iMeditate

This is going to be an easy one. My friends would kill to not hear me advocate about Vipassana. They have heard the broken record so many times, in so many tones and in so many different narratives. Since my first experience in 2010, I have derived great joy in getting people motivated to try a course for once. Barring my younger brother, who promises to do a better job the next time around, everyone I know of seems to have had a long lasting transformational effect. I can safely talk about just myself. Let me make an argument progressing from the rational to the mystical.

1. Here and now - Physical

"It is all in the mind", Lance Armstrong said in his bestseller. The power of this practice is how you realize this through your own experience. As you get deeper in the practice you develop your kinesthetic intelligence. A sharp awareness of your own body - it's pain threshold, its subtle reactions and most importantly, it's plasticity which you never knew existed.

2. Patience and Equanimity - Mental

A blog named after whitelotus can do no better than to use the metaphor. As you grow and develop the intuition that your view of the world is how you react to the experiences world offers, you grow objective to pain and pleasure using your own body as an experimental tool. Like the whitelotus which blossoms in wholesome purity in the muck, you develop patience and equanimity to deal with any cards dealt out to you. As you crowd out the trash in your mind and experience the few moments of absolute tranquility, you realize the power of the force within you. You begin to learn to burn every moment to it's fullest. My best lines come from a movie called "Peaceful warrior" which weaves quite a few pearls of wisdom(borrowed from Buddha's teachings) very neatly into the story. My best moment is the climax though. I won't break the story if anyone reading this intends to watch it. In a moment of pin drop silence as the lead character balances himself on the rings, a voice speaks up quietly and answers itself...

"Where are you? " HERE

"What time is it?" NOW

"Who are you?" THE MOMENT

It fills me will goosebumps when I experience such moments during my meditation.

3. Intuition and Wisdom - Mystical/Metaphysical

This is the most difficult part to come across as convincing. Largely because of the nature of experience. It is hard to articulate and describe. It is very personal to every individual. It is what we label as soul or consciousness. Whatever name you give it, or even if you choose to not believe an entity beyond your body, heart and mind, you do have moments which dissolve time and space. In those precious moments, there is an awakening of your conception of life itself. You stop to reflect on the meaning of life - what it means to be human and have this gift of reflection or thinking about thinking. About memories, birth, death, before and after. When that happens, more often than not, it changes your being. Your ethos and value systems. I personally have given more and taken less, grown wiser and more balanced, become more loving and compassionate, acted more productively and conscientiously. I truly recognize the wisdom of Buddha, Gandhiji, Vivekananda and Ramakrishna. Maybe one day I will oscillate at their frequency! Till then, I am happy and grateful for the tune that my heart sings when I meditate.

If you still aren't convinced, try this "Why meditation beats an iPhone?" 

Afterall, who doesn't want to live a life of morality, concentration and wisdom? Who doesn't want to burn every living moment?

On national youth day, no better person to think of than Vivekananda and the power of his words.