REASONS TO MEDITATE. Part 2 of 4.
Dealing with the postmodern dilemma, no one is surprised that conditions change constantly; experts and sages have been preaching this for centuries. But at no other moment in history has change been more universal and persistent — or had such a profound impact on our lives — as in the last 5 or 10 years. When we watch the evening news or read the newspaper, we are bombarded with numbers and pictures of violence, terrorism, starvation, natural catastrophe, global climate change, and economic instability, all of which show a world that appears to be unravelling. On a more personal level, you may have lost your work due to the global pandemic, left a relationship because your beloved was transferred to another location, been the victim of a violent crime, or lost a large sum of money in a volatile market.
Perhaps you spend your free time working out how to keep one step ahead of the competition at work. Or you might stay awake at night wondering when the tidal wave of change will reach you and wash you away. Does any of this ring a bell? Sociologists call this period the postmodern age, in which continual change has become the norm, and time-honoured ideals and truths are swiftly demolished. How can you make your way through life when you don't know what's true and don't know how to find out? Do you look for it on the internet or extract it from the latest statements of media prophets and business CEOs? Despite the undeniable benefits of all of the technological devices that have been abundant since the 1990s, you may have observed that the quicker you communicate, the less you truly connect with others in a rich and meaningful way. Sure, Twitter tweets, Facebook status updates, Reels, Tiktoks, text messages, and emails are stimulating and distracting you — but do they truly give you the closeness and contentment you seek? Such constant change exacts a high emotional and spiritual cost, which we prefer to downplay in our collective effort to emphasise the positive and dismiss the negative.
• Here are a few negative consequences of living in the postmodern era: Stress and anxiety: When the Earth begins to shake beneath your feet, your immediate reaction may be worry or dread as you try to restore your balance. Millions of years of living on the edge have imprinted this gut-level reaction into our DNA. Unfortunately, these days, the tremors never cease, and minor anxieties accumulate and grow into chronic tension and worry. Your body may seem constantly braced against the next assault of troubles and duties, making it nearly impossible to relax and enjoy life. Meditation can give a much-needed cure by calming your body and lowering tension.
• Fragmentation: Most people used to live, shop, work, raise their children, and spend their leisure time in the same neighbourhood. They saw the same people every day, did the same job for a lifetime, married the same person, and saw their children raise their own children just down the street. We now frequently drive our children to school or childcare and go vast distances to work while reading texts on our mobile phones. We may stop by the supermarket on our way home and spend our nights mindlessly searching the web. We change professions and relationships more frequently than ever before. When our children reach adulthood, they routinely relocate to another country! Although we may be unable to stop the flood of fragmentation, we may utilise meditation to connect with a deeper wholeness unaffected by outward circumstances.
• Alienation: It's no surprise that we feel entirely stressed out when our lives appear to be made up of fragmented jigsaw pieces that don't fit together. With so much downsizing and outsourcing, many individuals are compelled to work in low-wage jobs that don't link them to a greater sense of value or purpose. Fewer and fewer people vote in each election because they believe they have little authority to alter things. Never before, it appears, have human beings felt so estranged, not only from their work and government, but also from others, themselves, and their own core being – and the majority of us lack the skills or knowledge to reconnect! Meditation can assist in repairing our alienation from others and the world by bridging the abyss that divides us from ourselves.
• Loneliness and isolation: As individuals move more often and families splinter and spread over the world, you're less likely to have regular touch with the people you know and love — and even if you do, you may be too busy to engage in a mutually satisfying way. Instead of eating together as a family, Mam, Dad, and the kids phone or email each other on the fly as they rush from one activity or work to the next, seldom ending up in the same area simultaneously. Of course, you may be unable to overcome the factors that separate us. However, you may utilise meditation to make every moment with your loved ones "quality time."
• Depression: It's no surprise that some individuals get sad when they feel lonely, alienated, stressed out, and separated from a deeper source of meaning and purpose. Millions of individuals around the world take mood-altering medications every day to avoid the anguish of contemporary living. Meditation may help you connect with your inner source of happiness and joy, which naturally dispels the clouds of depression.
Zen tradition relates the story of a poor farmer who lost his sole horse. His friends and neighbours bemoaned his condition, but he appeared unconcerned. "We'll see," he murmured, his smile enigmatic. His horse returned many days later, accompanied by a herd of five wild stallions that had joined it along the road. His neighbours were ecstatic about his good fortune, but he didn't seem to be. "We'll see," he said once again. The next week, his adored only son slipped and shattered his leg while attempting to ride and tame one of the stallions. The ever-solicitous neighbours were overcome with sadness, but the farmer, although comforting and caring for the child, did not appear to be concerned about the boy's future. "We'll see," he pondered. The local warlord arrived in the farmer's community at the end of the month to enlist all the healthy young men to fight in the latest campaign. However, the farmer's son... You can guess the rest of the story. In case you hadn't noticed, life is a roller-coaster ride you have no control over. If you want to keep your lunch — and your sanity — you must learn how to keep your mind at ease.
The continuous growth in stress-related illness reflects our collective failure to cope with the volatility and fragmentation of our times — and supports a multi billion-dollar healthcare and pharmaceutical industry that at times merely hides the core problems of anxiety, worry, and confusion. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated that regular meditation practises may actually reverse the onset of many stress-related diseases.
Before I leave the litany of postmodern worries and give some natural remedies, I want to take a quick look at a few popular techniques for dealing with stress and uncertainty that cause more issues than they solve:
• Addiction: Addictions replicate some of the advantages of meditation by diverting individuals from their discomfort, encouraging them to lay aside their typical concerns and preoccupations, and modifying brain chemistry. Addictions, unfortunately, have a tendency to focus the attention on an addictive substance or activity — drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, and so on — making it even more difficult for individuals to remain open to the wonders of the present or to connect with a deeper dimension of being. Furthermore, most addictions entail a self-destructive lifestyle that exacerbates the difficulties the addict was striving to avoid. Fundamentalism, whether it's religious or political, is a way to escape ambiguity and feeling alone. It does this by promoting simple, one-dimensional solutions to complex problems, giving meaning and a sense of belonging, and rejecting many of the flaws of postmodernism. Fundamentalists divide the world into good and bad, us and them. This makes people feel alone, causes fights, and causes stress.
• Entertainment: When feeling lonely or alienated, just turn on the TV, download a movie, or go to the cinema. That should alleviate your worry or discomfort, right? In addition to providing entertainment, the media fosters community by linking us with other people and events in our surroundings. You can't, however, have a heart-to-heart with a TV superstar or embrace your favourite movie star. Furthermore, the media (intentionally or unintentionally) manipulates your emotions, fills your head with popular culture concepts and pictures, and directs your attention away from yourself — rather than allowing you to discover what you truly believe, feel, and know.
• Consumerism: This phoney cure to life's afflictions teaches that desiring and having more is the remedy - more food, more stuff, more trips, more of everything you can buy. However, as you may have discovered, the excitement fades quickly, and you're soon planning your next purchase — or straining to figure out how to pay the credit card bill that arrives every month. Need I to say more?
Come back tomorrow for part 3.
Be well.
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