I am not enlightened. Far from it.
I have never fully experienced satori, unity consciousness, or the dissolution into the state of universal grace. Maybe I just need to meditate more, or more rigorously, more deeply, or for a longer stretch.
I have been drawn to meditation since my teens, learning Transcendental Meditation (TM) at 16. My mother also learned TM later, and at 102, my grandmother told me she had experimented with meditation, but my interest in meditation didn’t come from my family. Maybe it was something I saw about The Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, or an interview I read with David Lynch. Today, both my wife and my two eldest kids have completed TM courses, although their practices fluctuate.
TM has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, improve sleep and emotional regulation. It is among the most effective post-traumatic stress disorder tools available, and has been shown to improve culture, atmosphere and grades in schools.
Some may doubt that meditation alone could possibly have so many benefits, but we accept that sleeping well, eating healthy foods and getting regular exercise are unassailably positive tools that provide fundamental needs for human beings. Meditation is simply another of these tools. Enabling stillness, quieting that incessant monkey mind and in its best moments, connecting deeply with your most authentic self, is simply a core human need.
As David Lynch said, “Meditation makes you more and more you.” A daily vehicle to handle and improve daily life.
Meditation is a foundational tool not just for the mind, but for the crown, where our scattered energies find stillness, where the human meets the infinite.
Some divide states of consciousness into waking, dreaming, deep formless sleep, silent witness and unity consciousness. The first three are familiar, but what about the other two? In my experience, these last two, which guide us into the realms of awakening experiences, are not often discussed.
