Meditation as Escapism

Meditation as Escapism

February 14, 2012
Most spend their lives looking for ways to escape who they think they are. No one needs to just be a combination of the perception of what others think of you, and be assimilated with an erroneous self perception. Life has it’s requirements for everyday living, one may include supporting yourself, and others you have created responsibility for. Even the great centering and harmony of ones life through meditating techniques can become a means to shirk responsibilities.

Most ignore the wonderful benefits of an increased awareness of self love, and it’s blisses from meditating. On the other hand, too much of anything isn’t likely a good thing either. Someone doing five meditations every day for years on end will find themselves unable to do the things one should do. I had a friend that was a Dentist who did this. Even while working on patients, he would listen to ‘meditation type information’ on an iPad as well as take off hours per day to do his meditations. Sadly, I was informed one day by some of his friends that he had committed suicide. Their feeling was that he had become so obsessed with ‘meditation’, that it created an anxiety of not being able to fulfill his responsibilities.

Overloading a good thing can become a bad thing. Choosing a meditation that suits yourself, and taking an hour a day out for it, makes more practical sense, and is more valuable. Anything, including meditation can become a means of escapism. Dropping responsibilities that have to be attended to for meditation, or any form of a use of energy is counterproductive. Be against all forms of escapism from the world of practical realities.

Standing on a mountain top oblivious to the world below is a type of suicide from life’s many vicissitudes. Live life to it’s fullest with the highest awareness that meditation will provide, but not miss the forest through the trees. We are here not as myopic beings who cloister themselves from the joys of connecting with others, and life’s many wonderments. The test of whether meditation is working or not, is in life itself. Are you still as greedy as before? Have you transformed your lust into compassion and love? Are you still reacting to others button pushing? Is your anger from unconsciousness? Life in the market place is the test of all your meditations and perceptions of who you are.

Preparing and preparing, be it education or meditation, and never going to the examination is to miss the point. Enjoy the simple things in life, and always be open to letting go, giving and receiving. Say ‘yes’ to everything without ignoring the negative. That is meditation in practice whenever and wherever!
Arhata