Note 18: Monastery or Marketplace?

21 notes for Meditators: Answers for Questions you never asked!

Note 18: Monastery or Marketplace?

The inner journey is filled with wonders and magic. It also throws a number of challenges for you to overcome. Today let’s talk about one of the most misinformed topics regarding meditators. It is meditators’ conflict of living in the practical material world and remaining meditative.

The majority of the people believe that if you really want to be a genuine Meditator then one should be in a monastery. Meditation is not seen as something life affirmative, It is seen as something separate from life. This has hurt many seekers on the path. One of the common questions asked privately is ‘ If I pursue meditation, what happens to my family, my business? Will I just give up everything and become a hippy meditator?

This is one of the conflicts Meditators face as a part of their journey. Meditators get into conflicts of balancing day-to-day life and meditation. The reason why they get into conflict is that they cannot carry meditation to work. Meditators at this stage need separate places, time, and techniques to meditate. Now at this point, meditators feel that they need to escape from their work in order to pursue meditation. But the demands and the responsibility of family take a toll on them. This conflict of balance between life and meditation is a common conflict for most meditators.

Let us understand why this conflict arises? The first reason is that you separate meditation from life. Meditation is an ingredient you add to your life to make it richer. Meditation is all-inclusive, not exclusive. Meditation and life are not separate. The second reason is that lot of practitioners of meditation cannot carry their awareness and mindfulness to work. This is also because your meditation is not yet deep and you have not yet understood the art of mindfulness at work.

What can you do?

Meditators should remain in the world and their meditation should grow within their life and their meditation should not become an escapist act. Let meditation become part of your everyday activities. Only when your life becomes meditation, only when your life is a joyful celebration of life in its all colors then meditation is. Make no mistake, whoever you are, whatever you are doing, do not run away from your responsibilities, Just add meditation to your life and let life take its own course from thereon.

Note to help:

Once you have tasted the inner silence, the noise on the outside does not matter; it is not a disturbance at all. The only disturbance comes from your inner noise, the chattering noise inside, the continuous rush of thoughts — that is the real marketplace. What is outside is outside; you can pass through the marketplace in absolute silence. If your inner being is not disturbed, then what is happening outside cannot have any impact on you. The fear arises only because we are not certain of our own silence — our silence is very vulnerable. And in the beginning, it is natural — it is nothing to be worried about. All that is needed is that the inner silence should be more crystallized. In fact, going into the outer world can be of immense help because it becomes a test. Use it as an opportunity to test your silence.

~love….Sureshg

Sureshg is the founder of Breathwork India. If you have any doubts, feel free to write in comments or if you have personal or professional questions then do use our contact details page to write to him.