Meditation is an Effort!

 

Photo Credit: Science of Spirituality

Meditation is an Effort!

Some people think that meditation is too much of an effort – one has to wake up early, sit down for a period of time, not think and so on – this according to some people takes a lot of effort. This line of thinking itself shows how great the influence of body consciousness still remains in such people.

We all sit down in office, watch TV with friends and family for hours on end without feeling discomfort, we go to the movies, and so on – all this involves some kind of effort or the other – but we ‘like’ doing this hence we do not consider that too be an ‘effort’ – we actually enjoy it.

When we enjoy ‘sitting’ with friends then what is it that makes us think sitting for meditation is an effort? This requires introspection – we need to create the ability to ask ourselves – what is it that makes us think meditation is an effort?

We may realise that deep down in our subconscious we are afraid that soul consciousness will take over and whatever we ‘enjoy’ doing today may no longer give us joy once this happens. The mind is very powerful, it knows what lies in the subconscious and plants thoughts in our minds in such a way that the body consciousness can continue with its domination. It is a subtle battle between the conscious mind and the soul’s mind.

The easiest way to get over this is ‘samarpan’ – complete, unconditional surrender to a living realised Master. Once we are fortunate to come under the Master’s umbrella, we can immediately surrender our problems to him and obtain instant relief – for the moment.

Even after ‘surrendering’ if we still get thoughts about the past, then our surrender is not complete, we still have to work on ourselves. If we cannot drop our problems instantaneously, then meditation is the way. This is what most people think is an effort – ‘how do we sit still, I feel itchy, people disturb me, dogs bark, the mind is continuously vacillating between the past and the future’, and so on.

Meditation is an effort for such people simply because deep in their unconscious they enjoy the problems and they don’t want to drop them. They avoid meditation – many people are meditating and finding solace and progressing – it is just the mind that is avoiding meditation, because the mind knows if it goes into meditation, sooner or later the structure will explode and we will have to change.

So, think about it – there are two ways; one, drop the problem and surrender it totally, or two – start meditating under the guidance of a realised Master! You decide!