Why Meditate?

Why meditate?

Here’s the #1 answer. “To transform ourselves in order to be better able to transform the world.”

As Michael Beckwith tells us in Spiritual Liberation (see Notes): “An enlightened society can only be created by awakened beings.”

If we want to change the world, we’ve gotta be the change. And meditation is one of the most powerful things we can do to really plug in and shine.

Why is that? Let’s explore some reasons. :)

Neuroplasticity. It’s the scientific fact that our brains are continually changing their structures in response to the demands we put on them and the way we live.

We talk about this in detail in the Note on The Talent Code where we learn about “a revolutionary scientific discovery involving a neural insulator called myelin, which some neurologists now consider to be the holy grail of acquiring skill. Here’s why. Every human skill, whether it’s playing baseball or playing Bach, is created by chains of nerve fibers carrying a tiny electrical impulse—basically, a signal traveling through a circuit. Myelin’s vital role is to wrap those nerve fibers the same way that rubber insulation wraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out. When we fire our circuits the right way—when we practice swinging that bat or playing that note—our myelin responds by wrapping layers of insulation around the neural circuit, each new layer adding a bit more skill and speed. The thicker the myelin gets, the better it insulates, and the faster and more accurate our movements and thoughts become.”

Literally every thought we have and every action we take changes our brain. Deliberately practicing a certain skill—whether it’s a golf swing or seeing the world with a more optimistic or compassionate outlook—myelinates our neurons in such a way that our desired behaviors become more habitual and second nature.

REALLY cool stuff.

The real benefits only come, however, with CONSISTENT effort. So, here’s to diligently, patiently, persistently and playfully rockin’ the myelin!! :)

How we should sit/position ourselves during our meditation is a common question. Ricard goes into detail on the seven points of proper posture in the book.

For a high-level perspective on proper posture, I really like the way Jon Kabat-Zinn describes it in his great book Wherever You Go, There You Are (see Notes): “When we describe the sitting posture, the word that feels the most appropriate is “dignity.” Sitting down to meditate, our posture talks to us. It makes its own statement. You might say the posture itself is the meditation. If we slump, it reflects low energy, passivity, a lack of clarity. If we sit ramrod-straight, we are tense, making too much of an effort, trying too hard. When I use the word “dignity” in teaching situations, as in “Sit in a way that embodies dignity,” everybody immediately adjusts their posture to sit up straighter. But they don’t stiffen. Faces relax, shoulders drop, head, neck, and back come into easy alignment. The spine rises out of the pelvis with energy. Sometimes people tend to sit forward, away from the backs of their chairs, more autonomously. Everybody seems to instantly know that inner feeling of dignity and how to embody it.”

P.S. Our physical posture doesn’t just affect our mental states during meditation. How we hold our bodies ALWAYS affects our mental and emotional states.

As David Reynolds tells us in his great book Constructive Living (see Notes): “Depression can be created by sitting slouched in a chair, shoulders hunched, head hanging down. Repeat these words over and over: ‘There’s nothing anybody can do. No one can help me. I’m helpless. I give up.’ Shake your head, sigh, cry. In general, act depressed and the genuine feeling will follow in time… Feelings follow behavior.”

So, let’s meditate, walk, stand, work and do *everything* with a level of dignity!! :)

I like to think of meditation as kinda like strength training for my mind (and my mindfulness).

Just as we lift weights to get stronger and run to build our aerobic capacity, sitting in meditation develops our mindfulness muscles so we can put our attention where we want it, when we want it.

Is there anything more powerful than that? (Answer: Nope. :)

As Buddha tells us (see Notes on The Dhammapada): “Little by little a person become evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water… Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water.”

Imagine a beautiful, delicate water pot. Elegantly designed. Simply gorgeous.

If you wanted to fill it up, would you take a fire hydrant to it? Nope. You’d carefully fill it up little by little rather than going gonzo and shattering it. Same thing with our personal transformation—whether we’re talking about our meditation practice, our exercise program, our optimism development, our relationships, our creative work, whatever.

Little by little. Consistency over intensity. THAT’s where it’s at.

So… How are you showing up? Or are you getting all amped up for a day or weekend or week and then fading away?

Here’s to the consistent, drop-by-drop practices that fill up the ol’ pot! :)

This idea is H.U.G.E.

Think about it: When do you “not feel like” meditating? When you’re in a craptastic mood, right? Well, guess what: That’s EXACTLY when you NEED to meditate (or exercise or eat well) the most!!!!

This is such a simple truth but applying it to my life has had truly *profound* effects.

Beckwith tells us (again, see Notes on Spiritual Liberation): “The gift of self-discipline is that it has the power to take you beyond the reasoning of temporary emotion to freedom. Think of how empowered you’ve felt on occasions when you haven’t given in to the ‘I don’t feel like it’ syndrome and honored your commitment to yourself. What does not feeling like it have to do with it? The combination of love for something with the willingness to do what it takes to practice it—discipline—results in freedom.”

While Carol Dweck tells us this in her great book Mindset (see Notes): “It would be nice if this didn’t happen, but it’s irrelevant. It might be easier to mobilize for action if I felt better but it doesn’t matter. The plan is the plan. Remember the depressed students with the growth mindset? The worse they felt, the more they did the constructive thing. The less they felt like it, the more they made themselves do it. The critical thing is to make a concrete, growth-oriented plan, and to stick to it.”

And, David Reynolds puts it brilliantly in Constructive Living (see Notes): “The mature human being goes about doing what needs to be done regardless of whether that person feels great or terrible. Knowing that you are the kind of person with that kind of self-control brings all the satisfaction and confidence you will ever need. Even on days when the satisfaction and confidence just aren’t there, you can get the job done anyway.”

In short: What does feeling like it have to do with anything?!?

Commit. And JUST. DO. IT.

(Seriously. Trust me on this. :)

This is important. I talk about it in my book in a mini-chapter called “The Tolle Trap.”

For now, we’ll let Nathaniel Branden bring the point home with his genius wisdom (see Notes): “Being present to what we are doing does not mean “being in the now” in a way that drops all connection to past and future. Living consciously entails being in the present without losing the wider context. The context is there as background, and what we are doing is foreground. Then we are in the moment but not trapped in the moment. This is the state that makes optimal action possible.

I stress this point because injunctions like “be here now” are sometimes interpreted (or misinterpreted) to mean a shrinking of awareness to encompass only the immediate moment, with the rest of one’s knowledge cast into oblivion and with no concern for the future consequences of one’s acts. The ultimate absurdity of this understanding of “be here now” is captured in the cartoon showing a man falling from a skyscraper who remarks mid-flight, “So far, so good.””

Love that.

It’s all about learning to get just a little better at dealing with our thoughts and emotion. A little quicker to notice when we’re slipping. A little quicker in bringing ourselves back to our most empowered responses…

Little by little.

Day after day after day.

Month in and month out.

We re-shape ourselves into our highest visions.

Can I get an “Amen!”?! :)

How beautiful is that?!?

We come back to this theme again and again: Noticing our negativity right as it arises and not letting it get out of hand!

Hah. That’s awesome.

Reminds me of Eknath Easwaran’s wisdom from his *great* book on meditation called Conquest of Mind (see Notes): “In Sanskrit we have a word which means “heroes at the beginning”: people who take up a job with a fanfare of trumpets but soon find that their enthusiasm has tiptoed down the back stair. Those who go far in meditation are the ones who keep on plugging. They may not be very spectacular; they may never hear a trumpet. But they keep on trying day in and day out, giving their best in every situation and relationship, never giving up. Such people are bound to reach their goal.”