Meditation is all the rage lately. Study after study has reported its benefits, from
health, to memory, to happiness and even sex.
Is it really the panacea that it is purported to be?
Meditation is a vehicle. It brings you to where you want to go. Just as you take a car to go hiking, or a plane to travel abroad, or a boat to go fishing; meditation is a vehicle.
If it is a vehicle, then it is really important that you have a clear intention for where you are going.
The Buddha divided all types of meditation into two categories- worldly and transcendent.
Worldly meditation involves not only all of the health and wellness benefits listed above, but also includes meditation for the sake of cultivating specific mental states for your own benefit.
Transcendent meditation is for the purpose of liberation. Complete awakening has the function of liberating the mind from all suffering and ignorance, but its distinctive feature is the presence of great compassion.
Great compassion fulfills its own intention by carrying out and ensuring the benefit of others. In this way, transcendent meditation not only fulfills your own aims, it also fulfills the aims of others.
It transcends the self. It is greater in purpose, greater in scope.
With this type of meditation, your life becomes the vehicle for awakening in order to bring benefit to those around you. Everything is included in your practice everything becomes part of the path.
What is your intention for meditation?
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