When we meditate we approach the true nature of what it means to be human. Our true nature is to become one with our most compassionate Self. Meditation is a science of intuition that leads the ego to compassionate expressions that serve the common welfare.
To achieve this state of compassion meditation combines the subjective cakra system with an objective neuroscience, a subjective approach to an objective adjustment. We are wired for meditation that leads to our being more compassionate. This wiring involves a system of cakras (wheel) composed of subjective psychic centers closely connected with an objective nervous system and set of endocrine glands. This modern science of cakras provides a basis for understanding qualities of the mind that are distributed throughout the body and control our mental and emotional balance. It is said that “the mind is like a river that runs in two directions. towards the crude or subtle”. Meditation practices with their positive mindfulness and concentration keep the mind moving toward the subtle levels of compassionate expressions. (Check Prama.org for more information about the Science and Practice of Yoga and Meditation)
To achieve this compassionate mental, emotional, social and spiritual balance people have from ancient times developed some practice of contemplation. These contemplative practices include walking in nature, sitting in quiet places or engaged in sports and hobbies that calm the mind and relax the body. Meditation grew out of these natural quiet moment needed to rejuvenate the mind, body and soul. In our hurried “busy sickness” of today’s world we need these moments and a more systematic practice of meditation to serve this purpose. More than relaxing the mind and body this meditative practice makes room for a creative space that allows for the natural unfolding of our intuitive wisdom in the compassionate heart. This meditative practice is further supported by the universal ethics of yama (social balance that includes non-harmfulness) and niyama (personal balance that includes contentment) based on time, place and person that help us to compassionately serve ourselves and others.
In serving the common welfare “compassion” is the first and last point. Compassion is the path of awakened conscience and benevolence that serves people, animals, plants, and the environment. Meditation is the practice that strengthens our intuition and creates an awakened conscience that serves all entities animate and inanimate. As a function of the rational mind and discriminating heart intuition is the final arbiter to choose well what is compassionate to think, say and do. The poet Rumi says in a poem tagged Follow Your Heart, “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” To sense that “strange pull” of your heart it requires that we listen silently and intently in meditation to our hearts message to create a more compassionate world.
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How healthy is your mental diet?
Our consumption never stops. Emails, phone calls, text messages, podcasts, social media, television, conversations, and the constant stream of information flowing through our screens continually fill our minds with new ideas and impressions. Sometimes the steady barrage of bad news or conflicting opinions becomes overwhelming, and we simply need to stop listening. We need quiet moments to recover our balance.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Sid Jordan
Sid has combined a career as a licensed clinical psychologist and yoga teacher since 1971. As a clinical psychologist, he taught psychotherapy and community psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and served as director of the Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug Services in a community center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC over a period of 25 years. Since 1994, he has been developing a green intentional community north of Asheville on 140 acres of land.
