Carlos Mares Jr.

Junsun Park 13 February 2014 Major World Religions Extra Credit: Middle Land Chan Monastery Meditation is probably more necessary in the modern world, with the pressures and distractions, than ever before in human history. Were all in such desperate haste, seeking distractions to bury ourselves in, always in a hurry to take it easy; yet never really learning what this means. Its reckoned that the average persons concentration span has declined by half, in the last forty years. We try to fill every spare moment with noise and diversion, seeking pleasure in escaping from ourselves. Like so many aspects of life which are our birthright, however, the practice of meditation (which is a purely natural activity), has become, something specialized and mysterious; the preserve of the initiate and the monastery. You dont need to join anything to benefit from meditation, the spirit, like a flower is waiting to blossom, under the soil of mundane mental noise in everyone. Meditation is a simple process: that of allowing the mind to hold its focus softly onto a sound, or object, or task, and to keep it there, gently ignoring the thoughts that arise and the distractions that are always present. You could practice mindful walking, breathing, chanting, or mindful washing up! I started meditating around twenty years ago, in an attempt to cure my dyslexia, and to calm down. I attended a ten-day, intensive Vipassana course in Herefordshire. The course was called a gradual awakening however I found it a very rude awakening indeed! The building itself was an old school, very spartan inside, with shockingly tasteless orange curtains. It struck me at the time, that no one could become enlightened in a place with such cheap curtains! Remember that meditation is not the property of any particular religious group, you dont have to be a Buddhist, nor a spiritualist, nor a mystic, its a simple and natural function of the mind that anyone possesses, and can easily practice. Learning how to meditate was probably the single most important and life-changing thing I've ever done. I started meditating in 1995 after my mother invited me to do an 8 week meditation course with her. I wasn't coping all that well with life at the time. I'd recently broken up with my girlfriend, I was failing some of my subjects at university, my health was average at best and I was very depressed. I was reluctant to go to

meditation classes at first, mainly because I was too depressed and too stressed to find the energy for them. I didn't really expect to get much out of meditation and I loathed the idea of having to find 20 minutes to meditate - twice a day no less! To my surprise, I was actually quite diligent in my meditation practice, and it paid off. After three weeks, something clicked. I don't know exactly what happened, but all of a sudden I realized that I had discovered something really important to me...Meditation was filling a gap in my life that nothing else had been able to satisfy. I began to relish my meditation sessions, and my experience of meditation rapidly deepened. I became calmer and more focussed, and somehow my whole life seemed to make more sense. Over time, meditation awakened me to the spiritual nature of my being, a side of myself that had been clouded from view until that time. I was so excited about this new discovery that I threw myself into study - metaphysics, spirituality, psychology, theology - I totally absorbed myself in learning everything I could about the nature of my mind, my soul, and my relationship to the universe as a whole.

To cut a very long story short - the practice of meditation completely revolutionized the way I view life. It expanded my perspective and it gave me relief from daily distractions. It gave me a great deal of clarity and mental power, which helped me over the years in my professional development and career progression. Meditation also helped me to open my heart and then connect with a wonderful life-partner. Nothing gives me the same feeling of wholeness and deep calm that meditation does. It has awakened me to the vast reservoirs of peace within me, and it encourages me to help other people find that same peace. It's given my entire life a sense of purpose. I just couldn't imagine life without meditation.