compassion kadampa buddhist centre
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Meditation is a mind that focuses on a positive experience, and a mental action
that is the main cause of mental peace. Whenever we meditate, we are performing
an action that will cause us to experience inner peace in the future. Normally,
throughout our life, we experience negative states of mind day and night, and
these are the opposite to mental peace. Sometimes, however, we naturally
experience inner peace, and this is because in the past we concentrated on
positive objects. A positive object is one that causes us to develop a peaceful
mind when we concentrate on it. The purpose of meditation is to make our mind
calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful we will be free from worries and
mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is
not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living
in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually
become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of
happiness. Eventually we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the
most difficult circumstances. girl meditating WHY LEARN TO MEDITATE? Person
Meditating Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our
mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external
circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it
immediately becomes unhappy. Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too
closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a
sandcastle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it
is destroyed by the incoming tide. By training in meditation, we create an inner
space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external
circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is
happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the
extremes of excitement and despondency. If we train in meditation
systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the
delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we
will come to experience permanent inner peace. Then, day and night, in life
after life, we will experience only peace and happiness.
