The benefits of meditation are numerous, especially since so many health problems today are caused by stress. Therefore, something that promotes relaxation and a calm, clear mind can go a long way in healing the mind and body from many stress-related illnesses. But now that I teach meditation and do one-on-one coaching sessions for hundreds of people, I have to say that meditation is just the beginning. Overcoming stress, anxiety and depression to create a healthy mind is just the beginning. What is also needed is using the wisdom and clarity developed in meditation to undertake conscious acts of love, compassion and healthy living for ourselves and others.
Wisdom is developed through meditation, not for the purpose of winning arguments on Facebook or even for astral travel, but to know clearly what skillful actions will bring peace and happiness to yourself and others.
“Meditation leads to the wisdom to make the best choices in life for your own happiness and that of others.”
In Acceptance and commitment therapy, which is a mindfulness-based therapeutic model, you first use mindfulness to accept the current situation without fear or neediness and then act by expressing your positive core values in each situation. It is not goal-oriented in the sense of future goals, but aims to bring positive values such as kindness, equality and justice into the present moment. In this mindfulness model, it is first about conscious acceptance and then about valued actions that will certainly help create a better world.
Positive action is needed in today’s world where corruption, pollution, social injustice and inequality are all too common. McMindfulness is a term used to criticize modern mindfulness techniques, namely being aware and accepting of all situations. This depoliticizes mindfulness from a revolutionary force of awakening and political awareness to a creator of obedient zombies who reduce their stress levels with mental awareness techniques.
However, mindfulness can be revolutionary when it comes to seeing the big picture and connecting your actions to the effect they have on others and the bigger picture. Buddhist Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh believes strongly in being involved in the world and has even started a new Buddhist movement called Engaged Buddhism, which adheres to 14 principles. This is what Thich Nhat Hanh has to say about mindfulness:
“What is mindfulness? Is it just taste and sensation? When I eat at McDonald’s or buy chocolate from Nestlé, do I take into account… McLibel
case or the shameless exploitation by Nestlé
of breastfeeding mothers in poor countries? Go deeper. When I eat a banana grown in the Caribbean, am I aware of the struggle for better working conditions of Caribbean workers against the fruit cartels? Do I think about how American and Caribbean economic development, which also fueled the Industrial Revolution, was based in large part on the transatlantic slave trade?”
By connecting our actions to the big picture and being aware that we are part of an interconnected world, we can begin to use our wisdom to make choices in what we consume, how we spend our money and how we act. Conscious and wise individuals, united collectively, can make a huge difference in the world without depending on politicians to change things.
Violence, corruption and exploitation have in common that someone somewhere acted without concern for its effect on others. This kind of selfishness can be stopped within ourselves first by breaking the habit of reacting out of fear, selfishness and ignorance and replacing it with reacting, or better yet, reacting with kindness, non-violence and concern for the well-being of others. Meditation and mindfulness help to break the chain of habitual behavior and give you some inner space in a situation, so that you can choose to act consciously and wisely. As Deepak Chopra suggests:
“Every time you are tempted to act in the same old way, ask yourself; Do I want to be a slave of the past or a pioneer of the future?”
Acceptance of a situation is always the best place to start positive action. Acceptance does not have to be passive like in McMindfulness, but acceptance becomes seeing a situation clearly to effectively transform the moment to achieve your goals, manifest your dreams and make the world a better place.
The beginning of a special kind of attention
Meditation in its most basic form helps you pay close attention. I think my teachers were right when they yelled at me in class to “Pay attention!” Paying attention is the foundation of learning and is imperative to developing understanding and wisdom.
Meditation teaches us to pay attention in a skillful way, which includes the focus and concentration of what we normally expect attention to have, but also teaches us to be relaxed and completely open without preconceived ideas. This is essential to absorb new information without corrupting what we already know. To be able to receive new information without judging it or putting it into a familiar category makes us like children learning for the first time and can truly develop what Zen masters call a “beginner’s mind.”
Paying attention is the beginning of science. To look objectively and notice patterns, see how things work and develop theories that can be tested. Every scientific investigation starts with a pure form of observation.
Paying attention to your life and noticing what works and what doesn’t work is essential for personal development. To courageously look and notice things and then act responsively, with your own interests at heart. It sounds simple enough, but this kind of honest self-examination is missing from so many people who simply do the same things as yesterday, caught up in the same old patterns without ever stepping back and just observing.
Even enlightened experiences during meditation are just the beginning. As Jack Kornfield talks about in his popular book After Enlightenment The Laundry. Jack says that merging with oneness and other mystical experiences should be followed by periods of integration into daily life. Another meditation master says that spiritual practice is all you are doing at the moment and everything else is fantasy. As a Zen master puts it:
“Enlightenment is just the beginning, it is just one step on the journey. You can’t cling to that as a new identity or you’ll be in trouble right away. You have to get back to the messy business of life. Only then can you integrate what you have learned.”
From a place of deep meditation and silence, we can break away from all the usual patterns in our lives and tap into a creative source within ourselves that can see things in new ways with fresh, innocent eyes. We need creativity, courage and great love to overcome our personal difficulties and help tackle the bigger problems we face as a society. Meditation is the perfect place to start, but it’s just the beginning.
Written by Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coachingprovides three online programs – The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.