Gateway to All Souls
The denotative meaning of meditation is, “deep continuous thought,” but I view meditation as a state of thoughtless reflection; warmly blanking out the mind, as if it were a cinnamon scented candle, and letting the body relax. It is as if the rolling, calm, dark tides of the ocean at midnight slowly surround you, and transport you to another world; another dimension; another time. Meditation is not merely contemplation. It is not only deep, reflective thought, but a gateway to relaxation and self-awareness. You have to relax your muscles, yet still sit or stand up straight. You must empty your mind, and yet still be aware of your own being, as well as those around you. Meditation is losing yourself in the very fabric of time. It is the very essence of escaping reality, even if only for a short time. Meditation is not forgetting who you are, but rather finding yourself without using or hearing your thoughts. In fact, T.S Elliot once said, “I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” I believe that is an amazingly poetic, yet clear, explanation of meditation. Meditation is a window into the soul. It takes away the bad and multiplies the good feelings and thoughts that you have. It may sound like something only Monks or “hippies” would do, but meditation is something anyone can use to make themselves feel better. Meditation is finding peace in times of war, and making a truce with your enemies. Meditation is opening up thousands upon millions of unexplored worlds that had previously been hidden behind closed doors. It is the ultimate tool for relaxation of the mind and spirit. Have you ever been doing something, such as listening to music, listening to a teacher lecture, or even been watching television, and suddenly realized you had been day dreaming, and had not noticed anything that had gone on around you? Meditation is like that, except you are not really thinking; instead you are riding on a dark tidal wave through your subconscious mind, thinking without actually viewing or hearing your fluttering thoughts. During meditation you are the surfboard and your mind is the dark ocean at midnight, on a new moon. Even the sparkling stars are hidden behind dark storm clouds, and yet it is calming and relaxing. Even people who are afraid of the dark would welcome this kind of shadow. I imagine that the darkness of meditation is like the darkness of the womb, and that is why it is so comforting, because it reminds us of that familiar, blissful time before the real world could hurt us. There are many things in this world that we have absolutely no control over. Meditation is not only a tool that leads us to relaxation, but a tool that can be used to control something in our lives. It can be used to control our states of mind. We can use meditation to make ourselves happier, less stressed, and less depressed. Meditation changes the way you view life; it makes your outlook brighter and deeper. Meditation gives us a creative and accessible way to be more optimistic, open minded, and to view the world with astonishing clarity.
The first time I ever experienced the miraculous relief that meditation can bring was in seventh grade. I was going through a time in my life where stress, frustration, anger, confusion, and hurt were all I knew how to feel. No matter what I tried, I could not escape the fear and stress that were always lingering behind me. They were the ghosts that chased me in my nightmares. They were boulders that constantly blocked my path, and made me detour around them. They were the tears that flowed from my eyes, and my bleeding heart. They were also the weights that would eventually