What We Get Wrong About Meditation + Silence Is Not The Absence Of Sound

The benefits of meditation most certainly can’t be under estimated.  It is one of the most potent tools we have in grounding a busy mind and calming the restless thoughts that we carry with us in life.  It is estimated that 2 - 500 million people meditate around the world, and its popularity continues to grow as we fall deeper into the Kali Yuga era of time, where it seems imperative that we find strategies to cope with the often unforgiving consequences of our continued descent into the collective shadow.  One thing is definitely certain; meditation helps many and has the potential to juristically alter the way in which we perceive the world outside; that is of course, if we are doing it correctly.

 

Just as with anything, the more popular something becomes, the more of a tendency we have to trivialize the sanctity of sacred practices like meditation, and a few hundred meditation apps later, we have a global industry worth an estimated 522.21 million and no shortage of instructional content there to guide us on our journey.  It can be difficult to witness how much of a spectacle its become.  It can be even more difficult to witness so many organizations using meditation as a way to sell products or promote services. And while we certainly can’t limit the momentum of this machine, what we can do is ensure that we understand the most important elements of this practice as to not lose site of the sacred principles that exists within meditation. 

 

Although I may sound a bit cynical when speaking of our western societies proclivity towards culturally appropriating eastern spiritual practices for their own benefit; it’s with good reason.  Much of what true meditation teaches us seems to work in direct contradiction to how our western society approaches the practice all together.  Instead of leaning into the simplicity of eastern stillness, they lean more into the complexity of western mind, which contributes to more of the same confusion around meditation.

 

The truth is, there is nothing complex or complicated about meditation. In fact, it’s so simple that we often have difficulty accepting the simplicity of it. Hence our need to seek results that can somehow improve our lives both emotionally and monetarily.  Otherwise, perhaps it’s not worth our time and effort.

 

It can be difficult to sell something simple, but it can be quite lucrative if our goal is to sell a lifestyle aimed at wellness.  That isn’t to say that meditation won’t improve your life. It certainly can.  But the most potent aspect of the practice isn’t about how peaceful meditation can make you.  It’s more about relearning something that should already come across as second nature to you. More than anything, the practice is about awakening this dormant energy in us so that we no longer need apps, programs, courses and books to show us what we already know.  In this way, we can live life in meditation and not just commit to 20 minutes or so on a Thursday morning. Instead of practicing meditation, we become meditative.

 

In any case, whether meditation is a simple practice for you, or whether its part of a carefully curated lifestyle that you live, we can all benefit from understanding meditation in a way that can add a beautiful quality to our lives.  The best place to start is by investigating ourselves, how we think, what we believe and the expectations we approach this practice with. Join me as we explore this practice together.

 

In this episode I discuss,

 

 

• Adyashanti’s Perspective On Meditation
• The Singular Approach Of The Seeker
• How Expectations Eclipse Our Ability To See Clearly
• What We Get Wrong