Sunday, January 8, 2017

Balance using Heartfulness Meditation

Balance using Heartfulness Meditation

We have all heard many times and we also understand how Meditation can help in improving concentration, increase my memory capacity, help in more clarity and focus in thinking, help me get better sleep, help manage stress and things along these lines. However, do we think that meditation can actually bring about balance in our lives, is there a confusion in us that there is a need for balancing the outer and the inner approach. As a matter of fact, what is balance, is there a need for balance and how to handle this key issue.

If you look at this topic of balance, balance is actually inherent in all of us. If you look at the human body as a whole, there is definitely a balance or a symmetry between the right and the left. This symmetry of two hands, two legs, etc. is nothing but the mechanism of Nature to give balance for that individual. This balance is essential in just the normal functioning of the human system at the physical level. This is given to us by Nature.

If you take the case of birds, it is even more evident. Birds have two wings to fly. As they flap the wings and use it to balance, they are able to move forward. Imagine a bird with only one wing, it will simply go in circles and cannot go forward. This ability to move forward in life is exemplified in this idea of the bird with two wings.

This same balance is observed in our buildings, constructions, vehicles, human creation, where balance is one of the key element for stability and efficiency. Humans riding a bicycle is another perfect example of the need for balance, which we all can understand quite easily. Having seen these examples at the physical level, it is evident that whether it is Nature intended or man-made, balance is a key element of all entities, whether at the cosmic levels, human levels, or quantum levels.

Now, coming to the mental and emotional aspect of a human being, this element of balance is again needed. The cognitive and creative aspects of the human mind needs to be balanced, the intellectual and the emotional being in the human need to be balanced and so on. If this imbalance exists, the student or adult may be very good in education but unable to fit into society, or very intelligent but unable to communicate, and we have many such examples in our society today.

At the spiritual level, the inner being, again, there is a tremendous need for balance. This is an overall balance of the desires of a human individual to achieve things outside of himself or herself, versus the aspirations of that individual to strive for inner excellence. That is, balancing the inner versus the outer, the inner life with the outer life, the material life with the spiritual life, is paramount in one’s overall life. If this balance is not there, it gets very harmful to the individual as well as to the society. Imagine a very rich, powerful, intellectual person without any values, a person with enormous drive for material possessions without moral or spiritual values. It leads to corruption, decadence and damage not only to himself but to all around him.

Now, can meditation bring about a state where all these imbalances can be cured and bring about a state of balance at all levels? Or, do we feel that us ending up spending time for doing meditation can cause an imbalance because we are just sitting with our eyes closed doing nothing, whereas we should be doing something? What do we all think?

I think we can safely say that meditation is our “gateway” to inner life. Without meditation and introspection, there is no inner life, there can be no aspiration for pursuing a life of inner excellence. The potential for the possibility of an inner life lies within us, which must be tapped into, just like how we dig a well, go down to the depths to get water. This “digging” into ourselves is meditation. This gives us all a new sense of purpose, a purpose that is aspiration driven, which will inevitably balance out with our desires and drive for success in our material life. We are not saying that such a drive for success is bad per se. We all should have this drive, but balance it out with this inner approach, and this way, like a bird that flies on two wings, we can move ahead, forward, in our lives, balancing our body and mind, our mental and emotional states, our inner and outer being, and thus all aspects of a balanced existence can be achieved.