Tagged: sanity
When it is difficult to smile…
Our experiences in life differ day by day. Some days we see a radiant flower in the middle of nowhere, at other times; it is about a gray cloud over our heads; persecuting us and waiting for the right moment to rain and thunder on us without mercy… 😦
In our society we have been taught to smile. To put the smiling clown face despite how we feel inside. “The show must continue.” Religions and “quick fix advice” recommend to give our sorrow to God or to “express our sorrow in a healthy way,” 🙂 because it is our “right” to be sad and besides, “it is normal.”
The “traditional” medical field will give us the “magical pill.” Take this colorful thing 3 times a day for a week and if your stomach survives the secondary effects and you do not feel sleepy; you will not be “sad” until the effect wears out!
Just like the Cinderella tale… Just return before midnight to live the magic!
Is there any way that we could deal with changes of mood by ourselves without relying on “something else”?
In life everything comes and goes. Today we feel “this,” tomorrow “that.” That is duality. We have been trained to select one side of it and avoid at all costs the other side.
Once we recognize that “things move on,” there is a chance to compose ourselves in the experience of our inner silence.
That is, “stop, close your eyes, clear your mind from thoughts, breathe in and out slowly, gently and purposely… just feel that inner wind of freshness coming from your heart.”
That is the 5-minute- quick- fix to regain sanity. Then, it is just acceptance of “what is.” Look at it. Experience that feeling completely knowing that it is “not you,” because “that” will go away; but it is an experience living or being alive through you.
This is the meaning of equanimity. It is acceptance of what is going on by just observing it. It is in that observation that whatever we are experiencing will not take charge over us.
Life will bring many different experiences, but as long as we are aware of our own “center” in silence, of that “5 minute fix to regain sanity,” little by little we will experience that which does not need outside things to feel content, to feel at ease and at peace.
The “trick” is just to be aware of that “inner in-built” serenity despite the outer dramas of life. Hold on to that, until the gray cloud goes away.
That serenity is bound to grow up in time so the “outer” will be just the “inner.”
Then, we can only be in equanimity.
To learn to clear our minds from thoughts, preconceptions, ideas, beliefs, traditions, dogmas and assumptions will give us the chance to experience what we “are” truly all about.
Holding on to sanity through meditation
Probably we have heard how meditation is important to bring relaxation to our lives. To feel “stress free,” to “unwind and relax.”
Also, for those in a spiritual path, that meditation becomes concentration to a flame, visualization of the ocean, the sunset, concentration on something, and also feelings to God. For others, it is about “saying” a mental prayer to God or just to “stop thoughts.”
Yet for others, it could be all of the above but with an experience of bliss and peace which comes in the most unexpected moments and which cannot be brought to our awareness at will.
Moreover, some of us are willing to pay for someone to “teach us” how to meditate as if, we have asked for someone to teach us how to breath. Meditation is like breathing. It is a necessary part of being which at this time, is clouded by a continuous flow of insane thoughts, bringing the past or the future to our awareness and we are constantly identifying with it.
I wanted to share, the latest “experiment” on meditation: Observing the self. – I know, it may not be that “new.”
How is that?
As I am writing this, I am waiting in a car dealership for my car to be repaired. The “waiting room” is an ample room where there are 2 huge TVs. One with sports, where all I hear is “important stuff” about how this basketball player is doing this rather than that. All about his injuries and how he is “heroically” overcoming them, then is about all the machines that I can purchase to get “fit.” I decided to tune out of it.
On the other TV, there is a movie going on. “Transformers.” 🙂 You hear the shooting, screaming, the emotional rush going on with “Dolby” surround sound which gets the viewers in the dealership hooked into the TV. You know, all the fast talk, “cool” tough talk and lots of action. Then we see these robots “human-like” destroying stuff around them and people begging for their lives to be spared..Important stuff, for these aliens are “protecting us” from evil.:-) Great breakfast starter! Let us not forget the background music as well.. It is playing the “best of the 70’s”.. 🙂 All of that is going on at the same time.
Why give the customers only one “noise” at the time, when you can give them 3 things to choose from! It is all about choices…
That is called “Entertainment” after all, and it is “normal”… 🙂
So, where is the meditation in all of that “madness”? Sorry, I mean.. “Entertainment.”
Meditation resides into being to look at myself (emotions, feelings, breathing, thoughts) and see how everything around me, could have the power to get me out of my own “peace.” Just to be aware of the process is to be “safe” from it. My meditation resides in going beyond the layers of the mind, the unnecessary thoughts, by being aware of them. My meditation resides in being AWARE of all of those changes so I can maintain what I know to be the “self” out of experience of it. To tune in into it, is my meditation, to feel that inner power by being AWARE of it. If there is one word to describe this meditation, that will be AWARENESS.
Can anyone teach me that? No. Just as someone cannot teach me how to breath, but once I know how to breath, I can improve it through further info to experience with. All I can have is information, but without an experience, there is no knowing. I need to do it. Experience it.
Being aware of my breath, in and out at this moment is to practice that remembrance at “every breath.” When I remember the self, the soul, when I am aware of it at every breath, when I experience it… I am “equal to the Father.”
In that experience, everything changes, transforms little by little. The “rust” goes away.
I could be sitting in a nice meditation place, with all the “vibes,” the nice lights and the soft music or I could be in this car dealership. The only difference is my own consciousness.
The good news is, that I can take meditation with me. I can become meditation.
Exploring the Depth of Living 