By Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar┃Posted: September 13, 2018
Meditation makes you totally relaxed and at the same time sharpens your awareness.
Becoming more relaxed and aware can open up avenues to greater understanding of our true nature, and the meaning of love, pain, pleasure and doubt in our lives.
Transform pain with awareness
When we raise our consciousness, we become more aware of the sensations happening in the body and we see that they change. An intense sensation that’s painful and an intense sensation that’s pleasurable, both become acceptable.
Love and pain are very closely related. The symbol of Jesus on the cross reveals that the cross is pain and Jesus is love. One is with the other. The transformation of this pain and love into bliss is what happens with awareness.
Doubts subside
Have you noticed doubts are always about something positive?
- When you are happy, you doubt: “Am I really happy?”
- If someone tells you they love you, you say: “Really? Are you sure?”
We never doubt anything negative in life:
- You never doubt someone else’s anger or your anger.
- You never doubt your depression.
- If someone tells you they hate you, you don’t doubt it.
We tend to take it for granted that everybody’s a hoax or a fraud and then we try to find somebody we can trust. As a result, relationships between people become so difficult in the world.
If you can trust the positivity and doubt the negativity of people, you come closer to reality. With this awareness that people are actually positive, several effects take place:
- You’ll see that doubts disappear.
- There’s more clarity in the mind.
- Mental confusion leaves.
Becoming more clear about the true, positive nature of others will help to illuminate your own good nature.
Meditation is expansion of the mind
Meditation is a technique where the mind expands and relaxes.
- Whenever you are happy, you feel that something in you is expanding.
- Whenever you are relaxed, you’re expanding automatically.
It’s worth knowing this expansion - because then nothing can disturb you, or take your smile away. Otherwise, some small things can throw you off balance. Expressions of sadness are contractions of the mind. It’s not worth letting your mind or your life undergo such suffering, such misery.
Developing intuitive awareness
Intuitive awareness, the intuitive quotient, is what comes to your aid. If you lack intuition, you can't be really successful! Intuition is not just dry thinking. It's a combination of gut feeling, emotion, and intellect.
If you ask some of the most successful people in our society, they will vouch for this: They acted on an intuition and that brought them success--not only their logical planning or thinking. Of course, some logic is needed, but not alone! You need the support of intuitive awareness, and to smile more!
Here’s a logical progression:
- Meditation increases prana (life force).
- Prana increases awareness.
- Heightened awareness brings you close to reality
In his commentary on Patanjali’s yoga sutras, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says: "(With spiritual growth), there’s a keenness of observation. You become totally relaxed, yet at the same time you possess sharpness of awareness, strength of intelligence. Your senses become so clear. You can see better, think better, and hear better. Like a pure crystal, your senses come to reflect all objects as one Divinity."
You can read and listen to much, much more about meditation and awareness as presented in the knowledge talks and books by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation.
Read on to find out Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's guidance on How to Meditate and Live In The Present Moment
