Meditation - myths and misconceptions - the cardinal ten

No sooner had I clicked the 'Publish' button of my last blog - Meditation in Meltdown - I knew that I had blundered. I knew I had opened up a Pandora's Box for the melt-downers to come out with all their (mis)understanding of meditation which will allow them to justify why it cannot be allowed within the iron wall of corporates. And that led me to look at my four decades of association with meditation and meditative ways of living (which, of course, includes smoking and occasional indulgence with exquisite 'spirits' in liquid state)  and list down some of the many myths and misconceptions related to meditation that are prevalent all around. Here is the cardinal ten: 

1. Meditation is not necessarily sitting for a long time, with your eyes closed. You can be meditative while brushing your teeth, having your breakfast, driving your car or even attending a meeting, through Conscious Living.
2. You cannot ‘do’ meditation. Meditation is non-doing. Even in active meditation, where one is required to move, through guidance s/he is made to dissociate from the movement to be a witness, thereby getting into a non-doing state.
3. Yoga is not meditation. You do not need to bend your body and twist your limbs to meditate. You can meditate while standing, sitting or even lying down.
4. Addictive substances have nothing to do with meditation. They alter your consciousness and mimic the state of expanded consciousness that you may achieve through meditation.
5. You do not have anything to achieve, any objective to meet in meditation. Trying to reduce stress through meditation can make you more stressful. Meditating with an objective to attain enlightenment will take you farther, farther away from it.
6. Meditation is not consciousness, awareness or mindfulness. It’s a tool or a path to conscious awareness.
7. There are many methods of meditation and none of these are better than another. It completely depends on the one who meditates, the guide and ambiance on how effective a method can be.
8. Meditation is not necessarily a group activity, needing a lot of gizmos. You can be meditative alone in your own space without any prop, whatsoever.
9. Awakening, cleaning or alignment of chakras is not meditation. These are healing techniques with physical implications, having little or nothing to do with awareness, which is what meditation is a gateway to.
10. There is nothing religious or even spiritual about meditation. You do not need to learn stringent methods and rituals for meditating. You are, as a human, by nature meditative. All you need is a compassionate guide to remind you of this and you to re-member.

You may now check for yourself how wise your are - meditation-wise. And if you choose not to agree with me on any of the above, you are most welcome to invite me for an experience of a guided active mediation – So’Ham – that, inspired by Osho’s Dynamic meditation, I had designed about five years back. Since then more than 500 individuals have experienced and benefited from So’Ham. It’s an active meditation, guided by me, in groups of 10 to 15 individuals.

Leave a comment behind or reachme@indroneil.com if you have any doubts and /or if you are interested to experience the magic of So’Ham. Promise you, you will transcend all beliefs, for underlying every belief there's a doubt.

Healing the corporate soul

This is an amazingly thought-provoking article written by Mohanbir Sawney and published in CIO on November 15, 2002.

Eight years have passed. Corporates have weathered one more recessionary storm. Yet, the voice of wisdom speaking through this article seems to remain unheard. Unless you have a story to prove it otherwise.

 
This is a column about creating value. Like you, I spend a lot of my time thinking, writing and talking about value. But as I look at the crisis of confidence plaguing corporate America, I am forced to consider a deeper question?in our unending quest for value, do we have to compromise our values? What is the relationship between values and value? Indeed, what is the purpose of a business?

Of course, a business exists to create value for its customers and profits for its shareholders. But is profit the ultimate goal of a business? Does a business have a higher purpose? Can this higher purpose be reconciled with the profit motive? And can companies do well by doing good?

A call of compassion

Most of us, most often, have been conditioned to believe that we are powerless and helpless. No wonder, in face of calamities, the impulsive behavior we get to see is of helpless anger and withdrawal. We also conveniently believe that the source of power lies outside us. In the positions we hold, in the assets we own, in the money we make and status we enjoy. And therefore frantically cling on to these illusive ‘power points’ in hope of survival.

In the current context, however, if we look around at what is happening around us, it will be evident that the existence of all that we are deriving power from is being threatened – the money that buys us comfort, the workplaces that promises our position, the social security, the energy that powers our devices, the fuel that runs our vehicle.

Have you ever thought what could be the scheme of things? Where are we being led to?

Could it be that the humanistic system is calling upon us to discover and anchor ourselves in the infinite source of The Power Within? Something that we have been blissfully unaware of and postponing the discovery for a long time?

Could it be that in the coming years, which according to some is as close as 2012, we shall have nothing in the external to live upon and that in order to survive we shall be required to create our own realties by consciously investing in our innate life-giving forces, our potentials, which incidentally, are much more than what has been realized?

Could it be that because we, as human beings, have not exercised the choice that was given to us to evolve consciously, we are being confronted with threats of extinction?

Well, the choice to perish or preserve our being lies with us. Unlike most other natural beings, Nature is not going to take care of our evolution. We are privileged to have been endowed with the power to self-transform and the choice to do so. And those who do, shall evolve (and therefore survive). Those who are working towards surviving somehow shall not.

Here's a call to those who sense the urgency and wish to take the first step towards creating their own reality and set out on a journey of conscious evolution, without any further postponement.

A call to wake up from the dream of being awake and re-claim the innate power that we are born with. As humans.