In meditation, we watch our thoughts. We notice body sensations. We find the space of no thought, no sensation. In the space between thoughts we find the seat of joy, the seat of our soul. Meditation stops the race in our head bringing us to the finish line where we experience the presence of our heart. Here is our inner well of being and so much more.
People are meditating for all kinds of reasons, but most of us know there is something profound calling us. We don't talk about it, but we know we are finding steps to real joy, the seat to the part of us that is eternal. Once the mind stops, the experience of our limitless heart begins.
It's amazing how small we can feel, closed down, concerned only with me. And then a short time later after meditation we find our heart again. Meditation and we can suddenly be a giant of tolerance and giving. Meditation is our ticket from all the noise of our world to the freedom of inner silence. Our judgments and concerns pounding, we meditate and almost like super heroes, we are full of understanding and gentleness. It's amazing how certain we can be in our difficulty and minutes later wonder, where did our difficulty disappear to? Meditation and we feel seemingly bulletproof in our ability to recover, renew, to be once again in love.
The question becomes how long do we fight this tug of war between mind and heart? What can we do to end the tension of the limits of our personality and our unlimited inner being? How long does our resistance lasts to the vast realm of heart essence? At what expense must we suffer the highs and lows of our mind battling true awareness? Is meditation just an aspirin for our stress? Or is it a path to something permanent and true?
When we leave our meditative peace, we can feel we have failed. Our sense of unity gone, we feel guilty. We can quickly lose our sense of expansion and be in contraction. Our ocean of being can become an ocean of doubt, as if all the energy that was boundless in meditation is now working against us.
It is important that we understand the process. As our awareness steps beneath our personality, underneath our thoughts, we realize something more. After exploring this ocean of being, no thought, no self, we are not wrong for coming back, for having once again worldly self, the thoughts and feelings which make us function. Making peace with the transition from one state to the other and back again, we are making peace with the many parts of our being. This making peace with the many parts of who we are, is not appeasement but victory.
Slowly, meditation actually changes our lack of tolerance and concern as our awareness spreads in the space discovered. Intolerance grows into compassion not because we think about it. Our awareness grows in compassion as it spends time in our inner vastness. Understanding and acceptance are not things to try hard to master. Understanding and acceptance build in our awareness as we spend time in our heart essence.
The tug of war between mind and heart lessens. Slowly, surely, our heart wins as our awareness absorbs our true state while abandoning fear and worry. In meditation we are receiving, actually becoming our inner essence. Our awareness strengthens in the fixed beauty, the pervasiveness of our direct experience. As our awareness is anchored in our heart presence, our personality does not have so much weight and control. The war is over.
Compassion, joy, soul, words which as a personality we often cannot really connect with become meaningful as we practice meditation. In the space between thoughts, our view of everything and everyone changes. We can think about forgiveness, gratitude, and peace. But the experience of these qualities is very different as we find this body of something immense inside of us.
In meditation we learn we are not going someplace, something is opening within us. There is nothing to accomplish but a unity to experience. There is a difference between trying to make something happen and being very present and feeling all that is. We can be in harmony with our daily world and the cosmos.
Meditation ends the struggle. The inner wrestling match is over. Hope and hopelessness are both of our mind or personality. Inner peace is now. Love is in the presence and quality of our being. Success and disappointment are both products of our mind. Equanimity is the fruit of knowing our deep heart, one of the many gifts of simple awareness.
With meditation, the mind can becomes the servant of our heart instead of the other way around. Life becomes a garden to enjoy rather then to manage. Meditation is much more than just thinking less. We are releasing the filter, taking off the mask, dissolving the structures we have built in our awareness. We are discovering the yoga of life. Consciousness from our unfiltered awareness is like a fresh wind full of garden fragrance. Awareness free of so much thought is a joy that keeps on giving.