rest of the life forms on it.

There is nothing to regulate us but ourselves, and I'm afraid that we haven't the desire, will or capability to do so. Looking at the facts before me inspires feelings of gloom and dread, but I try to be optimistic and hopeful.

I'm also hopeful that I'll win the lottery.

Please, pardon my blatant honesty.

Anything's possible. Perhaps technology's bright side will shine, illuminating a path to planetary salvation. Could be that we will unite as a species and accept the fact that we are a part of this planet, rather than the its masters. That we can't survive without a healthy ecosystem, full of a multitude of varied and thriving life forms.

It's really very simple and exceedingly apparent. It's actually harder to ignore and deny the facts than it is to accept them. Education is the key. If every human on the planet would understand these basic facts, and could muster a sense of responsibility for the whole, we'd be fine.

Anyone got a really big alarm clock?