Spiritual Portal

How does the mind prevent us from meditation? This is a personal technique that I have become more aware of over the years of meditation. When we sit down and meditate there are various distractions that prevent us from entering the state of meditation. For instance;

The temperature
Various sounds and noises
The atmosphere
Our bodies pains aches and condition

These are all conditions that are material in nature. Some of them can be circumvented quite easily for instance; if it’s too cold we can get something warm on. If it’s too hot we may be able to use a fan or open the window. If it’s too noisy we may need to find a better place to practice sitting or find a better time to meditate. If our body has issues we may need to exercise more and find the practice position to meditate.

When various physical conditions are taken care of we must next deal with the minds preoccupations;

A mantra or some type of meditation technique helps immensely in this area
Yet when we practice techniques we still might find ourselves preoccupied with various tricks of the mind.
For instance;

Problem-solving of daily activities
Irritations from other people
Memories from the past
Future wondering what we will do
Feelings for people places and situations
Constructing ideas
Comparing views with other people

Many people simply say they cannot control their mind. It is tantamount to saying; I can’t listen to those people or I can’t get serious. I have no discipline. I already meditate when I go for walks or play golf. Unfortunately the mind has excuses for everything. But  when it comes right down to it; Are we interested or are we not? Do we want to make improvements in our life or do we not? Do we want to remain the same person we have been all our lives or do we want to make changes and make our circumstances and ourselves better people?

It may be an interesting observation to also monitor the thoughts of the mind throughout the day as well. Beneath the days activities the mind is always humming a tune or whispering thoughts of troubles, feelings and memories. Better to redirect such chatter to thoughts of the divine and higher aspirations of the soul. It is very difficult to meditate if the mind is fed useless information and sad circumstances all day.

All these tricks of the mind can be recognized by simply watching the mind in its attempts to practice meditation techniques or giving up on the practice which can change our lives for the better.

If you feed a dog at 7am every morning the dog knows to alert you when it is time to be fed. It doesn't need a watch. It just knows. How strong then must habits be? Swami V has warned us that the addiction to media is cursed with much restlessness and anxiety. Not his exact words. But you get the point. Most people are driven by fear and their dependency to these habits- we even find solace in our abusers. Sometimes the mind urges us to feed our addictions, there must be a chemical process somewhere in there that releases a type of pleasure or satisfaction for fulfilling that urge- even if it is a momentary pleasure. Tricky indeed.

Concerning meditation. I also have that engrained need to alert myself it is time to meditate especially when  I am spiritually‘hungry’. Concerning the media; most likely I would have little occasion to speak of it and also be involved in the media, had it not been for an obvious connection with it here at the portal and people who have a right to express differing views… while all the time keeping participants aware that those views are not representative of mine or necessarily spiritual portals.