Meditation Reflection for Thursday 3 April 2025
We come to meditation, whether at home or in a group to help us achieve serenity and calm in our life. Easy to say but often difficult to achieve, but we persevere!
Meditation is our way to realize ‘letting go’. We let go of the exterior world to reach the calm of our interior world. Spiritual writing extending back thousands of years in most religious traditions including yoga teachings have stressed the importance of developing a deep, rich and mature interior life. People often re-discover their interior world when they are re-creating, and that sometimes occurs when you are on holiday in a peaceful environment. It is often referred to as interiority. The road to achieving serenity; a gift of interiority is meditation.
We know that at times meditation can be challenging work especially in the beginning but also at various stages in the journey. Even very experienced meditators have ‘off’ days. However, we persevere and know that it is well worth the effort. Some say that it is a law of nature that without effort one does not make progress. This is as true for meditation as it is in getting selected to play for Essendon.
Our determination is aimed at letting go…. or to borrow again from spiritual, religious and yogic traditions, to develop a mind that is predisposed to abandonment. This is closely related to the notion of impermanency which is so lucidly illustrated by the practice of Tibetan Buddhist (Vajrayana) monks who build the most exquisite sand mandalas only to destroy them upon completion. Similar ascetic practices are found in Christianity, Islam, Sufism, Hinduism and Judaism. We abandon to receive.
In letting go during meditation we learn to let go of negative emotional baggage that can make our life less than satisfactory. Of course, we are human, and burdens and suffering will always be part of our daily living but during meditation we are relieved of these burdens and this lightness will seep into our everyday activities. As we give things away during meditation to concentrate on the breath or whatever other technique one uses to aid concentration, we feel lighter. Although this might not happen immediately the accumulative effect of regular meditation will reap this reward, and we will delight in abandonment.
And now let us pay attention to our posture. Our back straight, feet gently touching the floor, hands in a comfortable, non-clasping position, eyes shut in in a soft gaze. At the sound of the gong begin to gently focus.
MEDITATION
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