I got up today at six o'clock to do some meditation. Then I realized that I don't know what meditation is. So I'm sitting here, with my eyes closed, wondering when "It" will hit me. I used to get up at six on Saturdays when I was a kid to watch cartoons. I was so engrossed, that, I have to wonder, is watching something as banal as "The Road Runner" a form of meditation?
Then where do we draw the line? Is watching pornography meditation?
I think it's about the mindset that you are trying to create. There are those who believe that sexual expression is a form of meditation, there was a book written on that, it's called the Kama Sutra.
Now here me out: The point of meditation is to be mindless or mindful, or both at the same time. That means something like awareness with the letting go of awareness. A television show is an imaginary world we enter and lose our minds in. So is video gaming, reading, writing, even jogging. So is sex.
So if life itself can be a meditation, then is meditation nothing? No, because while you are in the middle of life, recognizing that you are in the middle of life, and then letting that recognition go and being mentally free of the stupid chatter in your brain...Well I think that's meditation.
My head is spinning all the time, usually it's just crap that it's spinning with. Right now if I let my mind go this is what it would sound like: I gotta go to Wallmart to get those bulbs, what else was a I supposed to get from there, I hate fucking Wallmart, I have to take the clothes out of my car, if I don't pay that parking meter in four more days it will double, how much money do I have in my account?
And so on and so on. Our brains were meant for something higher than all that crap. For some people it is math and logic, for others it is creativity. But when you can shut that chatter off, you can be free. I would even go as far as to say that talking in a manner that is uplifting and respectful can be a form of meditation, it's an exchange of ideas.
Many people believe that meditation is very rule based: You must sit in a certain position, close your eyes and chant the name of god.
Why? Because this chanting gets rid of the bullshit in your head and there is nothing wrong with that. However, there are other ways of expressing spirituality that can be just as effective and real. I'm assuming that god or goddess put us on Earth to live, not to sit in a room all day every day and chant. We have work to do and a family to raise, but if in the back of our minds, we are realizing that we are one with all humanity and living things, even while we are doing mundane acts like washing the dishes, we might become free of the mediocrity of our lives.
I think sometimes it's just about transcending the moment, and being in the moment at the same time. Meditation is about being here, but realizing that the space we are in is temporary yet eternal.
Truthfully, it's hard to make sense of it.
Sometimes I hate television so much and I will just close my eyes while it is on and stop thinking. Maybe this is escapism, but maybe it is a form of mediation in which I leave my reality for a little while and enter some other space.
Maybe if you shut the clutter of your mind and get up and dance...well in some states in India people dance for god. If you want to do it for god, do it for god. If you want to do it for yourself, than I hope you dance.
nina
No comments:
Post a Comment