Character and Meditation

 

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Character and Meditation

How does our character build up as we grow? Most of us focus on virtues which help in creating a good bio-data, which naturally helps us in getting jobs, contracts, etc in our professional and working life. There are other virtues which are not put on display but which people talk about when one passes away. These are the virtues which exist at the core of our being – kindness, bravery, honesty, faithfulness, what kind of relationships we created.

Our education system is more focused on how to succeed in life thus giving emphasis to developing virtues which will look good on CV. We live in a society which encourages us to have a great career but leaves many of us dumbfounded about how to develop our inner life. Living in society we get used to hearing the shallow and fast communications and this noise makes it very difficult for us to listen to the soft that emanate from the core of our being. Today, where life on social media is omnipresent and this culture makes us market, promote and advertise ourselves and master the skills to succeed in the material world. But this gives very little encouragement to humility, sympathy and honest introspection which are absolutely necessary for building a good and strong character.

Without a strong focus on this side of our nature, it is very easy to slip into a self-satisfied moral mediocrity, where we grade ourselves on a forgiving curve. We chase our desires and go wherever they take us, and we approve of them too as long as they are not hurting others. This makes life superficial and you start judging your popularity on the basis of whether people around you seem to like you. By doing this you start slipping, and in the process, you end up becoming something less than what you had hoped for when you set out on your life’s journey.

This is where meditation helps in character building. Those who meditate and those few who without meditation remain centred and focused seem to possess an impressive inner cohesion. Such people do not lead fragmented lives. Such people achieve inner integration, they are calm, settled and rooted. They believe in humanity and human values and their life showcases these values.

They are not blown off course by storms nor do they crumble under adversity. Their minds are consistent and their hearts are strong and dependable. Such people do not have the bombastic virtues which are displayed on one’s CV, but have virtues built out of the joy and pain of life, learnings which life has given them. This equilibrium and equanimity come easily for those who meditate, their character remains strong from within.