The relevance of Meditation today

Possibly the main reason why the world is such in a critical state today is because most of us are just constantly reacting to life, instead of consciously acting with responsibility and intuition.

Most of the time, we don’t stop to think before we speak or do something, we are just automatically triggered by circumstances in forms that we learned as little kids. We have grown up, but we haven’t matured and emotions, instead of consciousness, still dictate our moves.

All we want is to be loved and to belong, to feel safe, and that is what drives us. When we were babies, we cried or laughed to get attention, for food, comfort and company; and we still do. We are emotionally and irrationally responding to life events, hoping that the way we learned to manipulate the circumstances as babies will work once again. For some of us, we choose tantrums; some of us become clever; some of us become cute and seductive. We have found a way to get what our ego wants in order to control the circumstances, in a very selfish way. Far from applying free will, we remain slaves of the circumstances.

It is hard to get out of the loop--it takes wisdom and vitality. We need to grow some courage to do the right thing.

First, we must identify the automatic behavioral habits that we use to control the situations, to recognize when the little baby is instinctively using reactive tactics to control the situation and then to transcend it. To become aware of thoughts and emotions without being taken over by them.

Then we have to accept responsibility for what we say and do and the results of our words and actions. It takes self observation and acceptance of our condition, to understand our ways and the reasons why we act the way we do. We must get to know our true identity, to discern consciousness from mind, learning to distinguish between the reactive baby, the ego, from the conscious self, the soul, and differentiate their needs.

After the hard meditative work to dominate the mind and learn to control the projections of our ego, we can finally start to get rid of the ego's inaccurate or self destructive identifications. After that, the next step is to become stablished in consciousness. This is not easy, it requires gathering and preserving vital energy; our mind consumes a lot of our energy if we keep it permanently sharp and awake. We need reserves of energy, pranayama and asana becomes a perfect tool in this aspect. We need to work out the discipline of remaining present and aware, and to think collectively, to find harmony within ourselves and with the world around us. We need to be aware of how everything we do, belongs to a chain of events that has the reach to affect the whole planet.

A person lives through consciousness. The more we are capable to notice, more precise and accurate our decisions will be. The habit of being present and aware must be built. It can come eventually but will not remain unless it’s worked out. Repetition is the way; we must practice meditation constantly as the form to reset the mind and build the habit of presence and awareness as a norm. As consciousness grows, we’ll be able to observe ourselves and our relationships with life in every dimension in which they exist, the physical, the mental, the emotional, the energetic and the spiritual planes. We will become able to distinguish each one and noticing their interrelationships. We access many more options and forms to bring happiness into life when we are more aware.