Meditation tools are supposed to liberate us, making us free from all personal, religious and social nonsense : Free from personal and group projections and illusions, free from blind devotion, free from attachment to meditative absorption, psychedelic experiences, cosmic travels, near death experience etc. etc. etc.
Throughout human evolution, people worked hard exploring various ways to move towards liberation from their own conditioning. Luckily, some of them managed a certain level of freedom and also proposed tools and methods to help others on their way. While their freedom of mind and the depth of their understanding grew, other people could clearly notice the visible fruit that such individuals or groups displayed. But just like good old monkeys, some copied their tools and pasted their looks…
Within the whole spectrum of religion and spirituality, we can easily observe a tendency to fall into this underlying trap:
Taking the tool as the purpose and the side effect as the main body.
Let’s remember that when practiced properly, meditation tools are meant to disappear, leaving space for more human freedom and creativity, more lucidity and adaptability, more strength, kindness and courage…
The goal of meditation is not meditation then, and the list below even less …
What Meditation is Not:
- Sitting cross legged
- Closing eyes
- Joining hand to the heart
- Breathing consciously
- Going through prayer beads
- Going to a temple, lighting incense or playing singing bowls
- Listening to a meditation or spiritual ‘master’
- Building temples or spiritual supports / representations.
- Looking at a Buddha statue, mandala or painting
- Contemplating the idea of past life or next life
- Tantra and all of sexual related paraphernalia
- Chanting together
- Fantasizing about deities & divinities
- Feeling high… feeling goooood….
- Etc… etc…etc…
There is no end to the ‘bestofs’
from the spiritual entertainment industry !
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It attracts our childish mind easily
It seduces our sensuality obviously
It intrigues our power trips absolutely
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But for sure,
It doesn’t make us free to respond to our world properly!
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Beyond our habitual patterns and tendency
Beyond the egocentric walls of our avidity
Beyond the limitation of our intellectuality
What do you think is needed to respond to our world properly?
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Here is an hint of what Meditation can lead to:
- Beyond the veils of our hypocrisies, regaining our open, lucid and spontaneous mind that sees things truly and clearly – This is the first step of meditation exercises.
- Connecting to others in a wise and caring way will unlock a vast array of interconnected qualities – This is the second step of meditation exercises.
- After that, the natural dance of wit and agility will lead the way toward managing our world complexity both lightly and energetically – that’s the third step.
- By then, the meditation tools will disapear into the open lucidity and uncontrived ability to respond to the reality of our human experience.
Quite far from spiritual frivolity,
Isn’t it?
