A careless driver cuts you off in traffic and nearly causes an accident. You are in line at the grocery store and the guy ahead of you is sharing his life story with the cashier. A co-worker bumps into you and spills an entire cup of coffee on your brand new white blouse. I am sure you can see that these are all opportunities for something. Usually, the opportunity seen and taken is to get angry, lash out and say something that later we wish we could take back.
From the yogic perspective, you can actually use life's challenges to help you grow spiritually. Each day to day annoyance contains an opportunity for spiritual growth and ultimately, enlightenment.
Now, you may be wondering, what is so enlightening about a ruined blouse?
It's not them, it's you
Any strong reaction we have to an outside stimulus has very little to do with what happened. It has everything to do with our inner condition.
Humans all have things we get upset about, and we each get upset about different things. Most of a person's emotional responses are habitual and predictable. Ever notice how one type of stressor really gets you fired up but does not bother any one else in your family? It is because each of us has a unique formula which sets up our reactions to our environment.
Yogis believe each person has lifetimes of experiences, emotions, and attitudes that rest in the unconscious mind. Like a filter over a camera lens, it colors how we view the world and our role in it. In addition, the unconscious stores our past actions, tendencies, likes and dislikes as well as our habitual patterns. Imagine it working like a computer. When you experience a certain event, it pushes a button inside your unconscious mind that generates a pre-programmed response.
For example, I may have a button that has me feel hurt when a friend fails to return my phone calls, so when that happens, a button gets pushed, the program runs, and I get upset. But your wiring is probably different. You may have a button that is triggered when people use their cell phones in coffee shops. Your mother has neither of our buttons but has her own.
The confusion and upset most of us feel when things do not go our way is the result of identifying with our situation, our thoughts (our buttons) and forgetting who we really are.
Remembering who you are is called enlightenment.
Right where you live
I used to think that if a person wished to grow spiritually, the best thing to do would be to go off into a cave and meditate until they emerge enlightened. I have come to learn that the trials and tribulations of day to day life, if handled consciously, are the fuel that feeds the fire of transformation and spiritual growth.
“Certain things are going to happen to you no matter what,” says Sri Shambhavananda, who has taught meditation in Boulder, Colorado for over 30 years. “It is the consciousness you bring to it that determines whether it is an uplifting and spiritual experience or whether it is just another reason to be depressed.”
Each time you let go of tension in the moment instead of getting pulled into the drama, you are actually rewiring your unconscious mind, weakening the links to your old habitual patterns, and opening to your enlightenment.
Meditation in the moment
Meditation is both the process and the goal of stilling the thought waves of the mind. Meditation practice begins the process of unplugging the buttons in your machine. When you meditate, you can begin to experience the Inner Self, witnessing thoughts and emotions as they emerge from the unconscious, yet being distinctly separate from them.
You can use meditation in the moment to help you observe the events in your life (and your tendencies to react) and begin to act consciously. Cultivating a meditation practice helps to create space in your awareness, so you can recognize that you are not your programming, thoughts or situation.
The more you unhook from your pre-programmed responses and stop reacting to your environment, the more you will have an experience of your true nature.
There's no place like Om
There are many meditation tools, and each is designed to help you turn your attention away from the endless chatter in your mind and the emotions that rise and fall with each succeeding thought and focus instead on the Inner Self. The Inner Self, from the yogic view, is the Observer, the one who is watching the movie of your life, but is unaffected by it.
When immersed in the Inner Self, one experiences freedom from upset, freedom from attachment, freedom from desire and freedom from suffering. In other words, you are liberated from the habitual responses of your past programming, and you are immersed in the experience of sat chit ananda, a Sanskrit term which means “being consciousness bliss.” This is the state of enlightenment.
