by Lev Rothenberg
When I began meditating over 40 years ago, I recall friends
looking at me weirdly, a bit defensively, and telling me “I don’t need that.”
Years later, I do not stay in touch with too many of those
friends, but I continue to meditate. If I saw any of them today, I
would say, “Yep, I needed that.” I needed it to be who I am.
Who I am isn’t any better than who anyone else is. No, I
cannot levitate or tell the future, and I am not enlightened.
However,
meditation has helped me learn to take a sabbatical by sitting still, to find
peace within myself and to help accept myself for who I am. To me, that’s pretty
important.
Meditation is not magic; it is not religion; it is not even
based on faith. It is based on experience. Meditation does not carry you away. Rather, it can bring you home.
The key to meditation, as with so many spiritual practices,
is being in the moment, not fighting with reality (you will lose, but only 100%
of the time) and allowing things to be as they are.
Look in the mirror. Look through the stress that sometimes
seems to be what holds you together. Look through all the problems you think
you must solve and all those tasks you think you must do. Look right through those
things and guess what? That is really you looking back.
Starting March 22, two meditation classes are
offered at the JCC: Beginning Mindfulness Meditation, for beginners,
and Awakening to Your True Nature,
for more advanced exploration.
 |
| More about Lev Rothenberg |
No comments:
Post a Comment