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Meditation is suitable for anybody who is prepared to practise. The School of Meditation’s book Being Oneself caters for those who are interested in taking up the practice. It also answers newcomers’ frequently asked questions. But then, it is only through experiencing and practising meditation that real answers come. Here we look at three common questions posed to the school. How much discipline is required? Is it possible to lose one’s drive if one meditates regularly? Can meditation change one’s life?

How much discipline is required?

The School of Meditation encourages the discipline of meditating regularly and twice a day. One doesn’t have to follow any particular time each day but it is beneficial to practice for a set period of time each day. Eventually sitting down to meditate becomes ‘as natural as sitting down to meals or going to bed at night.’

When one finds one’s mind wandering, as it is likely to do every now and then, it’s important to bring it back to the meditational technique being practiced. This should be done gently and in a way that doesn’t have one fighting one’s thoughts. This would be ‘rather like eating just what is in front of you, rather than eating from other plates on the table.’

These so-called disciplines are not difficult to follow and neither are they rigorous.

Can one lose one’s drive?

In answer to the question ‘doesn’t life become boring?’ the book advises that ‘the stillness one finds in meditation, and which one is then able to carry into daily activity, is not the same thing as inertia.’ One becomes much more awake and full of potential so that one is able to better respond to life’s challenges and requirements.

‘One finds oneself more spontaneous, natural, restful, and actions themselves are cleaner, more purposeful, precise. With the mind still and alert, one sees much more of what goes on and one is less absorbed by daydreams and inner conversations.’ Life doesn’t become boring, it becomes a new adventure.

But what about losing one’s drive? The book suggests that all one really loses is the untrue and the artificial. On the contrary, one doesn’t lose one’s drive, one instead ‘knows increasingly what the best in life is and one stands out for that with more assurance and strength.’

Can meditation change one’s life?

What meditation does is change the way one reacts to events that can’t necessarily be changed. Habit normally plays a big part in how one acts, which means that similar situations produce similar reactions. ‘Much of this habit is useful but if, as is often the case, it dominates, then things seem stale and we quickly becomes set in our ways and enter a premature old age.’

Meditation helps to dissolve these ingrained habits, allowing one to act spontaneously according to the situation. This can bring a new freshness to one’s life and one’s actions are more appropriate. Reactions stem from the situation rather than old habits.

Tags: meditation