why?

What is the purpose of life? Why do we find ourselves here?

Meditation by itself will not answer these deep questions but it will soften you up enough that you will begin to wonder about them.

Become soft.

Bob

remember

Remember God so much that you are forgotten.


Let the caller and the called disappear;


be lost in the Call. - Rumi

Meditation is that conscious act of turning our attention from that which comes and goes to that which is eternal (The Divine). Practice is key.

bob

what are you pretending not to know?

Sitting in silence and just noticing what is presenting itself should be the easiest thing in the world … but, for many of us, 'just being' is a challenge. Why is this? What are you trying to avoid?

Answering these questions is the purpose of meditation practice. Establish a regular practice and discover the cause of your discontent.

peace on you,

bob

surrender

Regular meditation practice leads us to surrender of the small-self - surrender of our beliefs about ourselves, surrender of our ideas about others, surrender of our concepts of God, and surrender of our views of how the world of things ought to be. It leads us to how things have always been.

Through regular meditation we come to realize that efforting to gain some understanding or have some particular experience or to arrive at some particular state only leads to more efforting and, of course, dissapointment. We come to realize that we are not in charge.

This is stated perfectly in the Quran 62:1:

All that is within the heavens and on the earth reflects the glory of God. He's the Controller, the Holy, the Powerful, and the Wise.

The Divine bats last,

bob

thought life

Regular meditation practice affords us a detailed view of our thought life. Our thought life is much like a physical landscape having various features and parts. Through silent meditation the elements and features emerge - some are big like mountains and some are small like streams and pebbles.

In silence we see: the incessant busyness of our minds, our focus on the past and future, our attempts to escape what is presently arising, our core belief that our effort will lead to "a better future", our negative self-talk, our attitudes about our physical bodies, and how we react when stressed, and so forth.

What we see we are free of …

bob

thankfulness

"It is God who brought you out of your mothers' wombs knowing nothing, and gave you hearing and sight and minds, so that you might be thankful. Quran 16:78

As we sit in silence and become still, the gift of life's bounty becomes evident.

Are you thankful the gift of your breath? Are you thankful for the gift of the sound of a bird? Are you thankful for the gift of the touch of the air on your skin? Are you be thankful for the gift of the ache in your leg?

Is being thankful perhaps the purpose of life?

peace be upon you,

bob

submission

Meditation is just another word for submission. When we submit we let go of this tiresome business of fixing ourselves. Does fixing ourselves ever really work? Aren't we just swapping problems? When we truly submit, we stop fighting what life presents, and we become open to Divine guidance.

When we willingly submit the Divine rushes in to heal us. Then we notice the thankfulness that is at our root. Gratitude to the One is the fruit of meditation.

submit to win,

bob