True Meditation

True Meditation

We complain about many things these days, things in our personal world, international controversies — and we all have opinions on how to solve the problems. We fervently come up with conclusions and answers, fighting for our voice to be heard. But in the turmoil, are we merely covering up the real dilemma?

If we look at life openly, without bias, it's obvious that we are in conflict — with ourselves and with our world. It might seem that the conflicts are merely challenges that we eagerly face and solve, but at a deeper level, if we take time to look, we will uncover our discontent. We, each of us, fight back in our own way as we attempt to resolve the struggle that makes up our lives, hoping for a better relationship, or perhaps a new job, a bigger house, improved health, deeper spirituality . . .whatever. The list is endless. And even when we are fortunate enough to attain our goals, new goals quickly replace the old ones . . . and our conflict continues unabated.

Our world does not change quickly, nor do we. We become tethered to our ideals and conclusions, and the world does likewise, reflecting nothing more or less than our collective, individual ideals on a national scale. The problem is; ideals, individually or collectively, always result in conflict. Individual ideals and desires compete with each other just as national ones do, and therefore it’s obvious that the world can’t change until we, ourselves, change. When we finally do make a fundamental change in ourselves, the conflict, which has arisen between the world and us, melts away.

The conflict diminishes because neither the world nor our “self” is an ultimate truth, and when two of these conventional truths intersect, there can only be disagreement. It is only when one of these conventional realities weakens; for example, our “self,” does conflict end due to lack of fuel.

A weakened self is not a doormat. It is a very intelligent consciousness reflecting the best worlds of both compassion and wisdom. This weakening of the illusion of self is a fundamental change of what we are accustomed to and a change that could result in enlightenment, or union with God, or union with the Ultimate — however we wish to phrase it. This permanent shift in consciousness or perspective dissolves the isolated “self,” where there is no longer a blind grasping at things of the world. We now live from the heart, from our intuition, which marks a radical change of our perceptions.

Culturally, religion per se has become, in many cases, merely a social activity, an escape, which we loosely call spirituality. It is not a serious transformation of our personality. Religion originally intended to teach us how to effect this transformation, but has become instead an extension and strengthening of our personality as we blindly reach out toward the world for answers rather than going within — and consequently no wisdom results. Until a transformation authentically takes place within our hearts, things won't change. The wars will continue along with the killing, all resulting from the greed, hatred, and illusions that fuel these conflicts.

Personal transformation results not from socializing and pleasurable experiences, but from in-depth personal introspection. In proportion to the extent that we believe in our personalities, personal transformation can be painful. For instance, sometimes we find answers through powerful experiences that dramatically change our lives. People recover from traumatic events or serious illnesses, for example, and find themselves mystically transformed. It’s as if they find themselves in another lifetime, in another existence, where their previous fear-driven, day-to-day struggles disappear in the wake of an incredible, liberating calmness. The unfounded and exaggerated fears that dominated their “previous lifetime” now vanish, replaced by inexplicable feelings of purpose and love.

Christian contemplative saints and seekers throughout the ages have gone through this transformation, asking the agonizing fundamental questions; Who are we? What are we? What do I believe in and why? Their transformations had nothing to do with pretending to be saintly or religious. Pretending doesn't count as a fundamental change. Pretending is merely a manipulation that involves strategy, thinking and plotting — all based on fear. Simply “being,” on the other hand, in the absence of self, involves dwelling in the Ultimate — or dwelling beyond our thoughts, beyond our small self.

Dwelling in the Ultimate or simply “being” defines meditation in its purest form. This true meditation, in turn, leads to a radical personal transformation called enlightenment. Until our spiritual institutions embrace this aspiration of fundamentally changing ourselves, things are not likely to change in a self-centered world, a world that remains violent even after thousands of years of culture.

A real possibility of a compassion and wisdom-based world exists, replacing the fear-based world that we find ourselves enmeshed in, but it has to begin with each of us taking the time to understand our “selves.”

E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida, is a founder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center "www.southwestfloridainsightcenter.com." His twenty-six years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His first book, "A Year to Enlightenment" (Career Press/New Page Books) will be available in October at Amazon.com and all major bookstores.