In tradition, Zen tells the story of a poor peasant with only one horse running away. However, for some reason it did not upset him. "We'll see how it all ends," he said with a mysterious smile.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I'll explain: life is like a roller coaster and you have no choice but to hold on tighter so you don't get thrown out on a steep turn. If you don't want to get mad from all these ups and downs, you need to learn how to maintain peace and balance in your soul.
Four popular solutions that actually do not solve anything
- It's a bad habit. They distract from pain, allow you to forget about the time of care and experience, affect the chemical processes in the brain. However, they bring only temporary oblivion, and the real benefit can only bring meditation. In addition, bad habits make it difficult for a person to perceive everything beautiful and wonderful that is in every moment of life, and do not allow him to connect with the deep content of his being.) In addition, most addictions lead to self-destruction and only exacerbate the problems that the person trying to avoid them.
- Simplification. Everyone wants simple, "one-dimensional answers to complex questions. Primitive concepts and explanations inspire a person a sense of belonging to something significant, allow him to get rid of ambiguity and alienation. Unfortunately, the oversimplification of reality, the division of the world into white and black, good and bad, only fuels the flames of conflict, alienation and stress in the world.
- Entertainment. Suffering from loneliness or alienation, you turn on the "box" and go online or buy a ticket to the first film you see. Will you get rid of anxiety and mental suffering in this way? Virtual communication will never replace live communication with a person - even the most ordinary one. In addition, the entertainment industry, whether intentionally or unintentionally, manipulates your mind and emotions, fills your brain with ideas and images of mass culture, and focuses your attention on the outside world, rather than giving you the opportunity to immerse yourself in your own thoughts, feelings and emotions.
- Consumption. A popular way to forget, to satisfy new desires - food, things, entertainment and other whims. Some believe that this is the most effective answer to any problem! However, as you have probably already noticed, the feeling of satisfaction from owning a new thing goes very quickly, and you are already aiming for a new purchase - or agonizingly thinking about how to compensate for the costs that have already led to your purchases. Should we further develop this idea?
Advanced technology for body and soul
Technological achievements of the last five centuries are mainly the merit of the West, while yogis and hermits in monasteries and ashrams of Asia cultivated the art of meditation. The paths of development of the East and West, the North and the South are now gradually joining together, giving rise to a single global culture and economy. As a result, we have the opportunity to apply the Eastern technology of improving the inner world of man to neutralize the costs of the technological world of the West!
Like high-class computer programmers, the great masters of meditation for thousands of years have been improving the art of "programming" their body, mind and heart, striving to experience the highest ups and downs of the spirit and subtle states of being. While representatives of the western civilization with the help of telescopes tried to penetrate into the secrets of the Universe and made an industrial revolution, representatives of the eastern civilization studied the inner world of man, his spiritual essence. They tried:
- To comprehend the nature of human consciousness and the processes as a result of which it gives birth and endlessly multiplies sorrows and sufferings of man;
- To understand the deep states of ecstatic concentration in which the meditator is completely immersed, thus combining with the divine:
to understand the difference between the relative reality and the spiritual dimension of being;
- to achieve a state of unshakable inner peace and tranquillity, which is not capable of disturbing any external circumstances;
- develop positive, useful, life-affirming states of mind, such as tolerance, love, kindness, self-control, joy and, especially, compassion for others;
- develop the ability to control functions of the body that are considered involuntary, such as heart rate, body temperature, and metabolism;
- develop the ability to mobilize vital energy and direct it to different parts of the body for the treatment of illness and personality transformation;
- develop special mental abilities, such as clairvoyance, or hypersensitivity (the ability to perceive things and phenomena beyond normal perception), and telekinesis