When a person meditates, she or he tries to pick up signals from her or his own internal guidance system. Success depends on tuning out the incessant external noise funneled in by our five senses.

To give meditation a try requires at least a modicum of curiosity that we may have a sixth sense or path connected somehow to information of value. Then work is required as most of us have many years of conditioning to overcome. Our conditioning tells us we are currently seeing the whole picture via our five senses.

Getting into meditating is like getting into regular exercising. If one has been idle for decades it takes a little doing, to put it mildly, to become physically active as a routine matter, and it takes even more work to get to the point where the new discipline generates satisfaction, maybe even joy, as life is lived at a fresh level.

Here is a True/False self-quiz related to meditation. Decide whether you feel each statement is basically True or False.
--A. Reality is larger than what I can see, hear, feel, smell, or taste. T/F?
--B. At its core, the universe is composed of energy, not objects, i.e., discrete, individual pieces such as molecules, atoms, protons, electrons, quarks or other elementary particles. T/F?
--C. We moderns tend to divide everything, even that which is indivisible. T/F?
--D. I would like to know myself better. T/F?

A "True" answer to any one of the above makes you a candidate for trying meditation as one stepping-stone to simplification.

Meditation
A dictionary definition of meditation is that it is the emptying of the mind of thoughts, or concentration of the mind on just one thing, in order to aid mental or spiritual development, contemplation, or relaxation. An effort to empty one's mind takes courage for it is contrary to our nature after years of schooling when we were intent on loading our minds. And with all the stimuli swirling around us 24/7, it's little wonder that our minds are restless, filled with chatter, even confused and fatigued as we chase pleasant experiences and seek to avoid unpleasant ones.

The whole situation provokes the question: Just who is in charge here, "me" or my churning mind? If you can quiet your mind at will, even for a little while, then "you" are in charge. But, again, it's work.

"It is distraction, not meditation, that becomes habitual; interruption, not continuity; spasmodic living, not constant toil... Thus unused capabilities atrophy and cease to be." -Tillie Olsen 1913--

There are many books and classes on simple techniques for meditating; there is no need to paraphrase them here. This Simplicity 106 is a look at why meditating may be worth a try in a program to simplify your life.

Here is short commentary on the four quiz statements. The "answers" may provide some encouragement for you to attempt to drill down through your conscious self into the potential treasures beneath the crust.

A. Reality is larger than what I can see, hear, feel, smell, or taste. We are unconscious of much that goes on in our lives. What is the source of emotions, dreams, feelings, and gravity? Why do our eyes tear sometimes when we see a beautiful sunset or hear taps played at a military funeral? Where does pride originate? What's beyond the stars? All of us experience intangible, non-material occurrences all day long, everyday. Many defy logic and rational explanation.

The technical term for the occurrences is that they are "metaphysical," i.e., outside of the physical world we know, beyond our conscious thoughts or the reach of the left hemisphere of our brains. Yet they are part of our reality. To get closer to them is one product of successful meditation.

Carl Jung, legendary Swiss psychiatrist, cracked opened this door when he legitimized the unconscious as a part of each person's ingredients. He, and others, made dreams, myths, and sychonicity elements of our existances.

B. At its core, the universe is composed of energy, not objects. The evidence seems to pile up that the more scientists dig microscopically, the closer they get to waves (energy), rather than (just to) smaller and smaller pieces of matter. Einstein's E=MC2 has been around a long time (1905), and it lights the way to the inter-changeability of matter (M) and energy (E).

Digging is essentially what meditating is about: digging down to unmask energy possibilities beneath the radar of our conscious, everyday thinking. Meditators seek relaxation as well as glimpses of life beyond objects and underneath the constructions of our five senses.

C. We moderns tend to divide everything, even that which is indivisible. Many of us spend a lot of effort slicing and dicing, separating our known world into distinct pieces: self/other; inside/outside; mind/body; happiness/suffering; good/bad; male/female; positive/negative. In short, we are keen dividers.

Philosophically, simplicity is, at its roots, about wholeness, and meditation is a tool for integrating often ignored or arbitrarily separated components of life. In all things there exists the seeds of their opposites. The familiar yin/yang symbol represents the duality of opposing forces--night/day, etc. These forces dance in eternal oscillation, driving life.

"There is nothing constant in the universe. All is ebb and flow, and every form that is born bears in its womb the seeds of change." -Ovid

Appreciating the interplay, and meditation can help, makes for a simpler existence; understanding connectedness is fundamental to seeing the larger reality beyond the physical senses.

"Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt." -St. Francis of Assisi c. 1181-1226

D. I would like to know myself better. www can stand for something beside the World Wide Web. www can stand for the three pistons in our conscious minds: wondering, worrying, and wanting. We burn our energies wondering about what's going to happen in the future and trying to plan for it; worrying with current problems; and wanting that which we don't have. These three provide the fuel for our thought engines, which are always ON...unless we make an effort to quiet them for a spell.

Of course when we are wondering, worrying, and wanting, no one can say we're lazy! "I was so busy," will be the epitaph of the boomer generation, at least.

One result of the dizzying pace is the hunger today for simplification. There are even magazines now on simplifying (chock full of glossy ads for things to buy), a handy indicator of the popularity of the subject. But piling more ideas into our inventory of to-dos and not-to-dos is unlikely to erase the uneasiness that part of our lives is being overlooked.
We live with a Niagara Falls of outside reference points--pundits telling us what to wear, eat, drive...how to look and live. To simplify, we have to look away, simmer down and peer inside. We have to listen for faint signals from our sixth sense.

Bottom Line
Meditating is a physical discipline with the potential for a major, mental benefit: We will get in touch with unseen forces within ourselves.

Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded forever." -Herman Melville in Moby Dick (1851)

Copyright © 2009 Steven C. Brandt

For other stories in the Simplicity series, click Other Stories.