Sumangali.org: In The Spirit Of Serendipity

An interesting article called A Commute To Inner Peace by Trushar Barot caught my eye earlier this month at BBC.co.uk. It’s about meditating while commuting to work; making the most of time seemingly wasted, waiting for the bus, or even sitting at the wheel in a traffic jam. Tim Malnick, founder of Meditation at Work says:

“A lot of people think it’s all about sitting down cross-legged and closing your eyes. But if you look at the meditation traditions from the East, they clearly demonstrate the importance of transferring this state of mind into all your daily activity. It’s about becoming more aware of the environment around you and feeling comfortable with it.”

Trushar Barot tries it out while getting the bus, and notes:

“My heart-rate drops almost instantly, but jolts on hearing the dulcet tones of 50 Cent, which a kindly school boy at the back is treating his fellow travellers to. Too much of a coward to ask him to lower the volume, I realise this is the perfect test of my meditation techniques.”

This typically British response to outer irritation made me laugh, as I have responded in exactly that way (i.e. avoided responding outwardly) so many times on public transport, and have instead turned to my 21-year history of regular meditation practice in order to deal with it.

Perhaps the greatest test, and one of my most valuable meditation experiences, came to me when I was a teen living in a very crowded house. The guy in the room next door listened to a particular kind of music (that brings me out in cold sweat now if I ever hear it) struggling through distorted speakers, sometimes 24 hours a day. It was not just my British reserve that stopped me from saying anything; he was actually very dangerous. I had no choice but to deal with it. After 2 days and nights of no sleep with this rasping and pounding rattling my nerves and brain, I had to meditate my way to sanity. Were it not for my desperate necessity I may not have realised firsthand how powerful meditation can be. For about three hours I practised, and finally the peace came. Nothing could disturb me then. I was not less aware, but more aware in a wider sense where that sound was as insignificant as an ant. I slept like a baby.

There are lots of ways to meditate. As Tim Malnick so rightly said, we can bring meditation into our daily lives. I try to do that when I’m doing simple tasks, as well as… well yes just sitting cross-legged a couple of times a day purely for meditation. For the last ten years I’ve been following the teachings of Sri Chinmoy. In his own words:

“If we are practical in the inner life, if we are doing the right thing in the inner world, we will not be bound by anything, because we will have inner awareness. One who has inner awareness has free access to infinite Truth and everlasting Joy, and he will be able to control his outer life.”
—Sri Chinmoy
from SriChinmoyLibrary.com

Image: Kedar Misani at Sri Chinmoy Centre Gallery

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 11:11 am and is filed under meditation, spirituality, sri chinmoy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.