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When I was a young boy I used to enjoy staring blankly at the wall whenever I had a few minutes to spare. It was a pastime to which I would return time and time again. It gave me a sense of peace and happiness that I could not really describe. I was not sure if there was a name for such an activity and wondered if other people also indulged in it.

Despite having visited the Buddhist temple with my family on a regular basis, I had a very vague understanding of meditation. I thought it was a special magical practice done only by the monks. Their unintelligible chants seemed to be some form of communication with the higher realms to which only they had access. Meditation was definitely not for the lay people, let alone a young child.

As I grew older, I realized what I did during my spare time was probably some crude form of meditation, perhaps not too dissimilar to what the monks practiced at the temple. So, I studied everything I could get my hands on to improve my meditation skills, in hope of attaining the states of bliss and transcendence that I read so much about in the books. I tried and tried, but no matter how hard I tried, I failed. In fact, I failed to even replicate the peacefulness that I had experienced as a child.

It finally dawned on me that while I was trying so hard to learn to meditate the right way, I was going about it the wrong way. I kept filling up my mind with this concept or that concept, this path or that path, this technique or that technique until there was no room left for, well, emptiness. Finally, I gave up- and this proved to be the technique that worked! In process of giving up, I also let go. By letting go of the clutter in my head, I could feel my body becoming lighter as the burden of expectations was lifted away as if by magic. In that brief, but climatic, moment, I was able to rediscover myself.

Meditation is a practice whose benefits are realized only on an experiential level. Too much book knowledge may hinder the mind’s capacity to let go and simply be. To return to ourselves, we must free ourselves from all conceptualization, analysis, calculation and other mental phenomena that clutter our minds. Obviously, we meditate with a goal in mind. But we also meditate to gain a fresh, new way of looking at things.

When we are able to let go and simply be, we awaken to that which remains constant throughout our lives, namely our inner child. As children our inner child was more alive. We seemed always carefree because everything we did was an expression of our very being. We played and voiced our feelings freely, sometimes to the dismay of our parents.

As we grew older, we took on bigger and bigger roles and responsibilities. Our inner child gradually faded into dormancy as we developed a sense of self-identity which we would struggle to maintain throughout our adulthood. In the process of growing up we left behind our inner child and forgot to simply be ourselves.

Obviously, as we grow older our bodies change. Our needs evolve. We mature. So, it would be foolish and unnatural to behave as if we’re children again. Reclaiming one’s inner child is not about reverting to childish immaturity. It is about reconnecting with our true essence, remembering to simply be ourselves, and re-awakening the divine gift which has always been a part of us, and returning to ONEself.

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Why do we meditate?

People meditate for different reasons. The reason I meditate (or at least attempt to) is to perceive reality in a more objective way. Human perception is subjective since it does not give a particularly accurate picture of the world around us, or the world within us, for that matter. For instance, the human eye is capable of detecting a very narrow range, namely the visible spectrum, of the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s why doctors use x-ray to see our bones and internal organs.

If our eyes were capable of x-ray and infrared vision, which themselves are but small ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, objects would appear entirely different from they do normally; our perception of the world would change fundamentally. As all of our perceptual organs are similarly limited, what we perceive is a really only a conceptualization of the world around us, not what it really is. So, there’s more to the world than meets the eye, so to speak.

For instance, the computer screen you’re looking may appear to be a solid object. But in reality all objects, no matter how “solid” they appear, are made up mostly of empty space– of atoms whose tiny electrons hover around nuclei of protons and neutrons, separated by vast expanses of emptiness.

Meditation is predicated on the idea that despite our perceptual limitations, we might be able to use our mind-body to perceive the world in a more accurate, veridical way. It’s a way of transcending the mind with the mind. Through meditation we can see the universe without by looking at the universe within. After all, we are part of the universal continuum that makes up all of reality.

When we bow at the feet of a Buddhist monk whom we do not know, how do we know if he’s an enlightened individual or just a senile old man? We don’t. And it shouldn’t matter. In reality, we don’t bow to the monk or the stone Buddha statue, but to ourselves. The stone statue and monks are but cues to awaken the Buddha that lies within each of us. Awakening the Buddha opens the gate to the divine continuum that allows us to perceive things in a more objective way, to see things as they really are, as opposed to the illusory mental conceptualizations stemming from our perceptual limitations.

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If I had to pick one book– trust me, I’ve read lot of them– that had the greatest impact on my life, it would have to be Tao Te Ching by the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tse. Here is an excellent English translation of Tao Te Ching by J.H. McDonald made available to the public domain that you can read online for free. If you like the book, I suggest buying a hard copy to read over and over. I must have read various translations of Tao Te Ching more than a hundred times already.

Taoism is a philosophy that teaches you how to attain happiness by embracing simplicity– by returning to the Source. Although it bears many similarities to the philosophical aspects of Buddhism, taoism is not a religion and is not necessarily incompatible with any religious faith.

One of the most defining traits of my personality is that I tend to get carried away in everything I do. This is sometimes good, sometimes not so good. When I shift too far into one extreme, Tao helps pull me back to the center. This is why the book has been very useful in my life.

If you’re new to Taoism, try not to analyze the concepts on a literal level. Instead, try to internalize the words and let them play out through your everyday decision-making and activities. Although Taoism may not appeal to everyone, it might lead to positive changes that allow you to live a longer, more prosperous, and more meaningful life.

Read Online Tao Te Ching

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by Oudam Em

One of the most persistent struggles of life that it seems that the more we know about something, the more we realize we have to learn. As knowledge can become a constant source of stress and frustration in life, it might make more sense to discard the knowledge we already have and espouse ignorance, instead.

If ignorance is the answer to problems created by knowledge, then a person who has never attended a day of school in his life would be the ultimate sage.

This is not quite true.

Knowledge here refers to conditioning. From the day we are born we are conditioned to think a certain way about ourselves and the world around us. This conditioning is reinforced by our daily routines, the people with whom we associate, the books we read, the movies we see, and so on. Both educated and uneducated people alike are conditioned by their surroundings and life experiences, leading them to think and act through force of habit rather than free will.

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By Oudam Em

Mindfulness is the practice of living in the present moment. It is the art of engaging reality on a moment-to-moment basis. While fully engaged in whatever we are presently doing, we attune our minds to what is happening right here, right now. We watch our thoughts and emotions come and go, but we do not cling to them. Our primary focus is to maintain a calm, attentive, nonjudgmental state of heightened awareness.

We may think that we are already mindful of our life experiences, but this is just another trick fabricated by our minds to keep us in a dream state. Our minds have an uncanny ability to weave fleeting sensations, memories, thoughts, emotions into a coherent story that reinforces our false sense of a permanent, unchanging ego. We cling to our ego at all costs, even at the expense of seeing things as they really are.
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