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, 𝐘𝐎𝐔, 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. 𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 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. 𝐓𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐯𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐬𝐢. Thou art that essence. 𝐀𝐡𝐚𝐦 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐦𝐢. 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 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 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 𝒕𝒉𝒆 Way, while the Zen masters acknowledge there is 𝙣𝙤 Way but to be quiet and just be that essence of which you are. 𝐓𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐯𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐬𝐢.
…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 to developing science-based tools and programs that help people reach the fullest potential of the human condition.
