Some people in the East (OK, not the average shopkeeper in a tourist resort) practice meditation for years, daily meditating many hours. They make progress towards \u2018something\u2019 over this time. Apparently they find it worthwhile \u2026<\/p>\n
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In the West, what is called \u2018meditation\u2019 is promulgated by many as a good method to cope with daily stress, thereby to lead a happier and more fulfilling life etc. The same, and in the same way, as is the underlying promise of an infinite amount of consumer goods, ranging from yogurt to washing powder.<\/p>\n
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There is truth in this: meditation is a good method. However, there is something in meditation that makes it quite different from anything else. You should know, if you go into it, that meditation is not merely a kind of relaxation in the sense of \u2018getting rid of tensions\u2019. Meditation doesn\u2019t belong in the \u2018I want\u2019 category, not even in \u2018I want a happy life\u2019. It goes further than that.<\/p>\n
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Further even than you yourself. That is: if you really take the challenge of meditation, then it may profoundly change you. The reverse is also true: if there is no such change, then you may be sure that there was no real meditation.<\/p>\n
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Many theories exist about why meditation has this potentiality. In my view, meditation enables one to think in a different way. Whereas in \u2018normal\u2019 thinking (does it exist?), ideas go from A to B to C and so on, in meditation it\u2019s more like \u2018all together\u2019. Thereby one can make more and, importantly, also deeper associations. It\u2019s a way to go \u2018behind\u2019 normal concepts and to be truly creative: not merely creating something new, but something really original. This is: something that comes from the depth of you and that can be \u2018recognized\u2019 by others as what lives in their depth too. This is a bringer of wisdom and even life itself.<\/p>\n
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And of change, not from outside but from inside. This is a re-creation of yourself, an original change that comes from you as a whole person and therefore can be called \u2018growth\u2019. It\u2019s not a change towards someone else, but towards more yourself than you were before. Therefore it\u2019s not you who gets the happier life. The happier life gets you.<\/p>\n
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Meditate and win. What you win, is yourself: the most precious prize.<\/p>\n
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