Hmm... that *is* a typo in the title... and also not...
I started typing and was about to fix it when I realised that the typo perhaps reflects my thoughts better...!
So I was just discussing meditation and spirituality with O right now and it led me to some older memories...
My maternal uncle's wife - my aunt - is a devout follower of something called Vipassana.
From the moment she knew I wanted to do Psych as a major at college - nigh on six years ago... she kept telling me that I ought to do a meditation course from the Vipassana camps... As a budding psychologist, then order that meditation brings to my mind would help me.
Well, there are two assumptions here... that meditation works and that it brings order.
Perhaps it does bring order to her mind, and to many others I'm sure... or else these movements like Vipassana and Art of Living would not have gotten so much impetus.
Yet, what works for everyone else, need not work for me.
I dislike, slightly, this tendency of people to know what is best. Suggest what you think is best, put it forward as something to think about... but to tell outright...? Um... you're not me! You have no clue what goes on in my head...
When the Art of Living first came into Vaze College, there were a few friends of mine who attended a course and it helped them - I've seen the change occur in them. Yet, when they later were insistent on me doing a course as well, to find inner peace... I got a little ticked. Thankfully, the Wise One was wise enough about it and she decided not to include me in the proselytization.
I mean... meditation is supposed to help you reflect on your self. Why need it be something ordered and sterile? Must one sit in a particular position? Must one empty their mind of everything else? What happened to free association of thoughts? Jumping from point to point can be just as reflective, in my opinion. In fact, it brings a broader scope to the reflection and especially when looking for answers, you never know where one might pop out from. Also, it's not as if free ranging thought precludes you from dwelling on any thought, if you feel like doing that for a while...
People say meditation brings them to a peaceful state.
The most memorable peaceful times for me, were both characterised by noise, slight chaos and movement.
The latest time has already been discussed in this post - where the resonances of Haji Ali really washed away all tiredness and confounded thoughts, to lead to peace. Meditation need not be a means to an end... not that you MUST reflect when you're peaceful... it can be an end in itself.
That's what happened at Haji Ali. If I wanted to be reflective, I could've... however, just that realisation of peace amongst all that hubbub was blissful.
The time before that was in Sweden.
We'd (Mickey and I) gone visiting Red at his mum's place and one of the early plans was that we would go camping one night. However, it'd been raining too much in that week, so we decided to forego camping on an island, just for a canoe ride...
I'd never ridden in a canoe before and that time was brilliant!
Floating on water, almost weightless... with the birds twittering around you, the sound of the breeze as it flows through the trees, the feel of the breeze on your face and little plops in the water as fish, insects and the like wandered in and out of the lake, I felt poetic, connected with the cosmic hole and I just closed my eyes and soaked in the experience.
There was movement around us, there was noise, nothing peaceful, yet nothing violent.
The meditation was in the joy of life itself, of existence.
There is a reason for our existence and that's good enough for us. We should do the best we can and enjoy everything. Life is good but if anything was close to heaven... it was floating on a canoe... surrounded by water... surrounded by life... surrounded by little noises... and peace!
What else do you need to reflect upon??
Point to ponder:
Should meditation really lead to answers to questions - an active, hard process?
Or should it be immediate, complete and perhaps... unsought for?
I started typing and was about to fix it when I realised that the typo perhaps reflects my thoughts better...!
So I was just discussing meditation and spirituality with O right now and it led me to some older memories...
My maternal uncle's wife - my aunt - is a devout follower of something called Vipassana.
From the moment she knew I wanted to do Psych as a major at college - nigh on six years ago... she kept telling me that I ought to do a meditation course from the Vipassana camps... As a budding psychologist, then order that meditation brings to my mind would help me.
Well, there are two assumptions here... that meditation works and that it brings order.
Perhaps it does bring order to her mind, and to many others I'm sure... or else these movements like Vipassana and Art of Living would not have gotten so much impetus.
Yet, what works for everyone else, need not work for me.
I dislike, slightly, this tendency of people to know what is best. Suggest what you think is best, put it forward as something to think about... but to tell outright...? Um... you're not me! You have no clue what goes on in my head...
When the Art of Living first came into Vaze College, there were a few friends of mine who attended a course and it helped them - I've seen the change occur in them. Yet, when they later were insistent on me doing a course as well, to find inner peace... I got a little ticked. Thankfully, the Wise One was wise enough about it and she decided not to include me in the proselytization.
I mean... meditation is supposed to help you reflect on your self. Why need it be something ordered and sterile? Must one sit in a particular position? Must one empty their mind of everything else? What happened to free association of thoughts? Jumping from point to point can be just as reflective, in my opinion. In fact, it brings a broader scope to the reflection and especially when looking for answers, you never know where one might pop out from. Also, it's not as if free ranging thought precludes you from dwelling on any thought, if you feel like doing that for a while...
People say meditation brings them to a peaceful state.
The most memorable peaceful times for me, were both characterised by noise, slight chaos and movement.
The latest time has already been discussed in this post - where the resonances of Haji Ali really washed away all tiredness and confounded thoughts, to lead to peace. Meditation need not be a means to an end... not that you MUST reflect when you're peaceful... it can be an end in itself.
That's what happened at Haji Ali. If I wanted to be reflective, I could've... however, just that realisation of peace amongst all that hubbub was blissful.
The time before that was in Sweden.
We'd (Mickey and I) gone visiting Red at his mum's place and one of the early plans was that we would go camping one night. However, it'd been raining too much in that week, so we decided to forego camping on an island, just for a canoe ride...
I'd never ridden in a canoe before and that time was brilliant!
Floating on water, almost weightless... with the birds twittering around you, the sound of the breeze as it flows through the trees, the feel of the breeze on your face and little plops in the water as fish, insects and the like wandered in and out of the lake, I felt poetic, connected with the cosmic hole and I just closed my eyes and soaked in the experience.
There was movement around us, there was noise, nothing peaceful, yet nothing violent.
The meditation was in the joy of life itself, of existence.
There is a reason for our existence and that's good enough for us. We should do the best we can and enjoy everything. Life is good but if anything was close to heaven... it was floating on a canoe... surrounded by water... surrounded by life... surrounded by little noises... and peace!
What else do you need to reflect upon??
Point to ponder:
Should meditation really lead to answers to questions - an active, hard process?
Or should it be immediate, complete and perhaps... unsought for?
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