Meditation and Happiness

Everyone is meditating on something all the time. If you want a clue as to what people are spending most of their time meditating on then look at the circumstances and content of their lives. Most humans meditate on acquiring power (money, reputation), sex (do I need to give an example here?) food and consumption (acquiring whatever person, place, or thing you "need" to make your life comfortable and "happy"). There is nothing wrong with meditating on acquiring these things (we must live our lives) they just don't make you happy. Since a genuinely happy person is almost as rare as an honest politician then we can conclude that most people do not meditate on what makes them happy.

But Paul, I'm happy, and I have lots of friends that are happy. Don't be a buzz-kill!

Right. Ill define what I mean by happy. True happiness is not affected by the positive or negative conditions of ones life. How happy can you be if in the back of your mind you know that your happiness can be snatched from you in a moment? By happy I mean content and blissful despite your circumstances.

Consider this, most people are happy only when the conditions of their lives present themselves as positive. Let's take the fictional character Bob. Bob's happy. It's a nice sunny day, his rent is paid, he's surrounded with friends and family he loves and Bob anticipates a bright and happy future. Bob's happiness is the result of positive conditions. The next day is partly cloudy, Bob learns that someone ran over his pet, and that work is "rightsizing" his job oversees. Bob's inner condition starts to darken and Bob doesn't feel so happy. The next day dark and ominous clouds have blotted out the sun. Bob learns that the love of his life betrayed his trust. Bob is crushed. The stormy winds of emotion tear through Bobs mind and his experience of life is a living hell. The conditions of Bobs life now present themselves as negative. Indeed, Bob is being tossed around in the stormy ocean of life experience. His happiness is fleeting and is being dictated to him by forces beyond his control.

A genuinely happy person is one who is happy in good times and happy in bad times. These people are not affected by the wild pinball ups and downs of life because their happiness does not derive from the world.

Pop Quiz: Q: Why would one want to learn how to meditate? A: To learn how to derive happiness from a source that is always happy, bright and powerful (i.e. not the world).

Ill be honest; to be happy in this crazy world is exceedingly difficult. Even amongst the affluent and privileged, one only has to scratch a little below the surface of their social personalities to see that they are as full of fear, sorrow and anger as any one else. Almost no one is immune. I say almost because some people have figured out how to be genuinely happy. These people are rare but if you truly want to be happy then it would be worth your while to find out what these people know and make yourself available to what they have to teach you.

My teacher once told me, "Its hard to be happy, but isn't it harder to be unhappy?"

Namaste

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What is meditation?

Meditation usually refers to a state in which the body is consciously relaxed and the mind is allowed to become calm and focused. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin, though there exists also various forms of Christian, Jewish and Muslim meditation.
Meditation as a form of alternative medicine brings about mental calmness and physical relaxation by suspending the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind. Generally performed once or twice a day for approximately 20 minutes at a time, meditation is used to reduce stress, alter hormone levels, and elevate one's mood.
A discipline in which the mind is focused on a single point of reference. Employed since ancient times in various forms by all religions, the practice gained greater notice in the post war US as interest in Zen Buddhism rose. Meditation is now used by many nonreligious adherents as a method of stress reduction; known to lower levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. Enhances recuperation and improves the body’s resistance to disease.
Meditation is an easy and simple way to balance a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. It is easily learned and has been used as an aid in treating stress, anxiety, pain management, and as part of an overall treatment for other conditions including hypertension and heart disease. Research shows that meditation decreases the heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen consumption, and even decreases blood pressure.