Meditation has become more and more popular, outside of its traditional home settings like the Orient and India, since around the 1960s. Once an art restricted to the activities of temple life, the science of meditation has taken a strong foothold in the mainstream and every one from housewives to children to corporate management is finding benefit in the practice.
The essence of meditation is, simply put, ๐๐๐, before the conditioning of your cultural perspective. Before the conditioning of a hierarchy of value judgements. Before you learned to wear the face you show the world daily. The essence that was your innocent integrity in childhood. Meditation is that tool which we use to re-connect with something forgotten. ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ forgotten.

That we might re-establish the knowledge of that innocence we once were. That we are. The Indians have a catch-all phrase to sum up that condition we seek to re-establish. One of the Great Sayings of the Upanishads. ๐๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ฌ๐ข. Thou art that essence. ๐๐ก๐๐ฆ ๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ข. The realization of that essence.
Meditation has become more and more popular these days due to its qualities as a veritable panacea. Through deep meditation one can explore the shadow and learn to integrate what is unconscious with what is conscious, synthesizing the discoveries into a new state of being that CG Jung termed ๐๐๐ฅ๐-๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง wherein the ego layers have become unveiled to reveal the source of their impressions and made vulnerable to objective discrimination. The unconscious power of the ego is now removed, replaced by the more powerful light of discerning awareness.
Meditation is understood to be a tool of insight and will – the ultimate aid to discovery of the metaphysical mysteries of life. Meditation takes a central place in the practice of monks of every religion, yogin of every path, shaman, magician and witch of any culture. As the modern psychological sciences develop, we find meditation more and more as a central therapeutic component. Its esoteric applications are being revealed in non-local healing events and the expansion of the known boundaries of objective perception with such staggering implications that even the CIA had to begin looking deeply at what the Marines had already clued into. Meditation can even make a soldier better.
Meditation comes by many names today in many packages. Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction is all the rage these days, on retreats and in the boardrooms. Dhyan is put forward by every ashtanghi as ๐๐๐ Way, while the Zen masters acknowledge there is ๐ฃ๐ค Way but to be quiet and just be that essence of which you are. ๐๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ฌ๐ข.

…is a Saiva Tantrika, Gyana Yogi and founder of Uma Maheshwara Yoga & Ayurveda. David has an MA in Semiotics, lives in Japan with his family and works as a coach in L & D, devoting his time toย developing science-based tools and programs that help people reach the fullest potential of the human condition.