Each time I read a news story about a massacre, I keep thinking, "If only they had meditated. If only they had gone deeper inside themselves. Things might be different." I know it sounds like such a silly, small thing to prevent such huge tragedies, but sometimes - actually, most of the times - in life, it's the small things that matter most.
My own experience with meditation changed me entirely and my perspective on the world.
Some Background: The first time I tried meditating, it wasn't a great experience. I was reading a book and it suggested doing it for 15 minutes a day. The technique it suggested for doing it was the standard -- find a dark place, relax each part of your body, be conscious of your breathing. It didn't work for me for two reasons. One, I didn't have my own room then and so whenever anyone would walk in, I would imagine what they thought of me sitting there with my eyes closed and I wouldn't be able to relax. And two, I could never get to that "deep place" they talk about in the span of 15 minutes. After a few tries, I gave it up.
Years later, after a number of books, even writing books, recommended it, I felt compelled to try meditation again. The kicker was Jack Canfield's The Success Principles. Canfield, of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame, told two inspiring stories that led me to consider giving meditation another shot. The first was about a man named Jerry Coffee, a Captain and pilot in the Vietnam War. Captain Coffee spent seven years in solitary confinement as a POW, but when he first entered his cell, instead of thinking that this would be the end of him, he decided to find the positive in his situation and to use it to his advantage to learn more about himself and God. In that time, he spent many hours each day meditating and reviewing his past experiences in order to find a way to make himself a better person. Over time, he came to fully know and accept himself. After his release, he became a motivational speaker, and Canfield notes that he is the most loving, peaceful man he has ever met, because of that time he had alone in his cell. Though he wouldn't have done it again, Captain Coffee said that he wouldn't have traded his experience for anything, because it made him who he was.
Though it was Captain Coffee's story which touched and inspired me to believe significant change was possible with meditation, it was Canfield's experience with a meditation retreat that gave me the added push and structure for which to carry it out. For an entire week, seven days, during this retreat, they meditated from 6am to 10pm at night, taking breaks only for meals and for quiet walks. Canfield recalls how the first few days he questioned what he was doing when all his friends were out having fun and he was there doing nothing. He would fall asleep sometimes. It wasn't until the fourth day, he said, that he had a remarkable breakthrough which brought him peace, and wisdom, and insight. It changed his life forever.
After reading Canfield's account, I decided to go on my own meditation retreat. But instead of paying money and going elsewhere, I decided to do it at home, on my own. I had some time, so I set aside a whole week where I would meditate and ignore the rest of the world ie. tv, internet, phone. From yoga, I learned to relax my body and that I relaxed better lying down. I must say, spending that week in meditation was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Time went by so slowly, it dragged like a turtle walking in mud. Nevertheless, I pretty soon got used to the routine and even liked it, especially because whenever I got up from meditating I appreciated my time awake so much more. I also ate healthier and since I couldn't go out for food, I made do with whatever I had, finding creative solutions like crushing overripe bananas into a milkshake with strawberries. I fixed my meals creatively, something I had never really done before.
The meditation itself was going slow. By the fourth day, I still hadn't had a breakthrough like Canfield, but I pushed on, and by the fifth day, it came. I had this realization - I guess, is the best word for it - and I started seeing my entire life through that realization. Pretty soon, what had seemed like endless time to me seemed like flitting time as I tried to apply my realization to my life, and then it seemed there wasn't enough time to do it before my week was up. But I managed to complete it in that time; and it changed me. It changed me dramatically. It was the breakthrough I had been wanting my whole life and it came then at that moment, and it was beautiful. I am just not the same person I was before I took that week. I am the same, but something inside me turned. My good friend, who I have known for years, said that she noticed the change in me, that I wasn't the same person. The best way to describe it is to say that I have much more peace inside than I ever knew before, and I feel how nice it is to have it.
That is why I believe that this small, simple thing called meditation can have such grand, magical effects.
I was telling my friend how it's ironic that such an egotistical thing as spending a whole week inside yourself has the effect of making you less egotistical outside and with everyone else. I think every single person would benefit from having that time to know themselves. Every time someone commits a violent act like mass murder or murder suicide, I think that perhaps if they could have gone inside themselves, if they could have realized that it wasn't as bad as they thought, they could have invoked the power of their mind to find another way. I think that if meditation were mandatory or championed by the government in schools, people would learn to deal with their problems better. They'd find better solutions to their challenges. The world would be a more peaceful place. But I also know that any sort of mandatory meditation would be frowned upon by the far right who would accuse us of trying to brainwash their kids to be liberals, or see it as a huge waste of time and money. (Funny, because I think the far right needs to meditate the most, being as they are the most self-centered.)
The thing is, as Canfield says, people believe too much what they think in their heads. It's usually not as bad as they think it is, or wouldn't homeless, starving people commit more violent crimes? It's not true, all the terrible things you imagine. And yet, because it occurs in your head, where you decipher reality from fiction, it's hard for people to tell the difference sometimes. That's why it's so important to see your thoughts in a non-judgmental way, to see them just as thoughts, and not as some sort of ultimate, be-all, end-all truth.
Meditation helps you to do that.
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