Meditation as a Way of Life

by Daniel Mitel
“Why do we need to meditate?”

One of the most interesting questions I have received after publishing my book “This Now Is Eternity” was, “Why do we need to meditate?” The questions came from all over the world and from people with different backgrounds, not just people who meditate or practice a spiritual technique.

Why do so many renowned spiritual teachers, such as Drunvalo Melchizedek, Gregg Braden, and Neale Donald Walsch, and some highly recognized masters of past century, like Krishnamurti, Osho, and Ramakrishna, recommend and teach people to meditate? It is almost a fashion now. If you meditate, people consider you different.

 
Why is meditation so important?

Well, the answer is simple: because it keeps you in one of your centers. It can be the navel center, it can be the heart center or it can be the head center. There is no difference, qualitative speaking, regarding these three centers.

The Zen and Tai Chi masters are centered in the navel center. The martial arts masters are centered in the navel center. Buddha was centered in the navel center.

Well-known spiritual masters—Jesus, Ramakrishna, Teresa de Avila, and many others—were centered in their heart center.

Not too many masters used their head center; probably the most acclaimed was Krishnamurti.

As long as you are centered in any of these three centers you are going to be in silence. You are in the center of the hurricane, utterly silent. You become the watcher; you are not a doer anymore.

Now the main question is if we can be in this state, in a meditative state, while we are acting. Of course, we can. As long as we remain in the center, as long as we are a watcher, we are in a meditative state. I mean we can work in our gardens, we can speak with our friends, we can make dinner, and we can still be centered.

 
Meditation and Mastering the Neutral

How it is possible to be in the middle of the crowd and be centered? How it is possible to be in the middle of the noise and be quiet inside? Well, we need to learn to witness. We need to learn to observe; to be neutral, just to watch it. This is not an easy task.