The Pause

When confronted by concepts such as meditation, contemplation spiritual we ask: ‘What do these mean?’ And more specifically: ‘what do these mean to me?’

It is that exercise when perhaps the mind thinks for itself is how we placate ourselves; a little correction, ‘how ‘I’ not ‘We’ placate ourselves. But what is this mind thinking for itself? It is when I confront my conscience perhaps my sub- conscience, my restlessness. Essentially it is my trying to come to terms with my disposition to be impulsive.

And what happens when I am confronted with having to think?

Thinking makes me hit the pause button; the pause between the restless and the tranquil me. This pause occupies an empty site overgrown with hope, potential, intent, conviction and awe. This is firmly within my domain, but one which needs demarcation. It tends to be kind of liminal with a touch of ambiguity. Meditation, contemplation and a spiritual quest helps authenticate this site.

But it enjoins caution. Thinking is a quest energised and mentored by the mind. And the mind is temperamental; this is given. This excitable nature of the mind is sustained by my possessiveness, a possessiveness driven by self-interest; in other words my predilection for wants.

How can spiritualism or a spiritual quest sort this out for me? It does this by making me aware of my intents rather my intentions behind wanting clarity about possessiveness and self-interest. It brings forth my faith in not just me but also in my beingness and my notion of knowing. It takes me that one step beyond ‘I know’ to ‘I know that I know’; I now have some sustainable convictions.

All these happen because simultaneously I start clarifying my understanding of ends and means, of give and take and above all of accountabilities. I don’t split the personal from the social.

However hitting the pause button is a holding exercise to leverage my freedom for me; a freedom which social living apparently tends to hijack. This freedom is me confronting my nature, my passions. The pause sets up the negotiations for a narrative between me, my body and my mind.

So what then is spiritualism? It is the ‘ism’ which aids us in our effort to re-click the pause button and activate our authentic selves. Spiritualism is that process where I bring my faith and ethics to my knowledge – understanding and being. I regain all of myself driven sustained and articulated by me. I am on the path to realization.

Meditation and contemplation are accessories enabling the processes of change and continuity in me. The synergy my choice of meditation and contemplation produces in the processes and structure of change and continuity in me and the milieu I live in is faith and ethics. This in turn ensures that my materialism and emotionalism or passion does not push me into a cul-de-sac of longings and illusions.

Perhaps now I can start discerning the seen.