How Meditation Cultivates Appreciation

By: Premadasa Gangadeen

Whenever I meet someone and they find out that I practice and teach Yoga and meditation, the most common response to these two things typically are, “I’ m not flexible enough to do Yoga ” and “ my mind is too busy to meditate. ” Unless you are a baby, a gymnast, or in any major athletic practice, the majority of us are not flexible and unless you are a baby, the majority of us have very busy minds, especially in today ’ s global climate. This demonstrates the need to practice Yoga and meditation - to cultivate the flexibility or acceptance to the present moment without too much tension or looseness or in other words, finding the middle path. These practices bring us to our centre like being at the hub of a universal wheel with all the spokes of life and life circumstances whirling about the centre. Within the centre of the hub is stillness and going out from there, things appear to get busier and busier the further away that one moves.

The rebuttals above for Yoga and meditation are all part of the human condition. According to the notion of reincarnation of which Yoga and Buddhism stem from, it is the soul which journeys from its inception through many physical incarnations as it goes back to its source; the centre within the centre going further and further inward to the still point.

This journey from source to go back to source is commonly referred to as Leela, or simply Play. It is a play of consciousness to have the varied experiences of humanity and other life forms interacting with one another. To experience the heights of joy to the depths of despair and everything in-between are all a part of Leela. It is in this sense that Yoga also references the term of joining the many into the One. When it comes specifically to meditation, my cursory advice to the practitioner would simply be to notice what is happening all around when in the process of preparation for, and ultimately the practice of meditation. I also advise to exercise prior to sitting for meditation and to have had a warm bath or shower before settling into a comfortable position to practice. Meditation is a practice of awareness. As we move into deeper states of stillness, we have the ability to observe and appreciate our surroundings, conditions and lessons that each moment brings. Think of the soul as being a great collector of experiences and emotions. When we can feel or experience the full range of available emotions without the accompanying attachments and aversions to them, we are having a soul experience and thus cultivating appreciation for the very experience itself. Think of it as being similar to a thrilling roller coaster ride or going on some kind of extreme adventure which takes us, shakes us and wakes us to a Divine realization of connection.

Think of the practice of meditation similarly to watching a film in a theatre. We are encapsulated by the sound, light and story and we begin to identify with the main and supporting characters, yet we don ’t have any personal or spiritual involvement or investment in how the story plays out. We simply watch the scene as it has been staged, then onto the next scene, then onto the next, and so on until the finale. We leave the theatre at the end of the film hopefully entertained by the experience of all that went into the production and most likely we begin to anticipate a sequel. Such is this life and practice of meditation - it takes us inward to watch how the scenes, which come up in the mind, courtesy of the emotions, physical well-being, and karma play out. Cultivating deeper attention and awareness within the practice of meditation brings more detail, refinement, or in digital terms, a higher resolution to the creative force at play. When we develop this insight, a natural appreciation illuminates from within.

When we shine from the inside out, we attract a similar or matched energy, thus allowing for greater expansion, bliss and appreciation. Play on!