Meditation is a kind of realisation and awareness of the unlimited world of being. As shown in diagram 1 (Chapter 3), the world of being is like a circle of infinite circumference with a very limited concentric circle inside itself called the world of doing. Using the example I gave you at the beginning of this chapter, if the world of doing is like a prison, meditation is realising you also exist outside of the prison, and therefore all of your tools and guarantees automatically become unusable.
Meditation as inner wisdom or enlightenment is not about doing anything; in fact, it can only happen when you stop doing everything. Meditation is some kind of realisation – a state of consciousness and awareness of your existence and your growth potential in the world of being.
Masks need protection, and that is the reason why they are very defensive. Tools like relaxation can help your masks to protect themselves and improve their quality of life, but meditation is about becoming aware of the whole of your existence and your growth inside the amazing network of life.
One might consider that removing one’s blockages and getting rid of the obstacles to growth are the main results of meditation, but that is not something that you learn, teach, practice, or expect as a result. For example, babies do not want to be separated from their mothers, and that is why they cry if that happens. As they grow, they are able to stay with others as long as their mothers are around until they eventually go to school and finally become an adult and live independently in a separate place. These changes are not something you teach them – it happens as they grow up.
If this growing process carries on, people should be ready to leave their body behind and move on to the next stage of their lives. But if the growing process stops then there is fear, and people stop moving forward, and death becomes the root of all the negatives in their lives.
If the masks you use in the world of doing are not suitable for you, or you don’t know how to manage them, they will slow down or even stop you from growing. This resistance causes pain and suffering because everything else grows and keeps moving. Therefore, by using all of the tools available to you such as deep relaxation, you can prepare yourself to experience meditation which will help you unblock your blockages and enable you to carry on growing.
As you know, growing is about nourishing inside and outside in a way that nature wants. For a child to grow, you need to provide food, water, shelter, and education, but this has to be done naturally. You would not force-feed a child and expect them to grow better and faster. They need to be able to digest what they eat at their own speed. They also don’t need to know about human anatomy and physiology in order to grow.
In the same way, you cannot force meditation, but you can nourish and prepare yourself for it by using relaxation methods in a particular way. If you see someone sitting under a tree with their eyes closed, it is not necessarily because they are meditating. What you see is just preparation for meditation. Relaxation only in one form can help you become ready for meditation to happen. Meditation is a realisation and direct awareness of your life in the world of being with no mediator (mask) to feel or comment on the truth. Applying some of the following relaxation types can help that realisation occur.
