Meditation isn't everything - RaVai
Meditation isn't everything. Spiritual practice is all the more important and without that transformation is well-nigh impossible. The most effective meditation together with a disciplined approach is only 5 per cent of the way and the other 95 per cent is attitude. With any activity, it is our attitude that determines its success. If you meditate in a negative mood, it is counterproductive. Keeping your eyes closed but in real you keep brooding over your negative thoughts and feelings, you end up achieving nothing.
And again there are attitudes that hinder us in subtler ways. Expectation is one such thing.
Many meditate with the expectation of a certain result. Suppose one day, you had a phenomenal experience in meditation. The next time you meditate, you wish to relive that experience. And in so doing, you have a rider to your meditation and that is, “I must feel peaceful today!". Something better might be waiting for you.
Yet you only want peace. So you miss out.
Even best experiences can become traps.
We get stuck on our experiences. Rather, we should always be willing to go beyond, to go further. Even at the high stage where bliss finally dawns, keep moving.
Otherwise, your desire to remain in that state of bliss holds you back. You like it so much that you want to repeat it again and again. You don't want to transcend it. Be assured that you may experience, there is always something beyond it.
We should also avoid the opposite extreme, which is impatience for the next stage to come. We needn't be in any rush to keep moving. This attitude also holds us back. Don’t insist on anything and don't demand anything. Meditation is best when we have no expectations- not even for meditative experience!
If something happens, fine. If you have no experience, it's still o.k.
Meditation is a form of waiting.
Not impatiently, as if you are pacing back and forth waiting for the bus. It's a relaxed kind of waiting. You are at ease, comfortable. It does no good to be impatient. Everything takes its own time. For instance, you cannot cut open a butterfly's cocoon before it is fully matured. That would kill the butterfly. Likewise, we cannot expect spiritual states to bloom before their time. They will come.
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