Meditation at its Core

When we ask, what is the purpose of something, we are essentially asking what the benefit is – or in other words, what’s in it for me?  It becomes a transaction.  Today so many articles are written about the benefits of yoga, or the benefits of meditation – and of course that is fine – and needed – for motivating new practitioners.  But let’s really get to the core of it.  Transcending the physical or mental benefits of meditation, what is the deepest aspiration for a meditator?

In order to look at this, let’s acknowledge that in our current state, most of us are compulsive human beings, not residing in the pure essence of being.  In our minds, we are incessantly chasing one thought or another, and always a mental time machine!  We reminisce the good times, and suffer the bad, and we imagine some desired future.  In our bodies, we are highly compulsive as well – eating, sleeping, and sex.  When our existence is filled with compulsiveness, where is there space for life to bloom and for creation to manifest?

So at the core, meditation is about just making a little space for life to take root.  That’s what spirituality is all about – a seeker is one who is trying to silence the ego so that awareness of the creative life force can be directly experienced.  Meditation is a tool to access this space of inner quiet where the mind and body’s compulsiveness is calmed for a while… to see things the way they truly are instead of through the ego’s lens.  Meditation is to allow one to be fully inclusive with all that is, instead of living in separateness as we normally do.  Meditation is about peeling away the gross physical aspects of what we think of as reality in order for the subtler realms of being to manifest in our experience.

Only when we live in full inclusiveness, can we spontaneously handle life as it arises – naturally and not as contrived by an ego personality that is self-serving.  Actually, the personal stake is more than one person choosing to be spiritual, and another choosing to be material.  Ironically the choice to turn away from spirituality is a choice to turn away from the full human potential.  Eastern spiritual traditions and yogic culture expound on this tremendous human potential.  Meditation is a door to access this.  Today’s standard lifestyle of exalting fame and fortune, power and wealth is in fact placing great limitations this potential.  A human being can reach realms beyond the physical, and operate at levels of pure life energy and yet the standard doctrine is the pursuit of better economics… make more money or have more than somebody else.  Meditation is a key to see beyond, and begin to break this cycle, and to recognize the fantastic instrument that a human being is.